The Marlow Murder Club – Robert Thorogood | Book Review

The Marlow Murder Club #1

The Marlow Murder Club is tagged as a cozy mystery on Goodreads. I disagree. I didn’t find it very cozy. Seventy-seven-year-old Judith Potts is out for a swim and hears a commotion followed by gunshots. Of course, she pops over to see what’s happened. Judith continues to check things out after getting rebuffed by the police and ropes in two other women to assist her. 

I found this book difficult in several ways, off the top of my head. Sorry, there may be some spoilers as I vent!

• I had to spend some time thinking about my possibly ageist feelings.
• Men were treated terribly in this novel, which didn’t make any of the women look good.
• The way Judith and company approached solving the murder bugged me.

The narrator for The Marlow Murder Club was fantastic and did a great job sounding like a busybody seventy-seven-year-old woman when necessary, aged voice warble included. I found it really offputting and had to pause to look at why. How much of it was the main character being an obnoxious character vs an older lady? I like to think it’s because if I met Judith Potts in person, I would head in another direction so fast before she could invade my privacy and space. Part of it was unfamiliarity with an older woman as a main character, too. Once I was accustomed, I had no issues! I’m glad for the opportunity to pause and review my biases. Being aware of my shortcomings gives me a path towards resolving them.

For Judith Potts, “there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink .”Judith has no respect for men or women who place any value men’s opinions. Becks often expressed reluctance to do something, politely hedged in excuses grounded by other people (husband, children), and Judith bowled right over her, implying that Becks was controlled by other people and couldn’t think for herself. It was infuriating. Detective Tanika is more than just a senior policewoman. She’s also the parent to three children (including her husband), as her husband tries to make a career as a DJ work. Judith is a bully. Suzie is an enabler who is finally happy to be included by the mean girls. Becks is too shy to stand up for herself. Oh, and Judith bullies Tanika, too, to force her way onto the case. I am so disgruntled about how Judith treated people in this story. There literally isn’t one good man represented in this entire book. They’re all dumb, benignly not great, or outright evil. It wasn’t even funny.

Mystery solving usually involves finding clues and patterns and seeing who fits them. Instead of evaluating the clues, Judith decides who is guilty and then looks for information to prove it true. Read a newspaper article about how the victim and so-and-so had an argument? So-and-so must have killed him. Let’s stalk and harass him! Judith, Suzie and Becks break the law to find more information and repeatedly ignore warnings from the police to stay away from people. Judith promises she won’t do something, then turns around and does it without consequences. Once a suspect is proven innocent, Judith swings to the next and the next. Overall, many big grasps and absolute violations of other people’s personal space and right to privacy exist. Who is left alone in a new friend’s house and starts rifling through their things?! Did you know Judith sets crosswords? That comes up way more frequently than it should; in many cases, it doesn’t add anything to the story.

This wasn’t a group of friends coming together to solve a murder. It’s one woman pushing around town and gaslighting everyone. It’s bullying and misandry. Ugh. I love whodunnits, murder mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels of all kinds, and this one is a big swing and a miss for me. I’ll still read the next book, because maybe there’s change?

Publisher Information

Publisher:  HQ
First Published: January 7 2021
Audiobook Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Audiobook Narrator: Nicolette McKenzie
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library

Links

thestorygraph