At our meeting today we discussed why the writer, Freida McFadden should be so immensely popular, dominating the bestseller list with several of her novels. Members had between them read the following: Never Lie, Dear Debbie, The Surrogate Mother, The Tenant, The Teacher, The Perfect Son and The Housemaid  (plus its trilogy companions). 

It was agreed that the books were almost compulsive reading, albeit sometimes slow to build up until a turning point somewhere around half way in the plots. Their style was chatty, and together with easy episodic structures, they tended to be read quickly, easily put down and picked up again. The plots had twists and turns, always colourful, often gruesome and sometimes psychologically implausible, even ridiculous. They might be called macabre comedies. Plot-driven, rather formulaic and perhaps fragmented…  all the terms above were used by members to describe the books. 

It was suggested that as a practising hospital neurologist, “Freida McFadden” might have found some of her characters’ personality traits in her patients, or even that the grotesque aspects of her stories might say something about the author herself! 

It seemed that everyone could appreciate why this novelist was so popular, but also felt disinclined to read another of her books.

At our meeting on 26th March we are discussing Edmund de Waal’s  The Hare With Amber Eyes and  our topic for 23rd April will be the genre, “Espionage”.