Oakville Reads discussion

Valley Farm consists of 3 couples who call themselves "The Retired Hedonists". They meet for drinks every Friday night but do they really like each other? They seem to have very little in common except for where they live and the fact that they're retired.

What were your thoughts on this strange cast of suspects and the relationships they have with each other?

I haven't paid attention enough to the others but the couple who is expecting the arrival of their daughter Lizzie are interesting. I had never really thought much about the fact that the parents of a felon might actually feel relieved to have their child finally in prison. Now they are worried that THEIR lives once again will be majorly stressed.

Guess I thought a parent would be relieved to have their child OUT of jail rather than IN jail. Guess not always the case.

I agree that it was an odd scenario with Sam and Annie Redhead and their daughter Lizzie. Although I can understand given the circumstances why they would feel that way.
I would have liked more background on the couples as I sometimes lost track of who was who. I kept trying to get the names right. I would also like to have known more about Percy Douglas who discovered the first body and his daughter, Susan. They seemed to fade into the background after the initial introduction.
However, one thing I did note among the couples was that they didn't appear to be close friends. It seemed that it was all about appearances and illusion. As the English say, "Keeping up Appearances."

Shirley wrote: "I agree that it was an odd scenario with Sam and Annie Redhead and their daughter Lizzie. Although I can understand given the circumstances why they would feel that way.
I would have liked more ba..."

I had that too-- was the prof the binocular guy and so forth. And then there was the character Charlie who showed up a couple of times.

I initially thought the hedonists were only close because of their proximity. Later in the book, I wondered if there was some sort of silent conspiracy going on but, in the end, after the truth had unveiled not only the murderer but other untold secrets, it looked like at least one friendship would rise out of the rubble.

What I rediscovered is that I still love mysteries, just like a box of chocolates for me, and why I gave them up in the first place! Still, it's a genre that has its shortcomings and well-developed characters is very often one of them!

I agree that some of the characters are not well developed. But perhaps that is the advantage of a series where different parts of the main character are revealed in each book.

I didn't really get the sense that it was a special group in the book. It played off just as neighbours. It was only in the middle of the book and deeper into the plot, that I realized how they fit together.

I was interested that they didn't try to include others, especially Nigel, who was a bit of a social climber. Maybe it would have been too cumbersome for the story!