# Crimes Against a Book Club

By Kathy Cooperman

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/crimes-against-a-book-club-912e23d8/

Chemist Annie needs money for her autistic son’s therapy; her friend Sarah, a lawyer, needs it for fertility treatment. They decide to sell a luxury face cream to wealthy women in La Jolla. Annie can make the product and Sarah can sell it, but an illegal ingredient puts the venture at risk.

## What makes it funny?

The proposed price is $2,000 a container. Annie’s chemistry expertise and Sarah’s youthful appearance become the credentials for a beauty business whose clients have plenty of money and little desire to look older.

### The comedy at work

The scheme brings urgent family costs into a social circle that can spend extravagantly on a jar of cream. As the business succeeds, the friends have more to conceal from the customers whose vanity they are exploiting.

### Try this if…

A friendship story with a criminal business plan, for readers who enjoy watching amateur schemers work their way into affluent society. The bond between Annie and Sarah supplies warmth alongside the jokes about beauty and status.

### Good to know

Fertility treatment, the cost of a child’s therapy and drug-related wrongdoing are central concerns. Kirkus praised the friendship but found the many viewpoints hard to keep straight; Publishers Weekly felt some character resolutions received too little attention.

## What to expect

- Genre: Contemporary & literary · Crime & thriller
- On the shelf: Crime caper
- Kind of humor: Situational comedy
- The atmosphere: Warmhearted
- Format: Novel
- Published: 2017

## Sources & further reading

- Review: [Trade review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kathy-cooperman/crimes-against-a-book-club)
- Review: [Trade review](https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5039-4298-1)
- Library catalog: [Library](https://lawrence.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/290951867/1759862329)