A typographic placeholder. Cover art is not available.
On the HahaFiction shelf
Crimes Against a Book Club
by Kathy Cooperman
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.
Paid link · We earn commissions from qualifying Amazon purchases. Affiliate disclosure
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.
More funny crime caper
Sources & further reading
- Trade review
Review
- Trade review
Review
- Library
Library catalog
Something we should correct? Let us know.
