The Book Club Murders (2024 Lifetime)
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Cast: Brittany Underwood, Eva Igo
Director: Logan Giese
Writer(s): Logan Giese
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
When Natalie Johnson joins a book club at the local bookstore, she figures it’s a small step back toward normality after the fire that took her home and killed her husband, and the disappearance of her daughter Gwen’s best friend. But when the members of the book club begin receiving threatening letters in the mail revealing their darkest secrets, Natalie realizes she’s walked into a sinister situation. When the recipients of the letters start dying, Natalie begins a frantic search for the identity of the author, known only as “Aletheia,” and the stakes couldn’t be higher… because her daughter is the next target. Stars Brittany Underwood, and Eva Igo (2024).
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie starts with a house on fire!
Cut to Lifetime legend Brittany Underwood at a bookstore browsing books with her teenage daughter (She’s too young to have a teen daughter!), Gwen. The woman at the checkout counter, Wendy, starts chatting, invites them to join a book club, and is desperate for new members. Brittany Underwood, playing a character named Natalie here, needs to get out more because she has been a recluse since her husband died. Gwen has also been out of school for quite some time.
Natalie shows up at the book club, and Wendy goes through a who-is-who process in the club. Natalie is familiar with Sadie, the town gossip whose husband is the sheriff. She also knows April, the school guidance counselor, and Anita, the mom of Gewn’s friend Tori, who is acting strangely.
Gwen has a boy over while Natalie is out. She gets a call from a friend and learns Tori’s admission to MIT has been revoked due to a college admission scandal. The guidance counselor and Tori’s mom helped Tori cheat. There are wax-sealed letters going around, and things are getting weird.
The insurance money comes from Natalie’s house fire, the one that apparently killed her husband. She vents to Wendy about the stress of it all and opens up about a missing girl named Lauren. Lauren was a troubled teen who was BFF’s with Gwen. Natalie invited Lauren to live with them for a time, but then Lauren went missing, and terrible things started happening to Natalie and Gwen. (See dead husband.)
Margie/Meredith doesn’t show up to book club on time, but she punches Wendy in the face when she does. Someone sent her a letter letting her know that Wendy was sleeping with her husband. It isn’t the only rumor about infidelities. There is a theory that Lauren was sleeping with her best friend’s dad.
April shows up dead after receiving a letter that says, “You’re next!”!! The book club meeting is obviously canceled.
Natalie is the next one to receive a letter. Technically, it is for Gwen, but Natalie opens the note. It contains Lauren’s missing person flyer with the words “I Know.” scrawled across it. Natalie goes to Lauren’s grandmother’s house for more information and finds a wax-sealed letter addressed to Lauren. Natalie brings the envelope to the police station, and they brush her off.
While at Tony’s house, Gwen finds stationary that matches the wax letters, and Sadie catches Gwen. They have a confrontation, but Tony misses the whole thing. Gwen leaves and shows her mother what she has discovered. Natalie is more concerned about Gwen being rude than the evidence she found.
Wendy calls Natalie and needs to see her urgently, but she is vague about the details. Wendy never gets a chance to share what she uncovered because she is murdered in her own bookstore. Natalie finds the body and hides when she hears a noise. It is just Meredith, but since Meredith punched Wendy in the face, she is arrested.
Sadie is a total bitch in the school parking lot; Sadie accuses Gwen of killing Lauren in a wild and unhinged rant. Then the police search Natalie and Gwen’s home and find a bloody knife. GWEN IS ARRESTED NEXT! Natalie goes all Momma Bear on the detective, who just happens to be Sadie’s husband. (It’s all a little too convenient!)
To clear her own name, Gwen enlists Tony to find out what happened to Lauren. They go to see Lauren’s grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Her memory can’t be trusted, but she lets them search Lauren’s old room. The room is spotless like someone is staying there. Tony discovers a secret room, and what is inside is shocking.
Lauren is alive and getting revenge on anyone who ever did her wrong. Lauren texts a photo of Gwen tied up to Natali and gives her a meeting point with NO POLICE! Gwen begs for Lauren to let her go, but Lauren doesn’t forgive Gwen for throwing her out of her house. Lauren wrote the letters and framed Gwen for everything.
Natalie shows up at the house and finds it empty; she finds Lauren upstairs with a baseball bat. Lauren swings the bat around while blaming Natalie for abandoning her. Lauren sent the letters for fun. She writes one more letter from Natalie, framing her for all the murders. Just as she is about to beat Natalie with a bat, Gwen frees herself and knocks Lauren out with a Fabergie egg. (Like, what ARE those?!?!)
The detective apologizes to Natalie and Gwen. Natalie uses the money from the fire to buy the book store and start a book club in Wendy’s memory.
There is a button at the end of this movie, and I’m like, WTF?!
Side Note/Stray Thoughts
Brittany Underwood has been behind the camera lately, which we love, but it is nice to see a Lifetime staple doing her thing in front of the camera.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪🔪🔪 (3 knives)
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷(2 Glasses of Wine, the end ruined it!)
Should you watch it?
Pour it Up (Give it a shot!)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media at @LifetimeUncorked and @patrickmiguel.
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*Photo Credit: © 2024 A&E Television Networks, LLC
Back to the most classic Lifetime troupe of all time. Character has important information for main character, gets strangled to death.
Finally someone shown locking their house door. Is it a habit though? No disrespect to the actor but the sheriff isn’t very good. Almost like they grayed his hair and told him “act like a dad and a cop”. The daughter is a bit stiff too. Love love Indie bookshops, but that shop name Back Forty Books-makes no sense to me. Who walks in, sees someone dead with a scarf around their neck leans down and takes scarf off. No asking if they are okay, feeling for a pulse or removng scarf and immediately trying CPR. She removed like she misplaced it and found it on a dead body. “Oh, that’s where I put it!”😅 And what legit cop leaves his open police cases just lying around at home in the open. Was the ending really a twist, we all knew it was them-right…and no one owns a ring bell to see the person leaving huge envelopes in broad daylight?!
Ok, so the killer was … no one in the book club
Yupppppp
Well at least it didn’t end with Lauren coming to and escaping (thanks to not being directed by David DeCoteau)… Plus Sadie was such an obvious red herring, so why NOT end with the implication that Sadie’s about to start it all again…. (Or maybe she’s holding a party and hand-delivering the invites!
Coming To Netflix Oct. 1st!!
Love it!