The Wives of Murder Club
Marta’s true-crime book club thought they knew exactly how a murder investigation worked. But when one of their own turns up dead during a remote girls' trip to Snakebite Island, their obsession is put to the ultimate test. Terrified that the police will uncover their own dark secrets—including a mysteriously vanished husband—the friends decide to stage a fake disappearance themselves. But real life isn't a podcast, and as the cover-up begins to unravel, Marta realizes she is trapped with a ruthless killer who is just getting started.
- Imogen - Owner of Inherit the Future Fund investment firm (ITFF)
- Bernie - Imogen’s neighbor, chief of surgery at Sunnyvale
- Celeste - Works for Imogen at Inherit the Future Fund
- Marta - Friend of Imogen
- Derrick - Marta’s husband, teacher
- Mark - Imogen’s second husband
- Caleb - Imogen’s brother
- Harry - Celeste’s husband, deceased
- Georgia - Student teacher
- Antonia - Student, 17
- Marta is worried because Derrick didn’t come home the previous night.
- During book club, photos of Imogen and Derrick arguing and Derrick lying on the ground with a bleeding head show up on Imogen’s photo frame.
- Marta reports Derrick’s disappearance, but police think he left of his own free will and aren’t taking the case seriously.
- Imogen, Marta, Celeste and Bernie go to Snakebite Island for a three-day getaway.
- Imogen admits she met Derrick the night before he disappeared and that someone has been blackmailing her via e-mail. She says she believes it was one of them.
- Bernie is the one blackmailing Imogen.
- Celeste accuses Bernie of having an affair with Harry when he was alive, but Bernie says she wasn’t. She was helping him through an opioid addiction because he refused to go to NA.
- When the chief of surgery position opened and Harry got it, Bernie injected him with fentanyl, killing him, and subsequently took the promotion.
- Celeste is found dead by the water near the cottage.
- The night Imogen and Derrick were photographed together, Mark was demanding Imogen let him withdraw some of the money he invested in ITFF and threatening to badmouth her company if she didn’t.
- Imogen threatened to tell Marta that Derrick was sleeping with a student if he didn’t back off.
- When Derrick tried to grab Imogen, she hit him on the head with a bottle of vodka.
- Bernie convinces Imogen and Marta that a murder investigation will ruin all their lives, so they agree to hide Celeste’s body by sinking it in the lake.
- The next morning, the boat arrives to pick them up and they report Celeste as missing.
- Imogen and ITFF go under investigation for fraud.
- Before he went missing, Derrick had reported ITFF to the Serious Fraud Office for being a Ponzi scheme.
- Imogen goes into hiding and asks Marta to retrieve a briefcase from a safety deposit box and bring it to her location.
- Marta gets the briefcase, opens it, takes the cash out to keep and calls the Serious Fraud Office to tell them she wants to help them arrest Imogen.
- Marta sets up a meeting with Imogen and leads her into an ambush where Imogen is arrested.
- Bernie killed Celeste because Celeste told Bernie she had ignored her professional responsibilities by not reporting Harry’s opioid addiction, and therefore Celeste would not support Bernie’s candidacy for medical director.
- Marta finds Celeste’s missing necklace in Bernie’s house and concludes Bernie killed her.
- Marta confesses to Bernie that Derrick died after hitting his head during an argument with Marta after she confronted him about getting Antonia pregnant and draining their savings to pay her off, following Antonia’s abortion.
- Marta wrapped his body in plastic and placed it in a chest freezer.
- Six months later: Derrick’s disappearance remains an open investigation, but after police find out about his relationship with Antonia, they believe he disappeared of his own volition.
- Marta buries his body in her backyard and covers it with a garden.
- Celeste’s death is concluded as a tragic accident.
- Marta and Bernie remain friends, bound by their shared secrets.
The Wives of Murder Club is a medium-paced thriller driven by secrets and toxic friendships. The story jumps between the perspectives of the four women and transcripts from the Filthy Funds podcast. All the women are annoying in their own ways, but Bernie is straight-up diabolical - I absolutely loved hate-reading her chapters.
While the blurb heavily pushes the murder aspect, the plot actually juggles several distinct mysteries. It ends up being a lot more layered than just a standard whodunit, and the podcast transcripts tie into everything in a really unexpected way as the story unfolds.
As for the setting, the group only spends maybe half the book on the island. If you're going into this wanting a fully isolated, trapped-on-an-island vibe for the whole story, it might leave you wanting a bit more.
There are a few decent twists along the way, and while nothing is incredibly shocking, the ending felt totally deserved. It wraps up the main threads nicely while still managing to leave a lingering, mysterious vibe around one part of the story. If you live for tangled secrets and watching messy, toxic friendships implode, this one is worth picking up.
- Harry - Dead - Injected with fentanyl by Bernie
- Celeste - Dead - Strangled by Bernie
- Imogen - Alive - In prison awaiting trial for her financial crimes
- Marta - Alive - Still wary of Bernie
- Derrick - Dead - Hit his head during a struggle with Marta and died from the injury
- Blackmail
- Murder
- Mention of adult-child relationship
- Infidelity
- Abortion
ISBN: 9781471422393
Publication Date: June 2, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
