The Dinner Club

"Are you a Nicci French fan? Then read The Dinner Club."-Beau Monde

"A thrilling read."-De Telegraaf

"An exciting novel that is also a morality tale laced with biting satire."-Het Parool

When Evert dies in his burning villa, everything points to suicide. The other members of the "dinner club,"a group of five women who meet regularly and whose husbands do business together, rally around to support Babette, his grieving widow. But events soon spiral out of control. Within weeks, a member of the club falls from the balcony of a hotel and dies. Something is poisoning their smug world of flashy SUVs, coffee mornings, and wine-filled evenings and bringing death in its wake.

This is a high-spirited, sexy, and ingeniously plotted tale about people desperate to hang on to the trappings of success-at any cost.

Imagine Desperate Housewivesscripted by Patricia Highsmith. That's The Dinner Club.

Saskia Noortis a freelance journalist and writes features for, among others, the Dutch editions of Marie Claireand Playboy.Her first thriller, Back to the Coast,was published to great acclaim in 2003. The Dinner Clubfollowed in 2004 and, with over 300,000 copies sold, has topped the Dutch bestseller list.

"A group of women in an upscale Dutch country town form the titular clique in this engaging crime novel, the first English translation from Noort (Back to the Coast). Karen, who narrates, bonds with another Amsterdam escapee, Hanneke, an interior designer, and together they recruit Patricia, Angela, Babette and their husbands to drink, dine and enjoy one another's company. But when Babette's husband, Evert, begins having psychological problems and apparently commits suicide by burning down his home, their group begins to fracture amid allegations of infidelity and shady financial dealings. From an innocuous social gathering to a group mired in extramarital affairs and distrust, the disintegration of the 'dinner club' unveils the web of deceit among friends. Sensuality and intrigue propel the novel to its shocking conclusion, when Noort reveals that no character is exactly who he or she seems." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Noort's second novel is a high-spirited, sexy, and ingeniously plotted tale about people desperate to hang on to the trappings of success--at any cost.

Saskia Noort, 38, is a free-lance journalist and she writes regular features for, among others, the Dutch editions of Marie Claire and Playboy. Her first thriller, Back to the Coast, was published in 2003 and has sold over 150,000 copies in the Netherlands. The Dinner Club followed in 2004 and, with over 300,000 sold.