October 2025

This month’s roll call included Sonia Featherstone (our Chair, and still hanging in there), Constance Dilmore, Alfred Bushwell (PhD), Gerard Savin, Joe Halton, Eleanora Reingold, and yours truly. Thanks again to Mina Goodacre and the Bookish Barista for hosting us — the white chocolate gateau you asked us to taste test was a triumph!

This month’s chosen book was Robert Thorogood’s The Marlow Murder Club.

Sonia opened by asking whether anyone had noticed similarities between the book’s solution and the premise for Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train.

Joe Halton proudly announced he’d caught it on ITV — “the proper broadcast, not the repeats” — and, more impressively, had watched the entire Marlow Murder Club series on television. He then demanded to know why amateur sleuths were always pensioners. Alfred and Constance promptly rattled off Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and the Famous Five. Joe nodded along and added Scooby-Doo for good measure. Gerard, meanwhile, reminded us that many of his favourite mysteries are solved by cats and dogs, and became misty-eyed recalling one particularly noble Labrador.

Attempting to restore order, Sonia asked if we might choose something other than a murder mystery for November’s read. With a triumphant flourish, Eleanora Reingold produced a bulging folder of her handwritten minutes from the past five years. She offered to comb through every page so we could vote (properly and in accordance with the rules) on our next book. The thud of the folder hitting the table and rattling the cutlery made several of us blanch.

Salvation (oddly enough) came from Alfred. He revealed he was partway through Ray Dalio’s The Changing World Order. With the Barista due to close, the prospect of spending the evening at the Slippery Eel while Eleanora audited her archives was enough to make the rest of us agree (unanimously) that Dalio would be November’s choice.

The meeting ended in record time. Gateau half-eaten and coats unbuttoned, members fled like rats deserting a sinking ship, leaving Mina blinking in surprise as she waved us goodbye.

On a personal note, while I found Thorogood’s pensioner sleuth entertaining, I suspect Dalio’s shifting world order may prove a deadlier read, and not a Labrador in sight to save us.