The Money Club. Fiona Lowe

Published: Harlequing Australia
Date: 3rd May
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Izzy Harrington’s fiance is a successful entrepreneur and everyone’s friend, but today she’s waiting for him to get home so she can tell him they’re over. Except Brad never arrives.
Instead, three angry men knock on the door and insist on talking to Brad. When the police arrive asking difficult questions and demanding to see his passport, Izzy’s packed suitcases suddenly take on a whole new meaning. Brad’s disappearance sends ripples through their small town and a furious mob camps on Izzy’s lawn desperate to recover their losses. They have Izzy in their crosshairs, determined to make her pay for Brad’s audacious con. As the search intensifies, conflicting clues emerge. Clues that suggest no one really knew Brad – least of all Izzy …

The Money Club is  another thought provoking book from Fiona Lowe. To some extent we all like money, but how far would we go to grow our money, how much risk would we take. And what about if it looks too good to be true! Some of the people in this book find out.

Izzy is a wonderful character, taken for a ride by her fiancé Brad who has red lights flashing all around him. He is promoting a scheme for lots of local people to invest with him, but what happens when it all goes pear shaped? It brings a lot of distress and questioning from those who were involved in giving their money to Brad.  And of course the police are knocking on Izzy’s door, because Brad has disappeared.

There are characters I didn’t like at the beginning but as they began to re assess their values and what they really wanted out of life, I began to think differently of them. I liked the small town feel, the relationships that built and the ones that broke.

I was engrossed in the story and found it well paced and engaging. I was happy with most of the book but had questions about the those who had engineered the scam. I wanted more about the ugly goings on in the background that stayed in the background.

However ultimately I felt this was a book about victims standing up for themselves and getting on with their lives rather than wallowing in the bad things that happened to them.