Certainly an interesting read, just goes to show there's never any point to try to keep up with the joneses. ( )

This novel is about a murder that occurs in one of the four families occupying a group of countryside mansions. They are the new aristocracy--commuting to finance job in the City, doctors, lawyers, etc. We learn of the murder in the first pages, but do not know the identity of the victims, as we go back and learn of the lives and loves of the members of these four families, all the while wondering who has ended up dead, who committed the crime, and why. Along the way, we are in for some fantastic satire and commentary on the lives of the upper crust today--the new millionaires. I liked it a lot. Although it is technically a mystery, the emphasis is on the lives and times of these four families, and indeed contemporary society. ( )

Excellent story. Bit of a whodunnit, based on a group of families living in a small, exclusive community. Witty and sharply observed. It's all very familiar and real. ( )

I used to enjoy listening to Mark Lawson's "Front Row" programme on BBC Radio 4, and was looking forward very eagerly to reading this novel, though, as always in such circumstances, there was a slight fear that I might prove disappointed. Such fears were groundless, however, as Lawson definitely delivers in spades with this finely crafted novel about life in Middle England during the recent economic downturn and the Government's austerity measures.

The novel is based around four families living in a village in the commuter belt of Buckinghamshire. Self-styled as 'The Eight', the four couples occupy the four largest houses in their village and have gradually created their own exclusive social circle. Despite their closeness, however, a degree of stratification is already evident as the novel opens. At the pinnacle of the inner society stand the Dunsters, Max and 'Jenno', whose position is supported by Dunster Manor Ltd, the family firm that Max inherited and which makes high class diaries and calendars and similar products popular around the world. Next in line come the Crossans, Jonny and Libby. Jonny, son of a now ennobled former Tory Minister from the Thatcher and Major administrations, is a very successful barrister while Libby sits as a local magistrate and also features in countless local committees. Former soldier Tom Rutherford is chief executive of his own security firm while his wife Emily is a local doctor. The fourth couple is made up of Natasha ("Tasha") and Simon Lonsdale. Tasha owns a catering company while Simon is a senior executive in a PR firm which is currently struggling to rehabilitate the image of a failed bank that had required a massive bail-out from government funds. All four couples have children who go attend the same local private school, and almost all of their socialising seems to be conducted within the clique.

Alternating chapters of the story recount the discovery of a brutal mass murder in which one of the families is presumed to have been killed by the husband/father who has then shot himself. The other chapters show the lead up to this awful crisis, taking the families through a chaotic series of set pieces, each more splendidly extravagant than the last. Lawson handles this crescendo of conspicuous expenditure with great deftness, sowing clues to the startling denouement that might feasibly apply to any of the four families.

It was very reminiscent of John Lanchester's "Capital" (one of my favourite novels ever), with the scene transplanted from South London to rural Buckinghamshire. Lawson is just as capable as Lanchester at making telling observations about the state of the nation, and the ever-widening chasm between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' in divided Britain.

Supremely enjoyable. ( )

It's very zeitgeisty to write about the travails, the absurdity and the ghastliness of the affluent middle classes. This book starts with the delivery of designer coffee capsules, firmly designed to place its protagonists in the drawer where they will be rightfully despised by the poor but righteous literary classes. Four couples, four families, one set of deaths - but whose? By making it difficult to spot who gets killed, Lawson makes it difficult to spot who's who - who's not as affluent as they seem, who's in trouble, who's more cracked under the surface than the others? The book is a good pacy read, but never really says anything you can't get by reading the Independent...