Great storyline with good strong characters. Very well written. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Katharine is unhappy with her husband and his harsh ways. However, Katharine knows that Mary has it worse with her husband and she always feels better about her life after hearing about Mary's woes. But soon Katharine starts to think that Mary may be on the brink of a breakdown. I thought this was a good albeit slow drama with a surprise ending. I thank Netgalley for a copy of this book to read and review.

Pulls you further and further into her characters' world until you know it is too late ---revealing perfectly every turn and shadow of the feminine mind --writing that comes alive on the page. Celia. Fremlin was a master of domestic suspense. Pure reading pleasure.

Much of this domestic thriller, first published in 1963, is a keenly observed portrait of women whose marriages are floundering in a small English neighborhood. One is almost lulled into forgetting that it is a thriller by the cattiness of the troublemakers of the title and finds oneself sidetracked from the effects of their pettiness and behavior on Mary, the youngest of the foursome, by the personalities and domestic dramas of Katherine's life in particular, along with Stella's need to feel superior, and Agnes' need for others to feel as badly toward their husbands as she does.

Katherine's life serves as the main focus of the narration, with the "action," as it were, happening a bit offstage. It is only through her visits to Mary's home, Mary's confidences in her, and the various interactions that Katherine has with her fellow natural-born gossips and Mary's solid and outspoken sister-in-law that we see the undercurrent that exists nearby. Husbands, while a frequent topic of conversation, are little seen beyond Katherine's own.

This is a short novel tightly plotted for maximum impact. I went in expecting to find a story that would have been considered domestic horror in the 1960's, but would be a bit more light suspense and a piece of slightly amusing mid-century genre fiction for today's reader. And perhaps this expectation was inadvertently doing a service to the novel because, oh, that ending! So abrupt and effective.

While I am undecided as to whether I will read more of this author's writing, I won't rule it out. Kudos to Dover for recognizing the talent that was Celia Fremlin and ensuring that it will come to the attention of modern readers.

This review refers to an e-galley read courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley. All opinion expressed are my own.

I gave it a try, almost gave up on it and just continued to carry on. It didn't seem to make sense and didn't seem like any kind of story line. It bounced all over the place.


I'm sorry Net Gallery I did give it a try, thank you for allowing me to review. maybe it will appeal to someone else.

Cherie'
#netgallery #celiafremlin #thetroublemakers

Katharine is the mother of 3 who is a full-time housewife along with a part-time job. This makes her overworked with a husband who doesn't understand how come the house (and family) don't run smoothly despite not lending a bit of help. Mary is a stay at home mom to one who has left her husband in the past. They still fight. And Stella who has 2 perfect and stable children because they attend an alternative type school and find education a pleasure and nothing is ever wrong with them or her or her life. Then Mary stabs her husband. To cover for her he says a mystery dark man in a raincoat has broken into their home and done the deed. From there the story meanders. Did Mary stab him or was there really a man in a raincoat? It was a short story but I felt like Ms. Fremlin was less than committed to making it be as sharp and suspenseful as she could make it.