The Book Club Murders (2024) is a mystery-thriller that deftly mixes cozy suburban life with the sinister secrets festering beneath its calm facade. Set in an idyllic yet deceptively quiet town, the story centers on Natalie and her teenage daughter Gwen as they struggle to put their lives back together after a shattering loss. When Natalie accepts an invitation to a neighborhood book club, it feels like the first step toward friendship and a return to normalcy. But when anonymous letters begin unearthing hidden truths, the group’s fragile unity splinters — and soon, unsettling incidents escalate into deadly consequences.
This is a slow-burning suspense where a strong, female-led narrative unfolds through simmering emotional tension, neighborhood politics, and tangled personal histories. Packed with cryptic clues, shifting doubts, and a mystery that grows more sinister with every reveal, the film is a treat for fans of intimate, character-driven whodunits. In the end, it’s not just about solving a murder — it’s about the dark motives that push ordinary people to terrifying extremes.
This article contains spoilers.
The Book Club Murders (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with a person wearing gloves and a hoodie committing arson. The scene cuts to Natalie with her daughter, Gwen, at the local bookstore. While paying the bill, they meet the owner of the bookstore, Wendy, who asks Natalie to join their book club. On Gwen’s insistence, Natalie agrees. On the bulletin board, Gwen sees a picture of a missing person: Lauren, and is disturbed. After a break, Gwen goes back to school, where people are gossiping about Gwen. However, Gwen’s boyfriend, Tony, is happy to have Gwen back in school, and so is Tori (Gwen’s friend). At the book club, Wendy tells Natalie about the people in the book club, starting with Meredith, who is Wendy’s best friend.
How does the poison pen destroy Tori’s life?
The next is Anita, who usually has fun things to say, but on this day, Anita is lost. The third person is April, who is a counsellor at Gwen’s high school and has helped Gwen a lot. The next person is Sadie, who is Tony’s mother. After the book discussion, Sadie walks up to Natalie to express her condolences for everything Natalie and Gwen have gone through.
Sensing Sadie’s fake behaviour, Wendy takes Natalie away to introduce her to the others. When Wendy introduces Natalie to April and Anita, they are cold and distracted. Suddenly, a paper falls out of Anita’s hand, so Natalie helps. On the paper is an admission form and words in huge red ink that say ‘I Know’. However, Anita snatches the paper and leaves. When Natalie gets home, she hears thumps and thuds coming from upstairs. Still, Gwen is unbothered.
Suddenly, a photo frame by the stairs starts to shake. Now, Gwen comes clean as it was Tony hiding by the stairs all along. During dinner, Gwen gets a message about Tori’s MIT admission revocation. It seems Anita and April collaborated to help Tori cheat on the admission exams. Elsewhere, the killer/stalker writes a letter to Tori apologising for the admission revocation, but says Tori deserves it.
The envelope is in black, with a red candle seal, signed with the name Aletheia. In school, the next day, Tori tells Gwen that her mother went behind her back to let someone else take the test without telling Tori. Sadly, Tori’s grades were good enough for admission. Because of this, no good colleges are accepting Tori’s application. Now, Tori shows the black envelope to Gwen. At home, Natalie receives an insurance payout because of her husband’s death.
Why does Meredith slap Wendy?
Meanwhile, Tony and Gwen are in Tony’s house, and they don’t know that Tony’s father (Detective Chandler) is home. So, Chandler takes Tony away to express his disappointment in Tony for hanging out with Gwen. The reason is that Gwen and Natalie are suspects in Lauren’s disappearance, and Chandler is due a promotion; if Gwen or Natalie is the culprit, then it will affect Chandler’s promotion. Still, Tony hangs out with Gwen. That night, the killer/stalker takes a knife from Natalie’s house without anyone’s knowledge.
At the bookstore, Natalie confides in Wendy by sharing her troubles. Things have been hard on Gwen as Lauren went missing. Later, there was a fire in their house, which killed Gwen’s father. When Lauren’s grandmother started to show signs of dementia, Natalie invited Lauren home to stay. However, when Lauren and Gwen were caught shoplifting, they kicked Lauren out.
One day, Gwen visits Lauren to find her room thrashed, showing clear signs of struggle. The only thing missing from the room was Lauren. At the book club, Meredith comes inside in rage and slaps Wendy, asking her to stay away from her and her husband, Jeff. After everyone leaves, Wendy shows the envelope to Natalie and reveals that after Wendy’s divorce, she turned to alcoholism.
At that time, Wendy hooked up with Jeff. They soon ended it and hoped no one would find out. The next day, Sadie arrives at Natalie’s house, asking Natalie to confess to anything, as the person writing the envelopes reveals everyone’s darkest secrets. The insinuation is that Natalie had something to do with Lauren’s disappearance. Hearing this, Natalie is angry, so she asks Sadie to leave the premises.
Why do the cops release Meredith?
We cut to April’s house, where she is dead. In a flashback, we see that April had received an envelope saying, ‘You’re next. ’ The next day, there is a black envelope in Gwen’s name, but Natalie hides it from Gwen. Inside is a picture of Lauren with the words in red ‘I Know’. So Natalie confides in Wendy, who asks Natalie to do some snooping around on her own. With that in mind, Natalie visits Lauren’s house to speak with her grandmother, Martha. There, Natalie finds the black envelope and rushes to inform Chandler of this.
However, Chandler is not of help as he suspects Natalie of distracting the police, as Natalie’s husband was a suspect in Lauren’s disappearance. However, Natalie’s husband was let off the hook because of Natalie’s alibi. Meanwhile, Gwen is in Tony’s house. When Tony gets a call from Chandler, Gwen snoops around the house and finds black envelopes, a calligraphy pen, and ink. So, Gwen starts to take pictures.
Just then, Sadie walks in and confronts Gwen. In the end, Sadie banishes Gwen from going to her house. This makes Tony mad. At the same time, Wendy calls Natalie to go to the bookstore, as she may have found a clue to who the killer is. At the bookstore, as Wendy waits for Natalie to arrive, the killer comes in and strangles Wendy to death. Sadly, Natalie finds Wendy’s body.
Just as Natalie is about to call 911, she hears a noise, so she hides and texts the cops. At that moment, Meredith arrives, so they worry about the situation together. Sadly, the cops arrest Meredith, especially because of the slapping incident. The next day at school, Tony says he overheard his parents talk about the case, and Meredith had an alibi. Now, Gwen mentions the purple scarf.
What does Gwen find in Lauren’s room?
This triggers a memory for Tony as he remembers Sadie having a similar scarf. Without thinking, Gwen questions Tony about the last time Sadie wore it. Meanwhile, Natalie learns Jeff was addicted to having affairs. On the night of the murder, Meredith kicked Jeff out, and the neighbours heard the commotion. This gives Meredith an alibi.
At school, Sadie stops Natalie and Gwen from leaving as she is mad that Gwen is accusing Sadie of being the killer. Now, Sadie says, Lauren was an intern in Jeff’s company until Gwen and her father killed Lauren and also accused Natalie of killing her husband for the insurance money. At home, Gwen realises she must have received an envelope and confronts Natalie about it. The way Natalie asks Gwen about the truth of this, Gwen feels hurt, as she thinks Natalie believes Gwen to be the killer.
The killer has written an envelope to Chandler. The next day, Chandler comes to Natalie’s house with a search warrant because of an anonymous tip. In Gwen’s room, they find a bloodied knife. So, Chandler arrests Gwen. At the station, Chandler reveals that the blood on the knife has the same blood type as Lauren’s, and the knife belongs to a set in Natalie’s house.
Thankfully, Gwen is free to go because of Natalie’s lawyers. However, Gwen is safe only until the results. By now, Gwen and Natalie know that Gwen is being framed. They need to get to the truth before the lab results arrive. The next day, Tony agrees to help Gwen find the truth. So they head to Lauren’s house, where Gwen sees a board filled with all the people the killer has sent the envelopes to. At this time, Gwen is locked inside the room, and Tony is out. The stalker/killer enters the room, and Gwen is shocked to see the person.
The Book Club Murders (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
When Natalie gets home, she realizes Gwen isn’t home. While texting, the killer sends a picture of Gwen tied up and a location. Immediately, Natalie calls 911, but stops when she sees the killer asking Natalie not to call the cops. At the location, it is revealed that Lauren is the killer. The reason Lauren is behaving this way is that she was kicked out of Natalie’s house, and her grandmother had dementia and could not recognise Lauren. Thankfully, Tony is alive and tied up in the same house. Turns out, Lauren is the one who started the fire in the hope of killing Natalie, Gwen, and her father. However, Lauren didn’t know that Gwen and Natalie were not home.
Just then, Natalie arrives and is about to free Tony when Lauren comes with a baseball bat. Below, Gwen finds a loose nail, so she tries to free her hands with it. Now, Lauren blames Natalie for everything, as Natalie knew Lauren didn’t have anything or anyone and still threw her out. Furthermore, Lauren has written a confession letter on behalf of Natalie, confessing to writing the letters and murders.
Lauren starts to try to hit Natalie. The way Lauren found out about Tori was when Anita and April discussed things around Lauren. Similarly, Lauren tackled Jeff. At one point, Natalie is on the ground, and Lauren is about to hit, but Gwen hits Lauren from behind. The cops arrive, and Chandler apologises to Gwen and Natalie. Four months later, Natalie has bought the bookstore and started a book club in Wendy’s name. In the final scene, Sadie leaves a red envelope with a black seal in Natalie’s mailbox.
The ending reveals that the killer is Lauren. Her motive, however, isn’t rooted in any clear justification — instead, it stems from deep-seated psychological issues that twist petty grievances into deadly excuses. Being thrown out of Natalie’s house alone doesn’t warrant a killing spree, nor does it explain why she drags the rest of the group into her spiral. It’s her festering loneliness, wounded pride, and unstable mind that push her over the edge. When Lauren is finally arrested, her chilling expression leaves an unsettling impression that lingers long after the credits roll.
The final scene itself is open to interpretation. One possibility is that Sadie always knew Lauren was unhinged and quietly manipulated her into doing the dirty work, using insider knowledge of the ongoing investigations to cover her own tracks. Another reading is even more disturbing — that Sadie has drawn inspiration from Lauren’s madness, and now plans to unleash her own brand of revenge, driven by a personal grudge that Natalie and Gwen walked away innocent. A final, more subtle hint is that the story might not be over — that The Book Club Murders could yet have another chilling chapter to come.
