How much of book club should go to a detective who hasn't read the book?
Funny'Nobody reveal the killer,' Fran said, putting a toy magnifying glass beside the cheese. 'I have a theory based on the cover.'
Our six-person book club meets for ninety minutes. We chose a mystery this month, and I had marked three passages I wanted to talk about. Fran had reached page forty. She arrived in a detective hat and asked us to answer yes-or-no questions while she guessed the plot. Her first suspect was a dog that wasn't in the book. That part was very funny.
Twenty minutes later, she was still questioning the cheese table. Whenever someone mentioned the ending, she shouted, 'Evidence withheld!' Four of us had finished. One person who hadn't finished said she didn't mind hearing spoilers. Fran wanted us to save the discussion until she'd made a final accusation.
She works late shifts, and I don't want reading to become an entrance exam. She brings energy and usually notices interesting details in the chapters she has read. But this is the third month her improvised guessing show has taken the opening slot; last time, we ran out of time before discussing the ending.
Can I suggest a short opening joke and then a spoiler-friendly discussion without turning a sociable club into compulsory homework?