Three former friends. One last request. The journey of a lifetime!

Bridget isn’t the adventurous type. But somehow she finds herself attending a memorial for her oldest friend, dressed in the bright woolly jumper he once knitted her – at his request. To her dismay, she’s not the only one. There’s glamorous Gloria and quiet Derek too, each wearing their own knitwear gifts.

The three former colleagues haven’t been in the same room for years, something Bridget has been perfectly happy with. But when they’re asked to grant their friend’s final wish – to scatter his ashes in the Shetland Islands – Bridget finds herself swept into an adventure she never planned.

Crammed into a battered minivan, armed with far too much yarn and not nearly enough patience, the unlikely trio head north. As the ferry pulls away and storm clouds gather, Bridget begins to wonder if this whole idea was a mistake. But sometimes, the most unexpected journeys can lead to the best discoveries – about friendship, forgiveness, and how it’s never too late to start a new chapter…

IN A NUTSHELL
The Last Laugh Club’ was a gentle, mostly uplifting book that was heading for a four-star rating until I reached the saccharine epilogue. Up until then, I thought it was a nice balance of grief, regret, adventure and forgiveness. I liked the setting, mostly believed in the characters, and enjoyed the quiet chaos of the plot. It helped that Patricia Gallimore’s narration was excellent. 

This was my first Kate Galley book. I wasn’t sure what to expect. The premise appealed to me because it was about three people in their seventies being pushed to step outside the normal pattern of their lives and because their mission, to distribute the ashes of a dead friend, seemed credible. The cover surprised me; it doesn’t say ‘grieving for a friend’ to me, nor does it look like three people in their seventies, but as soon as I listened to Patricia Gallimore narrate the prologue, I was sold.

The Last Laugh Club’ was a gentle and mostly uplifting book. I liked that although the three protagonists, Bridget, Gloria and Derek, were all friends of the deceased, they knew each other only as former colleagues with whom they’d had no recent contact. They were very different from each other, and there were times when they got on each other’s nerves. The dialogue felt real to me and did a great deal to build the characters and establish their relationship.

There was more of a plot than I’d expected. The dead friend, Norman, had an undisclosed agenda for sending the three protagonists to the Shetland Isles. Bridget, Derek and Gloria all had undisclosed things from their shared past that made them feel guilty. The task of spreading the ashes turned out not to be as simple as they’d expected, both because of additional requests from Norman and because of unexpected (but believable) obstacles along the way. The result was that the three protagonists had to spend much longer together than they’d planned, had to work together under stress and had an extensive interaction with the Shetlanders. I liked the mild chaos of the plot. It added to the sense that all the protagonists had to some degree, of not being in control and not being sure what would happen next.

The thing I enjoyed most about the book was that it was a nice balance of grief, regret, adventure and forgiveness. All of the characters were grieving for Norman. All of them had regrets about their actions when they and Norman worked together. All of them were at a point in their lives when they were having to consider what to do with their remaining years. This could have become a maudlin, depressing book. I admired Kate Galley’s ability to deal with the issues while keeping the characters real and the tone hopeful. 

What I enjoyed least about the book was the epilogue. To me, it not only felt unnecessary but it felt unreal. To me, it seemed to weld a saccharine, simplified, Hallmark-style ‘happily ever after’ ending onto what had been, until then, a much more nuanced story.

I recommend the audiobook version of ’The Last Laugh Club’. Patricia Gallimore’s narration was excellent. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

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