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You might have expected Adam to be Ned's right-hand man but that job falls to Annie Spark. She's the one who has the instinct for who's on the up-and-up and should be welcomed to all the perks of membership and who's sliding down the ladder. It's a delicate balancing act, though - careers have been known to be revived and ''you don't want anyone holding a grudge and an Oscar.''
Nikki Hayes is Ned Groom's PA. She started as a hat-check girl at one of the group's Clubsclubs: her modelling career wasn't taking off so well so the job provided some much-needed funds. Just occasionally she gets snide comments from members who remember those days. She's not at the first-night dinner: Ned Groom has something he wants to say to his most prominent members, : actors Jackson and Georgia Crane, chat-show host, Freddie Hunter, photographer Keith Little and producer Kurt Cox. They're not going to like it and not all of them will leave the island alive.
The characters are superb: you can believe in each and every one of them. There are a few you'll dislike (but you'll be desperate to know more about them) but, for me, the stars were the three women who're holding it all together: Annie, Jess and Nikki. Annie's going over the top: there's a barely-concealed wildness in there and you know it can't be long before something goes badly wrong. The plot is superb: . We knew that something dreadful was going to go badly wronghappen: it's not subtly signposted - it's there in neon lights - but I really had no idea how it was all going to work out. This was my first Ellery Lloyd: it won't be my last.
''The Club'' confirms all that we believed we knew about 'celebrity'. There's the bad behaviour, the belief that someone will always be there to pick up after you, to clean up the mess you've made, to cater to your every whim. It's like knowing what lies ''behind'' the stories you read in ''Hello''. It's a book to confirm all your prejudices and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.