Book Review: “Please Join Us” by Catherine McKenzie
Facing Fear
Women are pissed off. Even though it has been some 100 years since they won the right to vote in Canada, where I live, the glass ceiling still exists. Women are frequently denied the same privileges as men on the job front, and then they’re also magically supposed to carry babies to term and then take on all of the responsibilities of motherhood at the same time as they juggle careers that can sputter. And then don’t get me started on the whole #MeToo issue. In any event, all of these are things that Canadian author Catherine McKenzie takes on and brings to the table with her 13th legal thriller, Please Join Us. It’s the story of a woman trapped in the system, and the covert organization that strives to rescue her from her distress. Or does it?
Essentially, the book is told from two separate timelines that gradually merge into one by the novel’s third act. When the book opens, we meet a 39-year-old New Yorker named Nicole Mueller who has been called to her congresswoman friend’s apartment where she discovers said friend may have murdered a man, possibly her lover. The book then alternates between this timeline and an earlier one where Nicole, who could face being fired from the legal firm she has been made partner in and who could also lose the apartment she shares with her husband, Dan, receives an email from a group of women who essentially promises to change her life. She goes on a retreat with this organization, and it eventually turns out that her professional and private life changes for the better once she starts participating in the group. But, as is wont with books of this nature, there may be a hidden cost to this newfound life of luxury. Nicole is then forced to choose between being beholden to the organization to live the good life that is usually only afforded to men forever or risk losing everything that she has gained — including her new friends.
Please Join Us is a somewhat successful thriller in that it is more of a potboiler than anything else. It’ll give you the good jolt that novels in this genre should do, but there’s a feeling that — in some way — everything will turn out alright for all of the parties involved, which helps keep that pot from simmering into the sort of boiling territory that could leave readers uncomfortable. The novel features a likable main character who has been pushed to the limit and readers will want to cheer her on as she starts to taste the success that is afforded to her that she has, more or less, worked so hard to achieve — even if she needs help from an outside band of women nudging her to success. In many ways, this is a book that is about confronting one’s fears to become successful — as Nicole is frequently put to the test through a series of challenges that she has to both endure and overcome if she wants to successfully climb the corporate ladder.
But about that third act. By the time the novel starts wrapping up, the reader is treated to a series of double-crosses and triple crosses by all of the main characters. Allegiances shift on a dime during the climatic showdown and the ending is not quite as satisfying as it might have been as a result. Readers will probably be confused, if not think that the whole setup of the premise is on the far-fetched side. After all, it seems that the whole point for Nicole to be put through her motions is something that turned out to be many years in the making — and is the sort of thing that might have one wondering why things could have been handled in a whole lot simpler way. I don’t want to give too much away and hope that I haven’t already, but it’s the Occam’s Razor argument: would you go to a whole lot of trouble to get what you want, or choose an easier (or the simplest) path? My guess lies with the second part of that equation, which means that everything that happens in Please Join Us might feel to be rather outlandish and untrue.
However, I also don’t wish to be churlish. This is a fun novel and that’s all that it aspires to be — notwithstanding the important points that the book makes about the plight of women in corporate culture today. The book’s first two-thirds are immensely readable and enjoyable before the plot twists begin to kick in. One wishes that McKenzie would have stuck to a more straightforward narrative rather than trying to impress the reader with cleverness. There’s the grain of a good yarn here, and even if the premise does seem a little on The Firm’s side, this is hardly a terrible or even mediocre read. Please Join Us does have gripping suspense and well-rounded characters, even if their motivations are hardly believable in the end. This is a book that is well worth reading, as much as it may ultimately disappoint. Even as the coincidences mount and the characters change sides repeatedly, you’ll be flipping the pages to see how it concludes — even if it does feel like the author does paint her main character into a bit of a corner that needs layer upon layer of devious detours to weasel out of. If it weren’t for the machinations of that final third, Please Join Us would easily be in the top tier ranks of legal thriller beach reads. Despite its flaws, this is an impressive effort. Thirteen books in, McKenzie shows that she can do something right and that’s to tell a largely captivating tale — even if it doesn’t quite hold up under rigorous cross-examination. Read it for the simmering rage of a woman who might have been left scorned, and as a reminder that all is not well for the plight of women even if they’ve joined the ranks of being considered equals to men, at least in voting rights.
Catherine McKenzie’s Please Join Us was published by Simon & Shuster / Atria Books on August 23, 2022.
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