The St. Zita Society, by Ruth Rendell

 

Like many of Ruth Rendell's books, this one is filled with zany characters who make incredibly poor decisions. The St. Zita Society is an informal gathering of the servants who work in one block of a wealthy London neighborhood. The Society serves as a way to bring many of the characters together and provide a backdrop for the many subplots going on throughout the book. There is a "crime" early on, which was really an accident but becomes a crime when those involved decide to cover it up; this leads to a much more serious and premeditated crime later in the book. I found myself thinking that almost every character in the book is eccentric in some fashion. They all have desires, goals, and motivations that lead them to act in bizarre ways. While the book comes across as wildly improbable, it is nevertheless entertaining.