In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?
Often seen, never picked up
This book was certainly not unknown to me before one of my book club friends suggested it. I never have been a big fan of crime, but whenever I read some, I picket cozy crime over too descriptive ones. So a crime novel taking place around a retirement home sounded funnily enough like exactly what I was missing in my reading experience so far. In Saskia Louis’ cozy crime series, there was only one elderly woman serving as the comedic relief every now and then. But this book quickly demonstrates the cleverness and wisdom of our older generations. I was quickly drawn in.
The Thursday Murder Club
This book will surely also engage fans of Only Murders in the Building. It is very humorous, very clever, smartly confused, and so much fun to follow along. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron spend their retirement looking at cold cases (and then suddenly quite hot ones), as they have the time to take in every detail anew. We get to know them better and better throughout the book, while especially Elizabeth and Joyce are our focus points. Nonetheless, Ibrahim and Ron are not just tagging along but surely bring their own talents to the table. Now that we spent 400 pages with them, I am looking forward to spending three more books at their side.
More than a murder
Richard Osman surely had us come up with many, many theories—only to undermine or overthrow them. It was such a joyful experience to try to solve the mystery of what happened. With every interview, with every passing day, the people involved and the whole case becomes more complex. Although the book follows mainly those four characters and two police people working the case, every side character becomes flesh with intriguing details. With those, they become not only real beings but also potential suspects. We should never rule any of them out before knowing their backstory. And Richard Osman makes it really enjoyable to dig into them. He brilliantly creates so many different characters and I can’t wait to meet them all again.
In conclusion,
I never saw it coming but this book is surely one of the most fun reads of this year! Its complex characters’ humor and interactions are fun to follow but also super intriguing and charming. The crime plot takes us through many theories and becomes ever more complex, but is nonetheless easy to follow due to the author’s fun and easy writing.
