Happy publication day to Richard Osman for The Thursday Murder Club! Thank you to Viking for allowing me to read a proof e-book via NetGalley. Before I give you my thoughts, here’s the blurb.

 

The Blurb

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?

 

My Review

In The Thursday Murder Club, we have Elizabeth and Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron. Although they may be pensioners living in a retirement village and acutely aware their days are numbered, they don’t plan on wasting any of those days sitting around doing nothing.

Joyce has been asked to join after former and co-founding member, Penny, became too ill to take part. Penny, a retired police officer, was still haunted by past unsolved crimes so she started the club with Elizabeth. Each bring their own special set of skills. Ibrahim was a psychologist and a bit of a number-cruncher. Ron’s a former trade union leader and is able to make himself heard, loud and clear. He also has huge compassion that we see in rare moments. Joyce is a retired nurse and so brings some medical expertise. Elizabeth… well, we never know exactly what she used to do but there are enough hints to suggest a secretive and slightly murky past. Although they’re used to looking at cold cases, it isn’t long before a real murder happens and The Thursday Murder Club get the chance to try and solve it. And maybe more besides that.

I absolutely loved this the book. I giggled a lot and often read out parts to my husband which he didn’t fully appreciate as he was trying to go to sleep. There’s a cast of many characters and the viewpoint switches quite a lot which took a while to get used to.  As well as being humorous with an interesting plot, it’s also acutely observational. Richard Osman highlights perfectly the need that older people have to remain useful. Coopers Chase Retirement Village may be fictional but in the acknowledgements Richard Osman mentions a retirement village that he actually visited. It’s refreshing to know that such places exist.

I wish I could comment more on the plot but I don’t want to reveal any spoilers. Suffice to say things are not at all as they seem.

Overall, this book sums up the best in cosy crime – wonderfully eccentric characters, enough red herrings to eat for breakfast for a week and a quirky police duo trying (and failing) to keep one step ahead of the pensioners. I do hope there’s a second book planned. These characters are too good to be used only once.

 

You can buy The Thursday Murder Club here.

Or visit your local independent bookshop.

 

The Author

Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter. The Thursday Murder Club is his first novel. He is well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. As the creative director of Endemol UK, Richard has worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.