Book Review - The Thursday Murder Club

 

Title: The Thursday Murder Club

Author: Richard Osman

Series: Thursday Murder Club (Book 1) 

Publisher: Viking 

Release Date: 3 Sept. 2020 

ISBN-13: 978-0241425442

Synopsis

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to…
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?  

My Review

I am a bit of a Richard Osman fan, my husband and I love to watch his gameshow - The House of Games and have enjoyed watching him on other panel shows, so when I saw that he had written a book I was instantly intrigued and I added it to my wishlist. I'm not a massive crime novel fan, but i love Sherlock Holmes and what I guess you would call 'gentle murder mysteries'. So i believed I would be good with this one.

My husband being his amazing self, bought me this book as an extra Christmas present and having just finished another book, I dived straight in. The book is set in Coopers Chase Retirement Village somewhere around Kent. We meet Joyce who has just moved in, was an ex nurse and gets along with nearly everyone. She meets Elizabeth who has been at the village for a while and is quite the presence - commanding and persuasive. She is part of the Thursday Murder Club, a group who meet up every week to try and solve old crime cases, particularly unsolved murders. Part of this group is also Ibrahim - a retired psychiatrist and Ron who is very opinionated and likes to cause a stir. The club is just a bit of fun, until the builder and developer named Tony is murdered after leaving Coopers Chase, now there is a real death and actual suspects to look into, right on their doorstep. None of them are put off and piece by piece they start trying to solve the case. They manage to get on the good side of a young police officer who is looking for a bit more involvement and excitement in her career and through sharing information things start to add up, but then more bodies start to pile up, and more suspects come to light - are the group in deeper than they imagined?

I really liked Osman's writing style - at times I could imagine him reading it and it was just how he talks on TV, it had a real quaint feel to him and just made you want to read more. I like Joyce as a narrator, she has her own chapters that are presented more like diary entries, whereas the other chapters are third person and focus on different characters from in and around the retirement village.

Elizabeth is very headstrong and I had to remind myself that she was an 80 year old, not 50. She is still feisty and refusing to give into old age. I loved Ibrahim's calm nature and matter of fact, almost autistic personality. Ron is like a raging bull at times but you can tell he has a good heart. 

In fact, all of the characters have very distinct personalities and really came to life on the page, I could picture them all and could imagine the whole place and people, it is written so that it comes to life from the page, it all seems like you could go and meet these people.

I found the book a little slow in places but it would always pick up again and carry you through. Some of the revelations at the end were a bit confusing and I had to re-read a couple of paragraphs to make sure I had understood what had happened - particularly with Penny's story. But overall everything is tied together quite well and the ends are neatly folded. I am excited to see that there will be a second book out next September and I am curious to see where he takes it next.

I would definitely recommend this as an interesting, fairly fast paced gentle crime with great characters and some interesting twists.

My Rating