The Thursday Murder Club is not your typical crime novel. Trading end-of-your-seat, heart-racing page turns for witty dialogue and a fabulous sense of humour, Richard Osman has created a strangely delightful (for a murder mystery!) debut novel.
Richard Osman
In a peaceful retirement village, four friends meet every Thursday in the Jigsaw Room, booking a two-hour slot between Art History and Conversational French to investigate unsolved murders. They are the Thursday Murder Club. But when their files of old mysteries turn into a very real murder right on their doorstep, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim launch their own investigation to catch the killer – before it’s too late.
I found this to be such a charming story. Osman has created an interesting cast of characters who are incredibly endearing, exuding warmth and wit. Elizabeth, as the unofficial Murder Club leader, is the calm and intelligent guiding force that keeps the group constantly three steps ahead of the police. Joyce, as the newest member and ex-nurse, alongside ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim and ex-trade union leader Ron, round out the rest of the wily group. Partly told through Joyce’s diary entries, the Thursday Murder Club are an enthusiasic bunch, providing fresh and offbeat sleuthing that is an absolute joy to read.
Richard Osman has imbued this book with marvellous humour and quirk, something I’d expect from the Pointless creator. The interplay between characters and the unravelling of the murder mystery is where Osman truly shines. This was a plot that truly kept me guessing, trying to put the pieces together ahead of time but never too disheartened when I couldn’t, often too enchanted with the characters themselves to really put my efforts into investigating. Touching upon an array of classic crime tropes, The Thursday Murder Club serves almost as a tribute to the crime genre and the everyday sleuths, those of us enraptured by true crime and thrilled by a good mystery.
The Thursday Murder Club is a very smart, very character driven book that completely entertained me. It’s the ideal book to escape into, captivating the mind with both mystery and mirth.
—The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.
The Thursday Murder Club
Four unlikely friends. A shocking murder. Welcome to The Thursday Murder Club.
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?
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