Kat 's Reviews > The Thursday Murder Club

I’m kinda bummed as I write this review - not because this book, which I listened to on audiobook, is anything less than charming and delightfully well-written, because it is those things and Richard Osman deserves all the praise he’s getting for it. The narration by Lesley Manville is truly absolute perfection as well. Really. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

It’s just: why did my mind decide to pick this particular book that I’ve so been looking forward to, to behave like a distractible hyperactive toddler in a candy store? It took me way too long to get through this book and those constant interruptions broke the flow of the story more than I would’ve liked. It didn’t ruin it, but I definitely plan a re-read in the future to catch all the nuances I undoubtedly missed. All-in-all, I still really enjoyed it and am so impressed with Osman’s debut effort.

This story of four septuagenarians - Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron - living in Cooper’s Chase, an upscale retirement village, who band together to solve murder cases as part of the Thursday Murder Club is uplifting, warm-hearted, humorous, melancholy and heart-breaking at times, but full of life and spirit, and is well worth the effort of reading or listening to it.

The story intersperses third person narrative with sweet, man-crazy Joyce’s first person POV, as told through her diary entries, which I liked because she’s so irresistibly lovable. Elizabeth is a firecracker - astute, fearless and fun. No-nonsense Ron and intellectual Ibrahim complete this fab four with loads of personality as well. I won’t do a deep dive on the other characters because there are way too many, but suffice it to say the others are every bit as well thought-out and realized as our four main protagonists. My personal fave of these is Bogdan the Polish handyman. He’s a hoot.

The story has red herrings galore, mysterious backstories, twists, turns and fantastic plotting wrapped in a lovely, feel-good package that is perfect for those who enjoy a more relaxed, cozy mystery.

Final note: There’s a 47 minute interview at the end between author Marian Keyes interviewing Richard Osman, that is really insightful into his thought-processes in writing this and where he drew inspiration from for the characters. It also gives some sneak peeks into which characters will be in the next installment, so I’m thrilled to know that a number of favorites are returning. If you have the audio version, give this a listen!

★★★★ ❤ (might’ve been higher if my brain had behaved)

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I've included some highlights from the audio interview which has at least one major spoiler for this book and potential spoilers for the next one. PLEASE DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST BOOK (unless you don't mind spoilers):

(view spoiler)[Insights on this book and Osman himself:

He only writes what he has personal experience with, and he personally reads and loves crime and true crime stories, so that’s what he was inspired to write.

Osman went to a place very like Cooper’s Chase and was inspired by the setting and elderly people he met there. The place was out in the country with no Wi-fi and he thought it would be the perfect place for a murder to go unnoticed. He looked at these people and felt like they’d be the people who would solve the crime if it happened.

Osman says of Joyce: “Her head is my head.” Joyce encapsulates Osman’s thoughts. When Osman goes on thought tangents, Joyce was able to put those in her diary because that fits her scattered personality.

Osman had originally only written the initial scene with Bogdan, but he loved the character so much he wanted to keep writing him, eventually making him the killer half-way through the book. He refers to him as a “kind wise terminator”.

He didn’t want a relationship to develop between Donna and Chris due to the age difference.

He didn’t want to write a comedy book. He wanted to write a crime book in which humor was an element. The humor comes from how the characters behave, rather than jokes.

A lot of his writing has to do with class and class differences, because that’s how he grew up. Social justice issues are also important to him.

He’s a slow reader because he has bad eyesight, so he loves audiobooks.

Some of Osman’s favorite authors: John Le Carré, Ben Macintyre, Ian Rankin, Martin Amis, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham

He alternates fiction and non-fiction back and forth.

Insights into the next book:

The book doesn’t have a name yet, so it’s just The Thursday Murder Club 2 at the moment.

This book starts the day after the ending of the first book. It starts due to something that happens in the first book that comes back to “bites them on the bum”. He didn’t want the next book to start with fresh murders.

All the major characters are back, including Donna’s mom Patrice who will be Chris’ love interest.

Bogdan will be even more present in the next book (yay!), and Stephen and Bogdan will play more chess.

Ron’s 8-year old grandson from his slightly errant daughter will be in the next book and will develop a friendship with Ibrahim. (hide spoiler)]