Book Review – The Thursday Murder Club

Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’ll be sharing my review of The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman’s first book, which has taken the crime fiction world by storm. With book two out now, and book three looking set for next year (paper shortages depending!!), I thought it was about time I got around to reading it.

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?

Review
Honestly? I loved this book. It was so much fun. It was a cosy, comfy, murder mystery. The guy who got killed was a bad guy, so you didn’t feel (too) bad for him, and the characters solving it just made me smile on so many levels. It’s like Miss Marple for the 2020’s.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are all so different, and yet are determined to not let their minds go idle. Linked with this objective, and with a real murder on their hands, there’s no way they’re sitting this one out, even when asked to – nicely, in exasperated tones – by the real police force.

Parts of it should have felt forced or silly but it was just fun. It was honestly just fun. And I know I keep repeating that, but sometimes, in this weird old world, we need a book that just makes us laugh. The serious side of the book, the crimes themselves, were well plotted and gripping, so it wasn’t all lost to comedy, but the balance was very well struck. We can follow the crimes and be sure there is a mystery afoot while still being swept away in the lighthearted attitude of the book.

If you miss Agatha Christie, or ever think she could do with a bit of bringing up to the modern era, you’ll find a little spark of something you love in this book.

If you’ve read something and think I should know about it, let me know in the comments. Or just say hi! Thanks for stopping by today and making me smile.