The Thursday Murder Club (by Richard Osman)

(Amazon UK link)

I didn’t recognise the name Richard Osman when our local book group agreed on his novel ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ for July’s read. When I learned that he is - or was - the co-host of the quiz show ‘Pointless’, which I’ve seen several times when visiting relatives in the UK, it gave an added interest. 

I was able to buy the book inexpensively online, and liked it very much. It made a pleasant change from the more ‘literary’ (and, in some cases, rather depressing) books we have read in recent months.

The novel is set in a retirement ‘village’ in the south of England. I assume the village is fictional along with the characters, but it seems to have been based on a real village: a community of over-60s in varying states of health, who live in this safe environment, in their own homes, but with onsite activities, a gym, a library and so on.

Four of the residents have formed an unusual club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are four very different people, and they get together weekly to talk about unsolved murder crimes. Joyce was formerly a nurse, and some of the book is written from her perspective in the first person; she’s the newest member, replacing Elizabeth’s friend Penny who is now on a life support machine, nearing the end of her life.

However Joyce doesn’t have much chance to explore past cases as they are thrown right into a real crime: a builder who has been working in the village is found dead, bludgeoned in his kitchen. The police get involved, and Elizabeth, who is a strong and forthright character, does some investigating on her own account. In some cases, she finds out more than the police are able to. We never find out exactly what Elizabeth’s former career was, but she has travelled all over the world and has access to a lot of secret information; when we discussed this at the reading group, we decided she was probably in the Secret Services.

The writing, we all thought, was excellent. The pace is perhaps a tiny bit slow in the middle, but there’s a lot of humour alongside the rather gory plot. Not that there’s any gratuitous violence; but the builder is not the only person to die, and some very serious issues are covered. Nevertheless, there were three or four places where I actually chuckled as I read an unexpected line.

The characterisation is good, too. We all felt that we got to know several of the main characters, and also that we were gently strung along with nicely planted misleading clues that kept us all guessing about the perpetrator(s) of the two crimes. I was quite convinced it was one person, who turned out to be dodgy in various respects but not a murderer. Then I thought it was someone else - and was wrong about that, too.

I don’t suppose I’ll read the book again, but I may well look out for the sequels. I gather that one has already been published, and a third book about the same characters is due out later this year.

Recommended if you like light crime fiction.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews