THE FIRST BOOK IN THE GRIPPING THURSDAY MURDER CLUB SERIES BY TV PRESENTER RICHARD OSMAN
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.
After a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy. No one tells you off, except for your doctors and your children.
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?
Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter. The Thursday Murder Club is his first novel. He is well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. As the creative director of Endemol UK, Richard has worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.
I wouldn’t usually be one to read a celebrity book and on the whole, I usually avoid them, but I find myself this week with not one but two of them on my shelf to read! I haven’t started the other one yet, but this was really enjoyable, and I am glad that I didn’t overlook it for being written by a celeb!
The Thursday Murder Club is set within a retirement village, a small group of friends come together in their little Thursday slot (their allocated room time) to discuss crimes as their passion and try to solve them. Elizabeth is the main leader; she is strong and intelligent with a slightly shady background! Joyce starts off being a bit of a wallflower – perfectly lovely but never going to set the world on fire but she really comes into her own from about halfway through the book. Ron and Ibrahim are lovely gentlemen in their own rights who add a lot to their group but aren’t such big characters within the book.
Each of the characters are well developed and you feel like you know them well. They are good friends though not necessarily a natural match they work well together through their investigations, but it certainly helps that they are in their 80’s and don’t care about getting caught or told off themselves!
The plot is also strong. Clearly, we shouldn’t be underestimating senior citizens, they do a great job with their investigation and form strong relationships with the police who they are ‘helping’ in truth they do end up being helpful rather than a hindrance as well! The observations are often funny, some I found myself reading out to my husband and laughing, others are really quite sad or poignant, a comment on how sometimes the older generations are treated which was quite sad. Also, a couple of comments on the very sad endings of some lives and their loved ones who either chose to go with them or are left behind.
Having said that this was a very uplifting and enjoyable read and I would definitely be interested in reading more if there were a series… its quite clearly written made for TV so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on screen sometime soon!
Thank you to Net Galley, the Publisher and the Author for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
| Title | The Thursday Murder Club |
| Author | Richard Osman |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | eARC |
| Page Count | 400 Pages |
| Genre | Mystery & Thrillers / Humorous |
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Release Date | 3rd September 2020 |
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