The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
March 21, 2022
Pour yourself a G&T, sit in the sun and read this in one go on a sunday afternoon - it won’t disappoint. Granted, I read it through a covid-induced brain fog, but I’m pretty sure everyone would enjoy this funny, compassionate murder mystery. It has great character development, gives voice and power to the retired (who prove they should never be underestimated), and it plays on British humour in a very effective way.
The backdrop for the novel is a fancy retirement village for the upper class elderly, the kind of place we’d all like to end up in. It has activities of all kinds, everyone has their own plush apartment but the option to eat at a nice restaurant if they’d rather. It has a pool and every kind of society (including the Thursday Murder Club), and a hospice for those at the very end of their journeys. The club in question comprises five witty retirees, each with their own area of specialism, lead by Elizabeth - a formidable woman with a classified background.
In life you have to learn to count the good days. You have to tuck them in your pocket and carry them around with you. So I’m putting today in my pocket and I’m off to bed.
Too old to worry about consequences, be it illegally investigating cold and hot cases, or drinking too much wine at lunchtime, this motley gang has the connections and the time to see it through. Alongside the comedy and the mystery, Osman has done a wonderful job of representing older protagonists. He neatly ties in their individual relationships with grief, aging, loss and death in a way that binds our shared humanity in the welcoming arms of friendship; which is beautiful. The only reason I gave it a four rather than a five, was because it didn’t give me enough of a twist at the end, and I’d like to give the sequel something to aim for…
Content Warning: Suicide & murder (not graphic)