The Thursday Murder Club is a clever debut novel (and I wouldn’t expect anything less from Osman!). The story begins by introducing the Thursday Murder Club which is a group of four elderly people who live in a luxury retirement village in England and meet weekly to discuss unsolved murder cases. The case notes are supplied by one of the members who has access to old police records. However, the group find themselves with a real murder on their hands when a local builder is brutally killed. Initially, the local detective discourages the club members’ participation, but the group proves their value and he reluctantly accepts their involvement.
The Thursday Murder Club would be in the “cozy mystery” genre, so there’s little violence or sex or anything chilling. Osman does a great job of creating intrigue, twists, unexpected perpetrators and plenty of red herrings along the way. He also includes a touch of romance. I did notice a couple of abnormalities, but they didn’t distract from a well-crafted story.
While this is Richard Osman’s first novel, he has written/edited other books particularly quiz books related to the TV Show, Pointless.
Overall, a lively story with plenty of mystery.
More reviews of this book can be found on Goodreads.
