Review: "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman

 By Barbara Woshinsky,  Library Committee, originally published in the May 2023 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter

“Do you need a hand to get down into the grave?” “Yes, please. That would be terribly kind of you.”

These lines set the tone for The Thursday Murder Club, a fiendishly clever blend of cozy and thriller in the best British style. Our Library owns the first three volumes of this beguiling series. The novel takes place at the Coopers Chase Retirement Village, a luxury community located in the lovely Kent countryside. Its amenities ​include a swimming pool, an exercise studio, an upscale contemporary restaurant, and a herd of twenty llamas that “got out of hand.” In this idyllic setting, the Thursday Murder Club meets once a week in the puzzle room (between art history and conversational French), to investigate cold murder cases. Their activities soon turn up an extra skeleton in a grave, as well as two warm bodies belonging to the shady property developer and his assistant.

The club includes a militant union leader, known in the old days as “Red Ron;” Ibrahim, a dapper Egyptian psychiatrist; Joyce, a nurse whose chattiness masks an innate shrewdness; and Elizabeth, a woman of mysterious background who clearly knows about bodies. This eclectic group combines its talents to aid—and sometimes
outsmart—the local police. Ingenious plot twists and red herrings keep the pages turning, but the book is also a sympathetic portrayal of elder life, with its Zumba classes, cataracts, Inspector Morse reruns, and visits from grandkids. The older characters are sometimes underestimated, but not for long. And Coopers Chase is more than just a setting: For Ibrahim, “It was so alive. So full of ridiculous committees and ridiculous politics, so full of arguments, of fun, of gossip. All the new
arrivals, each one subtly changing the dynamic. All the farewells too, reminding you that this was a place that could never stay the same. It was a community, and in Ibrahim’s opinion that was how people were designed to live.”

Sound familiar? Pick up this book, laugh, sympathize, and enjoy. As Joyce says, “a few glasses of wine and a mystery—very social, but also gory. It is good fun.”