The Thursday Murder Club

Richard Osman is well known for co-hosting the British show, Pointless, as well as appearing on a range of comedy quiz shows. The Thursday Murder Club is his first novel and the first in a new series of crime novels set in a retirement village.

Coopers Chase is home to a number elderly residents from a variety of backgrounds who enjoy the many social and other activities available in the village. On Thursday mornings members of the Thursday Murder Club meet to review the files of cold cases that they have acquired. Elizabeth, Penelope, Ibrahim and Ron are the original club members but when Penelope had a stroke, resulting in permanent hospitalisation, Joyce joined the group. When someone they know is murdered The Thursday Murder Club members are determined to become involved in solving a real crime and soon manoeuvre their way into 'assisting' the police in their investigation. The four club members use their wide range of experience and contacts to gain access to information not readily available to the police. They are also not afraid to create situations to obtain information that they require.

Richard Osman has created an amusing, endearing, resourceful group of characters who discover that they are not only trying to discover the perpetrator of one murder but also need to solve two other crimes as well. I look forward to meeting the members of The Thursday Murder Club in the next volume of this series.

The Last Devil to Die

The Last Devil to Die is the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. Stephen's friend, antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma, is found dead in his car. He had been shot. Why? It is soon discovered that a package that he was minding is missing. Members of the Thursday Murder Club want answers.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, residents of Coopers Chase Retirement Village, investigate with the assistance of Donna and Chris, members of the local police force. It soon becomes apparent that this is a drug related crime as the bodies of a number of drug dealers are found. Who will be the last devil to die?

Members of the the Thursday Murder Club also help a new member of the retirement village who has become involved in a romance scam. 

Like the other books in the series the exploits of the Thursday Murder Club members are described with humour however this novel is not just about a group of elderly people trying to solve a crime. Richard Osman also provides a compassionate account of the effects of dementia - not just on the person with dementia but also how families and friends of the person with dementia are affected.

Thank you Richard Osman for allowing us to enjoy another adventure with the Thursday Murder Club.

The Man Who Died Twice

Last year Richard Osman introduced us to a group of residents of Coopers Chase Retirement Village in Kent who belonged to the Thursday Murder Club. Ron, a former trade unionist, Ibrahim, a former psychiarist, Joyce, a former nurse, and Elizabeth, who once worked for the secret service, spend their spare time solving crimes, initially cold cases but lately crimes closer to home.

When Elizabeth receives a letter realating to a former case she has to investigate, especially as the sender of the letter died many years previously. The letter leads her to a former colleague who needs her help as a gangster is looking for him and a bag of diamonds that he may have stolen. The members of the Thursday Murder Club insist on becoming involved in the case.The Secret Service is also interested.

Meanwhile Donna and Chris from the local police are trying to build a case against Connie the local drug dealer and when one member of the Thursday Murday Club is mugged the other members plan their revenge.

Amongst the murders and hunt for diamonds there is plenty of humour as the members of the Thursday Murder Club investigate and Joyce reflects upon the proceedings in her regular journal entries. The books in the Thursday Murder Club series are fun to read.Relax and enjoy the ride.

The Bullet that Missed

This book arrived at the library the day before we were to set out for the National Over-70s Cricket Championships in Launceston. A book set in a retirement village with a group of older characters solving cold cases and preventing murders was the perfect book to take on such a holiday.

The Bullet that Missed is the third book in the the Thursday Murder Club mystery series by by Richard Osman. Once again Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim investigate a cold case - a ten year old mystery  into what happenened to television journalist, Bethany Waites, whose body was never found after her car was found in the sea at the bottom of a cliff. 

But Elizabeth and her fiends are also in danger from another source. Elizabeth has been receiving mysterious, threatening messages. She is later instructed to kill a specific target or be killed. How can she protect her friends?

The four members of the Thursday Murder Club recruit additional helpers to assist them in their investigations. Meanwhile romance is in the air for Donna and Bogdan and between Pauline and Ron. This book is another enjoyable, amusing addition to the Thursday Murder Club series.

The Impossible Fortune

The Thursday Murder Club members had seen little activity for almost twelve months and then, suddenly, they were in the thick of an investigation once more. When the club members attended a wedding, Elizabeth was approached by a man who feared he was in danger. Elizabeth and the team once again enjoy the opportunity to become involved in an investigation.

The main mystery concerns trying to crack the secret code for a cryptocurrency fortune which appears to be the centre of events, including kidnapping and murder occurring, threatening their normally quiet community. In The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman, the fifth book in the Thursday Murder Club series, the reader once again becomes immersed in the lives of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, plus their friends, as they carry out their investigations. Another exciting adventure with a group of older people who demonstrate that they are more than capable of solving crimes.

We Solve Murders

A new series of books by Richard Osman is definitely something to look forward to. We Solve Murders introduces readers to a new group of characters, Amy Wheeler who works as a private security officer, her father-in-law, Steve, who is a retired policeman enjoying his retirement and Rosie D'Antonio, an author who Amy has been hired to protect.

Amy and Rosie are residing on an isolated island when they learn of a series of deaths of influencers not far from where Amy has been recently. She begins to suspect that she is being framed for the deaths. There is only one person that she trusts so she contacts Steve requesting his help in finding out who is really responsible.

Steve is reluctant to leave the seclusion of his home, his well established routine and friends in England but he agrees to travel across the world in Rosie's private plane to assist his daughter-in-law. Then the fun begins. As well as avoiding being killed, Steve, Amy and Rosie endeavour to work out the true identity of who is really behind the deaths and why they are being targeted.

We Solve Murders is another enjoyable cosy crime novel with a range of zany characters working together to solve a crime as they attempt to live their normal lives. Richard Osman is currently working on the next installment in the The Thursday Murder Club series before working on the next We Solve Murders book. I look forward to reading further books in both these series.

Dervla McTiernan Book club that isn't a book club book selection for October 2024.

ABC Top 100 Books of the 21st Century 11-40

Last weekend ABC Radio National announced the top 100 books enjoyed so far by readers in the 21st century.

Of the books that rated from 11-20, I have read five of the titles. My order (number 1 to 5) for the books listed in the top 11-20 would be:

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Still Life by Sarah Winman

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

 Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 

 

Of the books that rated from 21-30, I have read six of the titles. My order (number 1 to 6) for the books listed in the top 21-30 would be:

The Dry by Jane Harper

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 

Honey Bee by Craig Silvey

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey 

Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton 

Of the books that rated from 31-40, I have read six of the titles. My order (number 1 to 6) for the books listed in the top 31-40 would be:

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Dirt Music by Tim Winton

Breath By Tim Winton

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas 

Normal People by Sally Rooney 

A little crime during a pandemic

Working as a librarian in a public library for many years I was well aware that fiction in the genre of crime / thrillers was extremely popular. Readers of this blog will note that  many of the reviews are of crime fiction.

With Melbourne currently experiencing its fourth lockdown due to COVID-19 there has been plenty of time to read and and a number of articles have been written on the dominance of crime fiction borrowed from libraries and purchased from shops. Better Reading has just released the list of the 10 most popular crime novels as nominated by readers on the 2021 top 100 books list.

The Dry by Jane Harper

Deadman's Track by Sarah Barrie

The Bluffs by Kyle Perry

Last Survivor by Tony Park

Scrublands by Chris Hammer

The Wife and the Widow by Christian White

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michal Robotham

The Nowhere Child by Christian White

The Survivors by Jane Harper

When this list was published I had read five of these titles. The other titles were added to my books to read list.

This article discusses the types of books borrowed from Australian and New Zealand libraries during 2020.

I particularly like crime fiction set in Australia. Plenty of recent titles in the following lists:

They come from a land downunder - 13 Australian crime writers to try

Best Australian Crime Fiction recommended by Emma Viskic

A Great Year for Crime - Better Reading

Aussie Crime 2020 - 10 Recent Australian Crime Fiction to Read this Australia Day

Aussie Crime 2021 - 10 Recent Australian Crime Fiction to Read this Australia Day

New Class of Australian Crime Writers - Your Guide to the Best of Outback Noir

ABC Top 100 Books of the 21st Century 1-10

Last weekend ABC Radio National announced the top 100 books enjoyed so far by readers in the 21st century.

Of the books that made the top 10, I have now read nine of the titles. My order (number 1 to 9) for the books listed in the top 10 would be:

The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams 

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton 

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 

I will add to the list when I have read the other books listed in this group. 

 

The full list of ABC Top 100 Books of the 21st Century. 

 

My Top 10 books selected from the ABC Top 100 List would be: 

The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams 

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

The Dry by Jane Harper

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 

by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 

 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

 Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton 

 Honey Bee by Craig Silvey

Still Life by Sarah Winman