Book Review - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club

by Richard Osman

Release Date: September 3, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Age Range: Adult
Goodreads Avg. Rating*: 3.85 stars

These aren’t truly my first thoughts, as I’ve started the book once before. The second time did seem to be the charm here. It could also be due to the interesting audiobook narration. Maybe it was due to the differences in edition, but there were definitly a difference between what was being said and what was on my page.

Our story takes place mostly at Coopers Chase, an upscale retirement village in the United Kingdom. This place sounds so charming, and I wonder if places like this really exist. The village is semi-exclusive, as you have to be over the age of 65 to move in. Also, the price to live here is probably a lot. While the residents have several buildings for suites, restaurants, and amenities, there is a good amount of green spaces described as well. Then there is also the sheep farm located next door to add to the pastoral scenery. The site of Coopers Chase was once a convent, but the church sold it several decades ago. I believe the village is located somewhere near Fairhaven, UK.

Every Thursday, four residents of the Coopers Chase retirement village meet in the Jigsaw Room to try to untangle cold cases. Then one day, a murder falls almost right into their laps. A local developer, who just happened to work for the village, was found murdered in his kitchen. The group, of course, will be investigating and helping the police along.

The book follows a small cast of characters mainly at Coopers Chase. We are first introduced to Joyce Meadowcroft, who will have more chapters as it is her journal that provides the interludes. Joyce was a nurse and had only recently joined the Thursday Murder Club. She has a rather peacekeeper approach to situations and makes everyone feel at ease.

Then there is Ron Richie, or Red Ron as he was known back in the day. Ron was a union boss and fought along picket lines as the employment landscape of Britain changed decades ago. He still enjoys spirited arguments and solving mysteries.

Ibrahim Arif was a psychiatrist and believed in maintaining his physical health through pilates. Obviously, he was quite a good doctor, as many of his patients will still come to just sit and talk with him now.

Finally, one of the founding members of the club is Elizabeth Best. Her background is classified, but it is highly suspected that she was a government operative. She began the club with her friend Penny as they worked to solve old cold cases. Elizabeth is very smart and quite bold; she doesn’t let much deter her from her goals.

There are various other perspectives as well. The two most prominent would be our police officers, Donna De Freitas and Chris Hudson. As you will see from both of them several times throughout the course of the book. Donna is still only a constable and has only just transferred to Fairhaven from London. Then Chris is the lead detective for the murder investigation.

The case unfolds when Tony Curran, part-owner and developer of Coopers Chase Retirement Village, is bludgeoned in his own kitchen. The members of The Thursday Murder Club have more than a cold case to solve now. Our group of retirees hop into action immediately to start their investigation. With the help of a young police constable, leads and motives are chased down.

Slowly, the case unfolds to show that far more was happening around Coopers Chase than even Elizabeth could have deduced. From the initial murder case, or actually, there was a clue in the first chapter of the branching stories. Either way, once the investigation truly begins, we start to find threads of who the killer might be. These slowly branch into different side story lines altogether that some have nothing to do with the case at hand. It was through the side plot threads, though, that we did have the most emotional depth.

While I enjoyed the book, I’m not sure that it is a series to continue with. The mystery aspect of it was there throughout, but not handled well. For most of the book, we are following evidence and a path from one suspect to the next without a clear picture. Which is fine, I liked not picking out the person or motive. However, the way we discovered who was really behind the murders was that they just said it. There were no clues that showed them throughout the entire story. There was one sort of clue very late in that led to a confrontation of sorts before the confession.

I did really enjoy the time with the characters, though. He handled the emotions of grief and losing a partner really beautifully. The book made me tear up at a few parts.

You can find this book from the retailers below or many others:

Amazon     Penguin Randomhouse      

*Average Goodreads rating at time of review.