The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman is the first book in a series featuring four retired characters who get together to solve unsolved murders.

Elizabeth is the leader of the pack and her mysterious past points towards her having been a spy, Ibrahim is a retired psychologist whose main contribution is research, Ron, a former union leader who bulldozes his way through the group’s investigations and a newcomer to the group, Joyce, was a nurse before she retired. Joyce’s diary entries were used to narrate some of the story, which began with the owner of the retirement village where they lived being murdered.

Elizabeth’s gang also leaned heavily on local police officers with whom they shared information (begrudgingly, at least on the part of PC Donna De Freitas) as the police and the gang investigated the murder. Later in the story, other murders occurred or were uncovered, complicating the investigations being carried out by both parties.

The story is a real page-turner. I enjoyed it enormously and sat up far too late reading. The solution to the murders was quite convoluted though, and I had to re-read the last section the next day to try and figure out how the various murders and solutions fitted together. Not sure if this was because I was too tired to take anything in so late at night during the first read.

My only other complaint was that there was a cast of thousands, some of whom didn’t need to be in the story. I genuinely enjoyed getting to know the main characters, though and thought the story itself was fun.

I will probably read the next book in this series eventually.