📖 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (2020) ⭐⭐⭐

January was a great reading month for me and I rounded it off with the cosy, crime caper The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Only published last year, I snapped up a copy of this from Netgalley, as I am a big fan of Richard Osman’s TV quiz show Pointless. Then I started seeing glowing reviews of this around the blogosphere and I knew I needed to boost it to the top of my TBR pile.

This delightful debut novel takes us for a visit to the peaceful and upmarket Coopers Chase Retirement Village, where four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club! They comprise of the networking extraordinaire Elizabeth, a capable and mysterious woman; the details man Ibrahim, a retired psychiatrist; and the muscle of the group Ron, a union leader once known as ‘Red Ron’ by the newspapers.

The newest member of the group is the quiet, kind and often overlooked Joyce, who was recently invited to join because of her medical knowledge as a former nurse. It is through Joyce’s rather scattered but endearing diary that we become acquainted with life at the idyllic Coopers Chase and of the club, its members and what they get up to. Then suddenly a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to his body, and so the TMC find themselves with their first live case to investigate! 🔎

Oh boy, I don’t know the last time I read anything this fun! You have to slightly suspend belief a little at times, but this is a rollicking good murder mystery with bucket loads of clues, red herrings, suspects, long-lost mysteries and plenty of laughs, too! Our protagonists might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves, and what they lack in youth, teeth and mobility, they make up for with experience, cunning and copious amounts of tea and cake! ☕🍰

They are soon running rings around suspects and police alike, with their innocent, doddering, ‘butter-wouldn’t-melt’ act and bribery of the delicious baked goods variety! Poor lonely and overweight DCI Chris Hudson, the lead on the case, doesn’t stand a chance with this wily gang and they also take a shine to recent London Met transfer, PC Donna de Freitas and work to get her on the case too. So all that is left to say is, as the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant amateur sleuths, with the help of the police, catch the killer before it’s too late?! 😅

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, which I thought I was wonderfully eccentric and quintessentially British murder mystery! I am super excited there is a second book planned – I can’t wait for more from these cool septuagenarians! Great read ⭐⭐⭐

(Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion)

Now I’d love to hear your thoughts: Have you read this? Or want to read it? Any recommendations for more cosy crime series I should check out?