REVIEWS

Catherine Nixon

As a fan of the James Patterson Women’s Murder Club series, I was not sure what to expect when this lovely book by Richard Osman landed with me on Monday morning. However, having read part of it, I am thoroughly enjoying what the four pensioners in the Thursday Murder Club are doing to try and find out who killed the antiques dealer who got caught up in a drugs deal. These four characters are amazing, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Stephen who is going through a bad time with dementia. Richard has handled this aspect so very sensitively. But back to the story, these four characters eventually manage to solve the mystery of the heroin and who the killer was. Such a well written amusing at times story, but heartrending at others, especially reading about Stephen’s struggles with his dementia. The side story of the romance fraud also helped the story along, at least these four people, along with help from computer Bob managed to unravel this and get poor Mervyn his money back which he had been duped into handing over. Though, at the end, Donna had to persuade him not to invest in ‘secret’ investments which were too good to be true. I look forward to finding the rest of the series to read in due course.

Angela Fellowes

Richard Osman has done it again ... A feel-good thriller with comic undertones. I dream to live at Coopers Chase and become a member of the friends’ circle, The Thursday Murder Club.

Louise Norton

This is the fourth book in Osman's Thursday Murder Club series. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are residents of Coopers Chase retirement village, England and together they solve the murder of an old friend. A package he was protecting has gone missing and the race is on as to who can find it first. Throughout their investigation, the characters come across many underworld characters: art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers. They also work unofficially with the police, but always manage to be one step ahead of them in their investigation. Due to Osman's brilliant plotting and comic touch, the reader is kept guessing as to who the culprit is right up until the end. The characters are beautifully drawn and Osman describes the way the members of The Thursday Murder Club provide a vital support system for one another. The challenges and heartache they face as they get older are interwoven amongst the many comic moments in the novel and this makes them all the more powerful to the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and would highly recommend it!

Joyce Edgar

This book is about a group of elderly neighbours who combine to form the Thursday Murder Club to solve murders that the police cannot without their help. Rather like an aged version of Blyton’s Famous Five and, yes, they do have a dog! A friend of one of the characters is murdered defying a gang of drug smugglers and the Thursday Murder Club feel it their duty to find the killer. Several more murders are perpetrated before the murderer is unmasked. The author presumes that the previous books in the series have been read and thus there is no introduction to or development of the characters. Several references are made to events in previous stories and no explanation is given for the strange relationship between these senior citizens and the local police force. One of the characters suffers from dementia and these chapters make for hard reading especially as the target audience is a mature one. This topic sits uneasily in a genre often referred to as a “cosy murder story”. The writing is slick and shows signs of much research; the story moves apace with short chapters but I shall not be seeking out the rest of the series.

Rosie Millar

It was a pleasant surprise when this book arrived on my doormat with the request to review it. This is the fourth in Richard Osman’s series based around the Thursday Murder Club. I have read and enjoyed the first three and this one is written in the same style. There is continuity of characters and it does help a bit if you have read the others but the murder story here is self-contained. He writes a good story with some very effective sentences, skewering a character in just a few words. Each of the main protagonists has their own voice. His style is both humorous and dark in turn, as required by the plot, but in this story he also explores the progress and pain of dementia in context. To say any more would require a spoiler alert. Suffice it to say that this is a fascinating mystery with plenty of murders, plenty of suspects and plenty of plot twists, as one would expect from Mr Osman.

Lesley Holl

It was with some excitement I opened the unexpected parcel and found Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die from the Viking Book Club. Having read his first book, The Thursday Murder Club, and been introduced to the setting, a retirement complex, and main characters, a former spy, a trades union official, a nurse and a psychiatrist, I anticipated a good read. We meet again this group of amateur sleuths plus new characters who have joined the Coopers Chase complex. The story is based on a box of drugs smuggled into the country by one of the big drug cartels and left with an antique dealer who soon finds himself murdered and the box missing. Elizabeth, the usual leader of the group, is preoccupied looking after her dementia suffering husband, so Joyce steps up to take the lead in solving the crime. More murders are committed with the gang drawn deeper into the shady world of drug dealing. The story flows with ease and humour as Osman skilfully blends the ordinary with the extraordinary through Joyce’s diary entries with enough detail about the characters and the escalating crime to keep the reader engaged.

Penelope Franklin

This is the fourth novel in the Thursday Murder Club series. I have not read any of the earlier books so felt ‘all at sea’ having not met any of the characters before or knowing their backgrounds. A preview of them and previous exploits would have been very useful. I found the book tedious reading and have not finished it. Too much time was spent on Stephen’s dementia which many could find distressing reading, as I did, having had both parents with this condition and in care for many years. Therefore I do not recommend this book unless to already devoted fans of the author and the series.

Steve Ellis

As probably one of the few people in the UK (or the world for that matter!) who had not read any of the earlier books I was worried about not knowing enough about the central characters. In the end I need not have worried, and if anything, coming to the cast fresh enhanced my appreciation for the writing skills of Richard Osman. I did not plan to sit down and read the book in one go but that is how it turned out! The central murder storyline has many enjoyable twists and turns with a number of new residents providing some additional depth. Elizabeth’s detective and espionage skills meant the team were always ahead of the police investigation teams (not one but two!) and the various criminal groups drawn into the scene. But in truth what I found so absorbing was the way the book deals with the difficult subject of dementia. I found Richard’s words and thoughts incredibly moving and provided an extra dimension to the book. Suffice to say I now need to read the first three books in the series!

Vivien Hoare

I have enjoyed all the books in The Thursday Murder Club series. The books are about a group of four senior citizens, living in a retirement village, who enjoy solving murders. In this book they have various murders, art forgers and drug dealers to contend with. The book starts with the murder of an art dealer and the disappearance of some drugs in a dirty old box. As the body count rises, the gang have to work hard and work together to find the missing drugs and the killers. Richard Osman’s writing is insightful, witty and enchanting. I have enjoyed getting to know Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, and I love the way the personalities of each one has developed through the series and continue to develop through this book. The way these friends support and care for each other is keenly noted in Osman’s writing. Richard Osman also challenges some preconceptions of modern life and I like the fact that he’s not afraid to put forward controversial ideas. It’s a very entertaining book with an excellent twist, and beautifully finished. As the book ends, we can be sure that there will be a sequel.

David J Thomas

I hadn’t read the earlier books in this series and was intrigued. I caught up with the core characters, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, very quickly. The book is an easy read, funny, well written and more complex than I expected. Kudesh, an antique business friend of Elizabeth's husband Stephen, is the victim. No spoiler alert as this happens in the first few pages! The sleuths get caught up in the world of heroine dealers, fake art and antiques. I found the characters funny, interesting and fairly complex. But this is, surprisingly, a tear jerker. A real tear jerker in parts. Beautifully written. I'm now hooked on Richard Osman's style of writing, making for an easy read and will definitely read the earlier books.

Fiona McKinlay

As he did in The Man Who Died Twice, Richard Osman had me laughing one minute and sobbing the next. Number four in his Thursday Murder Club series doesn’t disappoint. It’s very entertaining, quite a good whodunnit / mystery, and the main characters continue to develop their personalities. Osman writes very movingly about dementia both from the sufferer’s perspective and the carers’. The sadness in this book took me by surprise but it’s so sensitively written that I can only admire him for taking this difficult subject on. For the most part, and as always, this book is full of dry humour and clever one liners. He says he’s taking a break from the Thursday Murder Club but promises to be back with more from them in a while. I’ll look forward to that.