The Thursday Murder Club

I read so many mentions of The Thursday Murder Club being brilliant and hilarious that I began to wonder. For one thing, humor is probably the most subjective form of writing there is. For another, I always get nervous when the hype about any book begins to pile up. I almost changed my mind about reading it but decided to go against my better judgment. The premise is fantastic. Four old folks who have all their marbles and are able to get out and about with no problem, who meet once a week to solve cold cases. What’s not to like? The four– a nurse, a spy, a psychiatrist, and a professional protester– all bring their special skills and considerable intellect to the table, and they also get to help educate a detective constable who’s new to the area. There are poignant moments concerning growing old, death, and grief scattered throughout the book; this book is about more than your typical mystery. I did find myself smiling from time to time as I read some witticism, but at a quarter of the way through the book, that sort of humor seemed to vanish. I also didn’t feel comfortable with a detective chief inspector working with anyone outside law enforcement so closely. The Thursday Murder Club also suffered from one or two first-timer mistakes. First, the mystery solving seemed to vanish occasionally because the author was so enamored of his characters he forgot about the story and just wanted to spend time with them. Yes, they’re interesting characters, but please don’t forget why they’re there in the first place. Second, I found the mystery confusing. Too many bodies piled up. Too many killers were hauled out of the shadows. Motives were flying around like bats pouring out of a cave at dusk. It takes a lot for me to become confused when reading a mystery, and I have to admit that I lost the plot a few times. I finally got to the point where I was reading just to get it over with, and that’s not good. As much as I wanted to enjoy The Thursday Murder Club, I did not, but since so much of the enjoyment hinges on humor (and as I said before, humor is so subjective), your mileage may definitely vary.

From the standpoint of my expectations of quasi-believability when it comes to investigating a murder mystery in a novel I would only give this book a 3 star rating, maybe even a little lower because the main characters here went way, way beyond the limit of police/amateur cooperation. (In all honesty, though, I see this happen in ‘Golden Age’ mysteries all the time and it doesn’t bother me one bit. Maybe it’s because this one is set in modern times?) However, I’ve decided to settle on a 4 star rating because I really did like the members of the Thursday Murder Club and how the author had portrayed them. At almost 78 I would fit right into that group from the age perspective and I enjoyed seeing my contemporaries presented as being highly functioning from a physical and mental angle. That isn’t true most of the time; usually age automatically means a fictional character in a modern crime story has lost too many little grey cells to contribute much to solving crimes. I have many friends who live in “villages” of this type so I was able to accept the entire location as well as the interesting mix of characters. I really did think I had solved the mystery, once again, only to have my solution proved totally wrong by the final revealing twist. I’ve been wondering if I would be interested in reading a second book featuring this group of characters and I find I’m wavering and hesitating somewhat. I really would have liked for the police to have acted more like professionals and not set-dressing for the real solvers of every aspect of the solution. Hmm, I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see because as popular as this novel seems to have been it is probably a sure thing that there will be a second book. Many thanks to the one who practically insisted I read this book. Yes, I liked it. Yes, I’m glad I read it.

No smarmy sympathy, no faked respect. This story is about people living their best lives– no matter what. Honest about aging, about loss, about unlikely but sustaining friendship. Well worth reading for the characters more than the mystery.

What fun Murder Club was to to read. A cast of wonderful characters and plenty of twists in the story. I read it on my Kindle and hated to see the reading time winding down toward zero. The Thursday Murder Club, consists of four members of a retirement community who have been working out solutions for cold cases (the founding member of the group was a retired police officer) though it can be only an academic exercise. Now, however, with the death of construction contractor, they find themselves with a current murder they can investigate. Roping in two officers officially involved in the case…who are both good at their job and not hostile to the Club as is often the case of police in books with amateurs investigating murder. I hope this is the start of a series.

I love this book. The mystery is deep, the writing excellent, and the characters delightful. I was worried about figuring out the murderer too soon, but it was fine; Richard Osman is clearly far smarter than I am.

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