Another Cannonballer recently read The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (review here), and it sounded like my kind of frothy mystery mixed with real characters. The Thursday Murder Club is made up of residents of a senior living community in England. The four club members are distinctly drawn and altogether delightful. Osman makes them three dimensional, despite the jolly tone, and they each have heartbreaks of one or another.
One of the things I loved about the book is how fun it made senior living sound. I think a lot of us dread the idea of living in a senior community, imagining it as a grim place where people just go to die. Nothing could be further than the truth in The Thursday Murder Club. The residents have a marvelous time, looking into murders, drinking gin out of a can, and going on road trips to dig up clues. It made me vow to start a murder club of my own should I ever find myself in the same situation (solving them or perhaps committing them).
The mystery plot is solid and moves briskly. I enjoyed the humor throughout the book as well. This made me laugh when the owner of the community gets in over his head: “[I]n the pastures by the lake are a herd of twenty llamas. Ian Ventham bought two to look quirky in sales photos, and it got out of hand, as these things do.”
The book seemed true to life in terms of the losses that aging inevitably brings. Things grew more serious as the book went on, and the ending was very satisfying. The book started out with whimsy and ended somewhere profound.
All in all, I really, really enjoyed this book. Thanks narfna!