I have been on a long streak of not very good books. Which is why I have not posted a review in ages. Well, the streak is broken. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman is a wonderful cozy mystery set in a luxury retirement community. If his name sounds familiar, that is because Osman is a mainstay on many of the British Comedy Game Shows like Taskmaster and Would I Lie To You. Lucky for us, it turns out he can write along with being a funny improv guy.
The book centers about the four members of the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce, a lonely widow who is a former nurse and loves to bake. Parts of the book are excepts from her diary. Ibrahim, a retired psychiatrist with a gift for numbers. Ron a former union rabble rouser. Finally, there is Elizabeth who has a mysterious past in some kind of clandestine operations and connections everywhere that get her access to information and people. Elizabeth has a way of working around rules and getting what she wants. The group meets once a week to try and solve cold murder cases.
The mystery begins when a developer is found murdered and the club decides to solve the murder before the police. The plot moves quickly from there and like a good cozy most people have a secret past that comes into play. Although the plot is good and gets tied up neatly at the end, this is really a book about characters. In addition to the club members, there many other well drawn characters – the aging single cop, the young cop from the city, the rich owner of the community, the Polish immigrant fixit guy, the farmer who doesn’t want to sell to the developer, the very lonely widower who cannot overcome his grief, the priest who wants to protect the local cemetery, and several more. Although Osman is a comedian, the book is not funny, but rather witty instead.
There is a sequel out which I have already put on hold at my local library. I highly recommend this book, for those who love a good cozy mystery!