The thing about me is that my entire personality has been pretty much shaped by the 80’s tv shows that I preferred as a child, and those shows were Murder She Wrote and Columbo. I can be found attempting to chase those highs I felt watching them as a kid (and now in blurry reruns as an adult) by watching the terrible (yet highly watchable) Hallmark Mysteries channel. The glaring difference though with the murder shows and movies on that channel is that the sleuths are always young and attractive. They have some experience in some field that gives them some insight into how to solve a murder like baking muffins! or writing crossword clues! or owning a flower shop! these skills often allow the the amateur sleuth to best the active detective on the case and that makes me ever so happy. The second installment of the Thursday Murder Club mysteries, The Man Who Died Twice is a little bit like the above shows and movies referenced…but ten times better.
We pick up with my favorite “old people” after the dust and dead bodies from the first book have settled. And we settle right back into getting reacquainted with the murder club, Elizabeth, Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim, the coolest retirees around. Each with talents from their lives before work together to figure out how to frame a criminal who hurts one of the members of the team, find some stolen diamonds, and figure out who killed out a few people, and make sure that their favorite police officers who “unofficially work with them” get a drug dealer off the streets. Sounds jam packed, doesn’t it??
These books are not great pieces of literature. This particular book isn’t even that plausible (the first one was), but that didn’t stop me from devouring it and enjoying the banter between these now familiar characters. Aging is a theme found in the novel time and time again and it’s interesting to see that all the characters deal with it in different ways. They know they aren’t quite as mentally sharp or as spry as they once were but they are undeterred in their endeavors, setting up contingencies for what they feel they are lacking, working with younger people to accomplish things that they themselves can’t do, and they utilize their age as a weapon, knowing that they are often underestimated and dismissed. If you haven’t read Thursday Murder Club, do it. And then read this one! I’m off to read the 3rd installment now.