I’ve had The Thursday Murder Club on my list for awhile now and finally happened to be in the library at the same time this novel was on the shelf! I snagged it, and the book waited patiently on my end table for a week or two until its turn came around to be devoured and loved.
Turns out, I probably read too many glowing reviews because I found it to be kind of just. . .pleasant? And I struggled to figure out why I wasn’t as over the moon as most fans seem to be.
First of all, I enjoyed the premise: A group of pensioners–Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce–living in Cooper’s Chase retirement village get together on Thursdays to try to solve cold cases. They get these case files from a fifth friend, Penny, who we learn is a former police inspector and currently in the nursing home attached to Cooper’s Chase (and not doing well–she has no speaking lines). Nothing really comes of their solving these mysteries other than personal satisfaction, but everybody needs a hobby. When a building developer attached to an expansion of Cooper’s Chase is murdered, the group elbow their way into the investigation to the combined amusement and chagrin of the actual police on the case.
This novel has a lot of switcheroo moments, including the very first one, where the person you are absolutely sure is going to be murdered isn’t. I was a tad disappointed at first, as the author really sets up one character as the most hate-able person in all of Kent, but I admired the bait-and-switch. I also have to give kudos for treating retired people as interesting in their own right, rather than the all-too-common approach of presenting sassy old people for your entertainment (truth be told, I felt this was where it was going in the beginning of the novel and was concerned).
That said, my biggest issue is that there are many, many characters, and I didn’t feel like I ever got to know any of them really well. Take Elizabeth, who is the leader of the group. She appears to have had a career in some form of government/spy agency (MI6?). As such, she’s skilled in getting people to do what she wants them to do and tell her what she needs to know. Except, the author never convincingly demonstrates to me how she does this. The way she maneuvers the quartet into DCI Hudson’s inner circle is a case of the author forcing the reader to believe something simply because he said so. I didn’t observe her doing anything that wouldn’t have made most people in authority laugh and say, “Hah. No.” Now, I understand that in the movie version, Elizabeth is going to be played by Helen Mirren, and THAT I can see. If anybody can pull this off, Mirren can, because that woman is badass. Maybe if I’d had a picture of her in my head before I started reading I might have been more convinced. Similarly, we don’t get a lot in the way of characterization of the other main characters. Ron is a tough guy who “never believes a single word anyone tells him.” Ibrahim is a charming psychiatrist who dresses well. Joyce is a sweet, slightly ditsy former nurse. (These characters are to be played in the film by Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie, respectively, and damn this may be a case of me preferring the movie to the book.)
Some chapters are told through Joyce’s diary, while the rest are told through a third-person omniscient perspective. I’m not sure I’m wild about this shifting perspective, but I understand the author’s motivation in telling parts of the story through Joyce’s diary and, to be honest, I found her chapters to be the most entertaining.
Finally, is it possible for a mystery to have too many twists? There’s a lot of misdirection, but some of it feels forced. There’s a subplot about a widower named Bernard whom Joyce has a crush on, but we don’t get to know that character well enough for it to have any real emotional impact. While I was reading this novel, I kept feeling like it was knocking on the door of emotion without ever getting there, because the characterization was spread too thin. The final reveal is so drawn out, I felt like I was watching the last twenty minutes of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King again.
Overall, The Thursday Murder Club is a decent mystery that suffers from some of the author’s choices. I was entertained enough, but I wasn’t dying for more. Not sure whether I’ll read the second installment (but I probably will watch the movie).