Bingo Square: White
It’s been about a year since the events of the last Thursday Murder Club novel, and it has been quiet as characters are dealing with grief and changing circumstances. But when the best man at Joyce’s daughter’s wedding approaches Elizabeth during the reception to ask for help, it is enough to kick-start the events of the novel and get the gang back together to investigate a potential murder or kidnapping.
There are also a few other loose threads from previous books that are involved in parallel storylines, like Ron’s daughter’s marriage to an abuser (did we know about this before?) and Ibrahim’s counseling sessions with Connie, criminal mastermind. With all the new characters in the mix, we get very little of Chris, Donna and Bogdan this time around. Even Ibrahim feels rather sidelined – I honestly think we may have gotten more chapters from Joanna (Joyce’s daughter) than Ibrahim.
Overall, how much you enjoy the novel will likely depend on what you like about them. The central mystery was honestly a bit lackluster, especially compared to some of the previous ones, and it’s not so much that our Thursday Murder Club figures it out as that they are given the answer at the end.
If you are here for the characters, it’s a bit more successful but a mixed bag. There are some sweet messages about family, friendship, community, and aging, but with the number of characters, we just don’t get to spend as much time with the core four. Joyce and her relationship with Joanna have the most time but everyone else feels like a relatively high level check in because it’s stuffed with so many other characters, both new ones for this novel specifically and ones introduced earlier.
A generous 3.