The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

 

Oh what FUN!!

Last year my sister in law, Dottie, and I did a Book Store Tour of New York City.  We visited five local stores in one day, and the final store on our list was The Mysterious Bookshop, which supposedly carried only mysteries.

It was our favorite store.

As ya do, I asked the Bookseller which of the books was the best seller, or what would he recommend?  He hesitated, saying it really depended on what I was looking for, but then gave me a few titles.  This was one of them, and I am so glad I picked it up! With all the Agatha Christie vibes, I will continue with this series for sure!!

In this first installment, we are introduced to four residents of a retirement village in England who enjoy discussing unsolved crimes.  When a murder happens in their own backyard, they get to work. Each of the four are quite the characters:  Elizabeth with her secret past and no nonsense planning skills; Joyce with her nursing background and penchant for baking for the widowed men; Ron with his love of the spotlight; and Ibrahim with his detailed and mathematical mind.  Add in a greedy developer, two police detectives who keep getting called in by the club members, a mysteriously sad vicar and several other characters who will keep the plot moving, so to speak.

I laughed and chuckled and loved the English vibe.  I immediately noticed the use of two different fonts in the print book I was reading - a third person chapter is written in regular font, but some chapters were a smaller, bolder font.  These chapters are from the diary of one of the residents, which provides very interesting introspection into this character and her opinions of her fellow club members (they are NOT friends, haha).

This book kept me guessing right up until the very end.  Brilliantly done, I was jerked from one conclusion to the next, sometimes on the same page!  It was delightful reading. There was a lot going on, with a recent murder dredging up several older crimes.  Or maybe it was the other way around??  Poignant in places as we get to know residents that face dementia, distant families, lost spouses, but also new friends, mysteries to solve, events to investigate, and police to, um, "help."  The side plots are just as good as the main murder!  An absolutely delightful read that I can't wait to discuss with my book club later this year.  I may even pull out the audio version as a refresher closer to our meeting! This will be a fun series to collect I think!  (I just heard my bookshelves groan.  ;-))