The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

 

This mystery has been on my book radar for a few weeks. I keep seeing it all over social media, and kept seeing it coming in and out of the library. I had a chance to grab a copy from my library, and settled down this week to read it and was charmed from the first page. 

The Thursday Murder Club is a group of retirees living at Coopers Chase, a retirement village in the Kent countryside. It's a fairly well set up place, with plenty to do and all sorts of interesting folks. The drinks flow freely and there's gossip aplenty. Converted from a nunnery, it is a stunning spot to retire to and relax in the countryside. Ron, Joyce, Elizabeth and Ibrahim get together on Thursdays to discuss old murder cases. Elizabeth's good friend Penny, a retired detective, lives at Coopers Chase with her husband John. Only thing is that Penny is in a coma, and she's the one who kept all the files of cases she worked on years before. Elizabeth is one interesting woman with a mysterious past and superb detective skills. Joyce is a retired nurse, Ibrahim a retired counselor, and Ron is, well, a retired troublemaker. 

What begins as a look at an old murder case quickly takes off when a local developer is found dead in his kitchen. That developer had a business interest in Coopers Chase, and the man who also owned Cooper's Chase-Ian Ventham, is ready to double cross him and cost him millions. Now he's dead, and Ian is the number one suspect. But did he do it?

What begins as a seemingly simple murder mystery unravels into a much more complicated tale that involves land deals, nuns, drugs, and some of the people at Coopers Chase who have some pretty big secrets to hide. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters-their wit, sense of humor, and relationships kept a smile on my face while I read. These senior citizens are not ready to sit back and take it easy-they are sharp, witty, and ready to use whatever they have to get the answers they need. Detectives are no match for them!

I really enjoyed this mystery, and I could see this as a tv series very easily. Anytime a mystery features a band of rabble-rousing senior citizens, sign me up! I'm ready to climb aboard. 

Rating: 5/6 for a multi-layered mystery that seems fairly straightforward at first, but keeps unraveling into something much bigger. A cast of characters who are delightful, and enough action to keep the story from bogging down. 

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio.

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The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman