Series: The Thursday Murder Club#1
Author: Richard Osman
Goodreads Rating: 3.91
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron meet every Thursday to take a look at unsolved old case files. But when the peaceful retirement village of Coopers Chase finds itself in not one but two brutal killings, our gang takes on this chance to get their hands to solve a live murder.
The idea of writing a murder mystery set in a retirement village sounds like a little hard to execute. I mean everyone's primary concern should be taking their pills on time. Hard to imagine a 70-something running after a murderer, their walking-stick in the air, cursing the guilty. At-least that was the scene I imagined after reading the plot. Richard Osman had a completely different idea though.
“The sun is up, the skies are blue, and murder is in the air”
Let's talk about the characters first. Like many others I find Elizabeth to be my favourite. Her wit and humour made the story more interesting. She gets what she wants.I would've liked more about her past life but mystery is what makes it more fun I guess. Then there's Joyce. She thinks she goes unnoticed but the way she brightens up everything around her, I don't think that's possible. Ibrahim and Ron, always making everything fun. The four characters are completely different from each other but they work perfectly together.
There are a lot more characters in the story and each character makes the story better in their own way. Apart from our gang, the dynamic between Chris and Donna (from the police) was really interesting. You'll know why.
The novel is perfectly entertaining with a lot of twists and turns. It is equal parts of funny mixed with some harsh realities of life. I mean if you're writing a book about old people living in a retirement village, they're not gonna live forever, right? The young generation might not crush on the characters or relate to the lives of the old, but the charm the characters have makes the reader stick.
“Many years ago, everybody here would wake early because there was much to do and only so many hours in the day. Now they wake early because there is much to do and only so many days left.”
The hardest part of a murder mystery is to set a flow, to set the right clues for the reader to keep guessing who the murderer might be, but not to leave too any clues. This book is perfect if you wanna read a 'who did it?' novel as you work your way through the story. The ending was unpredictable and unlike a lot of murder mysteries, it made sense. Every time I was absolutely sure that this is the guy, he's the killer, I'd end up being wrong.
So now we know that I'd make a really bad detective and would probably end up dead in a murder mystery and that Richard Osman is awesome at writing murder mysteries. The story of The Thursday Murder Club has already been picked up for a movie. More books in the series are already out and have been a huge success and I plan on getting to them soon.
See you next time.
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