The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman, 2020
Mystery, thriller & crime Graphic novels & humourContemporary fiction
A retirement village's cold-case club gets a fresh body — and four friends with a lifetime of noticing things turn out to be alarmingly good detectives. A witty, unhurried mystery with a warm voice, gentle suspense and four friends whose curiosity and affection carry the pages.
Feels like wonder and serenity. About friendship, ambition and solitude.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy cosy crime, dry humour and stories where friendship matters as much as the case. The mystery is wrapped in village gossip and gentle comedy, so it may feel soft if you want grim, hard-edged suspense.
Why read it
It gives you a warm, funny puzzle about friendship and late-life curiosity, with four amateur detectives whose attention to people makes the mystery pleasurable.
A page from the book
A confession in the tone of someone recommending a good restaurant.
Uccidere qualcuno è semplice. È quando si tratta di occultare la salma che viene il difficile. È così che finisci per farti beccare. Ma se incappi nel posto giusto, puoi tirare il fiato. È fatta. Io ho avuto la fortuna di trovare il posto perfetto. Ci vengo ancora, di tanto in tanto, solo per dare un’occhiata e controllare che sia tutto in ordine. Ma non c’è niente da vedere, e credo che mai ci sarà. A volte mi fumo una sigaretta. So che non dovrei, ma è l’unico vizio che mi è rimasto. Richard Osman.Osman spent two decades as a television producer and quiz-show presenter (Pointless, House of Games) before publishing his first novel, at forty-nine.
Books that feel like this
More by Richard Osman
The Man Who Died Twice
Richard Osman, 2021
Four friends in a retirement village, one of them an ex-spy, and a letter from a man she watched die. Comic mystery with real feeling.
The Bullet That Missed
Richard Osman, 2016
A charming detective joins a witty group of retirees to investigate a complex local mystery, but the truth may be far more complicated than a small-town murder.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Thursday Murder Club for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy cosy crime, dry humour and stories where friendship matters as much as the case. The mystery is wrapped in village gossip and gentle comedy, so it may feel soft if you want grim, hard-edged suspense.
- What is The Thursday Murder Club like?
- A witty, unhurried mystery with a warm voice, gentle suspense and four friends whose curiosity and affection carry the pages. Feels like wonder and serenity. About friendship, ambition and solitude.
- What should I read after The Thursday Murder Club?
- If you liked The Thursday Murder Club, try Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus), Looking for Alaska (John Green) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling).
A taste of the feed
The things a parent writes when she has stopped softening the truth.
Fuel for learning, Elizabeth Zott wrote on a small slip of paper before tucking it into her daughter’s lunch box. Then she paused, her pencil in midair, as if reconsidering. Play sports at recess but do not automatically let the boys win, she wrote on another slip. Then she paused again, tapping her pencil against the table. It is not your imagination, she wrote on a third. Most people are awful. She placed the last two on top.
Lessons in Chemistry · Bonnie Garmus
The case for being seventeen and certain nothing can end you.
When adults say, “Teenagers think they are invincible” with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don’t know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.
Looking for Alaska · John Green
The courage nobody applauds is the kind you spend on a friend.
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone · J.K. Rowling
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