The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osmond

This was my final book for 2020, and although no literary masterpiece, it was an enjoyable book with which to finish a very challenging year!

Set in an idyllic retirement village, four friends prove that age is no barrier to solving crime. This is a gentle crime novel, almost cosy, which not only involves several murders, both recent and historic, but also explores the pitfalls, and sometimes advantages, of growing old. As Elizabeth, the leader of the Club, realises, ‘after a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy. No one tells you off, except for your doctors and your children’.

There is a sense of melancholy overlaying The Thursday Murder Club, as the characters face grief, loss and loneliness. But there are also moments of humour. As Joyce notes in her diary, she ‘would never have therapy, because who wants to unravel all that knitting?’ Good point, Joyce! In fact, Joyce has a lot of fun being involved with The Murder Club, and finds herself feeling as though she has a purpose again, and is becoming ‘someone who has to keep their mobile on’.

This is not a novel that will appeal to younger readers; there is no sex, and very little violence, but for those of us ‘of a certain age’, it contains characters that we can relate to, who are not only solving crime, but facing the challenge of growing old with grace and determination.

Reviewed by Gaby Meares
Murder on a Monday Reading Group