Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club, 9780241425459, Viking/Penguin Random House UK, paperback 

Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club” made it straight to the No. 1 position in the UK bestseller charts after publication and just having finished this wonderfully entertaining book, I am  hardly surprised. I had such a great time reading this lighthearted, witty novel, spending totally uplifting hours, a treasure in these troubled times. 

Rarely does one come across a book combining very English humor with a good mystery packed all into one. A few times the comparison to “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith popped up in my head which might explain the immediate success of the book but I have always hated comparisons as it would not do justice to Richard Osman’s original approach who is a wellknown TV personality in the UK. 

Four eccentric pensioners pushing eighty, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, all formerly successful professionals who can afford to live in a very nice little retirement village in the countryside, get together on Thursdays to keep their brain cells active and to amuse themselves investigating unsolved murder cases. The Thursday Murder Club as they call themselves is chaired by Elizabeth, whose background is unknown but points to former police or intelligence work who always comes up with these case files and eventually the answer. Suddenly they find themselves  involved in their first live
murder case as the shady developer who owns the retirement village drops dead, poisoned as it turns out. What follows is a fun, clever plot which becomes more complex as you turn the pages but still keeps you smiling. Totally loved “The Thursday murder Club”, thanks for the fun reading hours.

 

Garry Disher: Peace, Serpent’s Tail/Profile Books, 9781788165129, paperback, publication date: October 2020

(Disher is published in Germany by various publishers, "Peace" has not been announced yet) 

 

I was introduced to Garry Disher when reading “Bitter Wash Road” and absolutely agree that he deserves his reputation as one of the great masters of Australian literary crime fiction having just finished his latest book “Peace”, I loved it.  Disher has been awarded the “Deutsche Krimipreis” several times and is also the recipient of the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement award.

Hirsch, as Paul Hirschhausen is called, was already the protagonist in “Bitter Wash Road”, a former metropolitan detective and whistle-blower who reported corruption and cover ups amongst his fellow police officers only to find himself degraded to constable and transferred to a posting in the South Australian outback town of Tiverton.  The local police station also serves as his living quarters but most hours his four wheel drive is home when patrolling the vast rural countryside. In “Peace” Hirsch is struggling to resolve several apparently unconnected small town events and crimes in his district during the scorching Australian Christmas season.  But then his is called to a murder scene of a woman and her son to whom he had issued a warning days before and officials from Sydney show up taking over. In his own stubborn way Hirsch continues to investigate following his hunch that the murder victim might have been in a witness protection program. Dishers writing style has been called “rural noir”, a perfect description. Only fellow crime writer Jane Harper, whom I also hold in very high regard, narrates the evil undercurrents of seemingly everyday life in the bush and the darker side of human nature hidden behind a benign appearance so exquisitely.  I will not go into detail about the plot of the novel as it would totally spoil the coming together of the various events in the end but let me assure you, if you are in search of an extraordinary setting, an intriguing plot, a brilliant description of the characters and country life in the Australian bush, this novel is a perfect choice for you.   Disher has written a number of other crime fiction which I will definitely check into now, he definitely has a fan in me.