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.