My Favourite Read of 2020 ⭐️

Everyone has to read this book... I’m serious! It is amazing. I’m so interested in reading more from this genre so please recommend any suggestions you have!

For me this book just had amazing characters. I fell in love with each character in The Thursday Murder Club for different reasons. I’m guessing some people might not have found the plot itself that thrilling but I still thought it was good. I think the setting of the book is interesting... a cosy retirement village. A thriller/ mystery wouldn’t normally be set here which makes the book different.

I really hope Richard Osman brings out similar books because I think his comedic one liners really work and his style of writing is so refreshing.

Thank you @netgalley for sending this read to me. I absolutely loved it! 5 ⭐️

A very fast accessible read with some moments of humour sprinkled throughout. Richard Osman leads the reader through the novel with ease - it is a classic crime story that will appeal to fans of the afternoon TV dramas on BBC One (think Father Brown or Shakespeare and Hathaway). I appreciate seeing older people represented in fiction and to have them presented as capable characters whilst also sharing what their relatives think of them and how they can perhaps get away with things because folk don't think them able to investigate a murder. Overall, I am impressed and look forward to seeing what else is in store for The Thursday Murder Club.

It was a complete joy to join Elizabeth and Joyce on their investigations into murders both past and present. Osman has such a knack for conjuring up the spirit of the retirement village they live in, and the members of the community they encounter. His characters are so knowable, you can well imagine they live around the corner, with their interwoven stories and histories.

I loved this book so much, am thrilled it has been such a smash and can't wait for future installments!

I was really excited for this book. I really like the author, so wanted to read this. It did have mixed reviews, and from these it came across as a bit of a marmite book...you either love it or hate it. I unfortunately did neither, it was very much inbetween and whilst it didn't grab me like I thought it would, I persevered with it right through to the end.

Based in a luxurious retirement village, this book focuses on a group of residents who like to spend their spare time going over cold cases. When a local businessman and property developer is killed, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves smack bang in the middle of a real proper murder investigation, where they always seem to be one step ahead of the police.

The storyline, for me, began slowly building up to a faster pace in the second half of the book. There was a lot of characters, and this took a while for me to remember who was who. The style of writing is very 'Richard Osman', and it was just like he is on the TV being very articulate and full of detail. I like watching and listening to him, but found this style really hard to read! Some parts however made me laugh, not because they were necessarily funny but how dry and droll his sense of humour is.

It wasn't a book which I disliked, it just wasn't what I expected. I imagined it to be a cosy crime, Agatha Christie style book, but it wasn't! It had a lot of styles thrown into it - mystery and suspense, with some lighthearted humour in there for good measure. For me, it was too much of a mixed bag, and the storyline took far too long to grab my interest. Purely for the author, I will give the second book in the series a go and hope it will be something I can enjoy more.

A cosy, witty story.
I usually read fast-paced crime novels, so this one was a rather cosy mystery. I liked the wit, and read it with the author's voice. I liked the idea of it all, old folks solving the crime, but it was rather unbelievable that the police would entertain them in the way they did. Enjoyable though.

There's a very good reason that this book has been topping the charts - because it's absolutely brilliant. Richard Osman manages to keep you guessing and laughing throughout, yet there are parts of the story that are incredibly touching and moving too. Elizabeth and Joyce are a formidable team. I highlighted so many bits of this book that I almost got RSI

Although this book was an enjoyable cosy crime novel I thought it was long winded and had too many characters. I understand it is the beginning of a series and hopefully the author will concentrate on a selection of these characters in future books.

I struggled to get into this but persevered and read it at the seventh attempt. I love Richard and I love crime thrillers but this didn't quite thrill me enough. Warm and humourous and deserving of its accolades though, just not my cup of tea.

When a celebrity turns their hand to writing, the reader might be forgiven for having low expectations. However, 'The Thursday Murder Club' is a real gem. Funny, well-plotted and beautifully paced with rounded characters and a compelling story.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Books (UK) in exchange for an honest review.
The Thursday Murder Club is essentially about a group of elderly people who get together to try and solve unsolved crimes, but get tangled up in a more recent case when someone is murdered in their community. It's really hard for me to sum up how I feel about this book, mainly because I find its strengths and weaknesses to largely be the same. For this reason, I'm going to deviate from my normal review format and make a list of talking points:

1. Characters-I really liked the characters of this book and I think its one of the features that is a definite strength. At first a lot of them blended together but as the story went on, I really grew attached and began to appreciate them. They are definitely the heart of the story and they're the main reason I would read more in this series.

2. Writing-Overall, I think I did like the writing of this book. I have several features I will talk about in more detail but the writing style itself was enjoyable and reasonably engaging. The plot was less so and I didn't really care for the mystery which was a bit of a shame. I just can't get very invested in criminal organisations and financial scandals, and I wish the mystery had had more of a personal element as the characters were the best part of the book and it would have been a much stronger drive in my opinion.

3. Punchlines-Speaking of writing, this book had a very weird feature whereby a 'punchline' would occur in the middle of a paragraph. For example, at one point the young female detective is on a date she isn't enjoying. You get a long list of reasons why the man is awful, and then a sentence begins with (paraphrased) 'she got out of his bed and got dressed', implying she slept with him anyway. I assume this was done for humour but it doesn't occur at the end of a scene or paragraph, but is instead just dropped in the middle. This happens a lot and sometimes it seems like it might be trying to be character development, but these punchlines were rarely brought up again and they just fell a bit flat for me. They could have been good ways to end scenes but in the middle of them, they just felt distracting.

4. Names-This is the thing that annoyed me the most about the whole book. Every single character will constantly end a sentence with the name of the person they are speaking to. For example:

A: Did you see the body B?

B: Yes I did A

A: Awful isn't it B?

Etc. My partner suggested this was to replicate how older people talk but I swear the younger characters did it too and I just found it incredibly annoying. I eventually got used to it but it was very distracting at first.

5. Ending

SPOILERS AHEAD

So at the end of the book, we have three bodies. These three bodies have all been murdered by different people. Two other people also pretend to have killed one of the bodies and confess to it. The problem is that all of these reveals follow each other (in different scenes but presented narratively after each other) which makes for an exhausting experience. I have already said I struggled to care about the mystery but I genuinely switched off by the third confession and had lost all interest in what actually happened. This section I do feel could have worked and was let down by bad writing/plotting/execution.

END OF SPOILERS

Overall, this review might appear quite negative but I do actually have fond memories of this book. I would definitely read more of these characters and I think it has real promise as a series, I just wish some little niggles could be ironed out. With a strong mystery plot though, this book would 100% be one of my favourites. It's a shame this one fell a bit flat but I am cautiously optimistic for more.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Richard Osman has hit the top spot with this fabulous cosy crime! I was hooked from the start. The twist is superb and I never ever would have worked out this whodunnit!!

If you want a cleverly written, funny, easy-to-read whodunnit then this book is for you!

4 retired pensioners from a retirement village gather to solves murders from past and present.
The relentless 4 manage to dupe, coerce and collaborate with fellow residents, village locals and the police in their quest for resolution.

They prove age doesn’t hold them back as the cleverly engage and outsmart in their race to solve the clues first. Leaving no stone unturned and proving undeterred, their aim to stop the local development as well as solve the murder of the developer himself.

I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend to anyone who enjoys a similar genre.

Thank you Netgalley for my free ARC copy, in return for an honest review :)

Joyce is very excited, she’s a retired nurse living in a beautiful retirement village and one lunchtime, she’s approached by the most intriguing woman resident, Elizabeth. With that one approach Joyce is invited to join the Thursday murder club. The Thursday murder club, so called because they meet on Thursdays, the only time that was available for them to use the jigsaw room. The four members of the club, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron all have very different skill sets, based on their former lives and together they review old police cases, provided by a Penny , an ex-police officer. However, one morning they wake up to discover the developer of their home has been murdered, at last they can take on a real life killer.
Richard Osman is a wonderful writer, this excellent novel written from the unique perspective of four octogenarians is thoroughly enjoyable. Each and every character is a joy and as the story unfolds you cannot help but cheer on the murder club as they use all their available resources and sheer determination to solve the case, I eagerly await the continued tales of the Thursday Murder Club

I was given a copy of The Thursday Murder Club in exchange for a honest review. The novel is set in a retirement village. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim meet weekly to discuss murders. When a murder happens in their village they begin to investigate. The novel is well paced, I loved the characters, each telling their own side of the story.

Really fun read with brilliant characterisation and a compelling storyline. Can’t wait to read the next one!

This is a lovely easy story with some really amusing and accurate insights into older generations who are so often portrayed as lacking. An interesting plot with some obvious twists and some less so but an enjoyable and often amusing read.

A gem of a book which is entertaining and funny. After reading it, I bought the audio version and laughed my way through it again. My husband was issued with a paper copy for Christmas and I’m sure he will love it too. This is a mystery book with a difference and I was happy to note that it is the first of a planned series.

Rating 2.5 Stars

At Coopers chase Retirement Village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate cold case murders. However when a local property developer turns up dead, 'The Thursday Murder Club' find themselves in the middle of their first live case. And the bodies keep piling up when another property developer dies whilst at the retirement village and an extra skeleton is found on top of a buried coffin.

These four friends, Elizabeth (spy), Joyce (nurse), Ibrahim (psychiatrist) and Ron (union leader), might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can these unorthodox pensioners catch the killer?

Whilst I managed to read this over just a few days, I mainly enjoyed it and the story idea is a good one. However, there are so many different characters and points of view to follow it does become confusing at times. Some of it is written as the diary from Joyce, some is it seen from two police officers, some from Elizabeth and others from the victims. The changes between points of view are sudden so I also lost track thinking eh? what's this I was reading Joyce and now it's just changed - maybe it's because I had an ARC so it's not formatted properly.

Also the police are rather complicit in helping the OAPs when really they should be so much more professional! I know it's just for fun this story, but somethings do need to stick to reality. And finally, I was 40% into the book when a description of a character was dropped in. I already had a picture of this person in my head, so it was not good writing nor editing!

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

I requested this book not realising who the author was, and then, in all honesty, when I realised it was Richard Osman of Pointless fame, I was really put off....here we go again, another celebrity who thinks they can write a book.

I’m ashamed....it’s bloody brilliant. Really, it is. I was trying to describe it to my friend, and ended up sending her screenshots to prove the hilarity of it. The text exchange “Lol”...”Then...I don’t know what that means, and I don’t know what Fitbit is either” - just dying!!!

Richard has a very dry sense of humour, and this comes across in the book. If you like Richard generally then you will love this.

The story is basically set in a retirement village, with the club being members of the Thursday Murder Club, trying to solve old cases. Then a real murder takes place....

The characters are just fabulous! There is care, love, and generally lots of old people hilarity. If you have a parent in a retirement home then you will know that what goes on in this book is exactly what that lot get up to...it’s so realistic (bar the real life murders obviously...)

If you loved Hendrik Groen then you will love this..

My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for the advance copy

#TheThursdayMurderClub #NetGalley
An enjoyable fluid read with clearly drawn characters and one to curl up with and read in one or two sittings. A little slow in places but it sped up & the pieces fitted brilliantly at the end. A book I will read again as I’m sure I missed some clues & witticisms when distracted en route.