Reading just those first opening paragraphs of "The Man Who Died Twice" I was instantly transported to the cosy, yet somewhat deadly, word of the Thursday Murder Club and its jolly members. I experienced a thrill equal only to that of coming home after a long time away and catching up with dear old friends whose lives, let me assure you, did not stand still in my absence. Far from it!
In the second instalment of Richard Osmond's mysteries, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, Ron and Bodgan are up to their eyeballs in murder, theft, mugging, spies and all sorts of crime and punishment. The fearsome septuagenarians are drawn - rather willingly - into the world of espionage, mafia, diamonds and double-crossing, not to mention the inexcusable mugging of one their own which they vow to avenge, come hell or high water.
The man in the title of this book is Douglas, Elizabeth's ex-husband and her fellow ex-MI5 operative who arrives in the retirement village with his pockets full of stolen diamonds and the merciless mobster, Lomax, hot on his heels (followed closely by the Mafia). If that wasn't enough for the Club to reckon with, Ibrahim is attacked in the street by a teenage troublemaker, Ryan Baird (who has no idea what deep water he has just waded into). The two plotlines take off from here, wheeze, twist and meander, until they are brought together in a spectacular finale.
Vibrant, funny, wonderfully human, "The Man Who Died Twice" is a worthy successor to "The Thursday Murder Club". More please!

Richard Osman has succeeded in writing a follow up to a debut which sold more than a million copies, that is even better than the first. Now that must be a record!
We are back with the endearing Thursday Murder Club just the following Thursday after we last saw them. We meet many new characters but our favourites from the first are all present.
Will they be able to outsmart the authorities again and solve the latest crimes? Will Chris and Donna continue to share police information with the club or will they have to work alone? Will Elizabeth have dealings with her former colleagues at MI5? I thoroughly enjoyed finding out the answers to all of these questions!
Such great writing and wit. The Man Who Died Twice had me gripped from the outset, I’m sure it will be another huge hit and I actually enjoyed it even more than the first, and can’t wait for the third outing of the Club!

It's the following Thursday & the club meets again. Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life. As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. The second outing for The Thursday Club & whilst it could be read on its own I have to start at the beginning of a series so would recommend reading the first instalment. I loved the mix of humour & mystery plus the characters are wonderful & we get to know them more in this book. The pace is really good & I found myself lost in the pages & read it in a couple of sittings. I thoroughly enjoyed it & hope the club has lots of more cases to solve
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

Warm, friendly murder mystery. Four intrepid octogenarians set out to solve several murder mysteries while also dealing out justice for their friend. You will not want to finish this book and leave your new friends.

The gang is back and I couldn’t be happier! This time The Thursday Murder Club are involved with stolen diamonds, the NY Mafia, and money laundering. DCI Chris and Donna are back too and investigates Ibrahim’s mugging that left him hospitalized. This is another fun read with lovable characters! Highly recommend it! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted copy!

I adored The Thursday Murder Club last year and I was so excited when I learned about the release of a second book. I have since heard that this series will be at least four books, so it sounds like we have a lot more hilarious misadventures with the residents of Coopers Chase to come!

Elizabeth has received a letter from someone in her past who needs her help. Only her fellow Murder Club members, Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim can aid her in an epic hunt for diamonds, a ruthless murderer and a dangerous brush with a professional crime organisation. Will they be able to solve the mystery before the killer catches up with them?

I think Joyce might be one of my favourite fictional characters ever. She has the appearance of an innocent, elderly woman with impeccable manners and typical old lady interests. But she is hilariously funny (unintentionally) and much smarter than she even realises. I would love nothing more than to have tea and biscuits with Joyce and listen to her stories for hours.

Ibrahim is another much beloved character. He is a retired psychiatrist and sees it as his duty to look after his friends. An incident towards the beginning of the book had me really worried about him but I definitely had hope that his signature wisdom and wit would carry him through. His friendship with Ron is so much fun to read and I felt my heart lift during their conversations.

Of course, the book does touch on some of the realities of being old. All four of the Thursday Murder Club members feel their age and are very honest about what that entails. I think this is part of what gives them their wonderful authenticity. I have no doubt that these characters are real people and the thought of them really having these crazy, dangerous adventures makes my soul soar.

There were a couple of points in the book where it almost addressed the fact that it was a book. Joyce daydreams about how wonderful it would be to be in a book and this also added to the believability of her as a real woman. She believes that she and her friends are real and in turn, so does the reader. It’s such a clever way of using dramatic irony because it speaks directly to the reader.

Although they’re few and far between in these books, Osman does write younger characters very well too. Polish builder and close friend of the Murder Club Bogdan is a very endearing character who I wanted nothing but great things for. He and the young police officer Donna learn important lessons in this book and those were just as fun to watch as the main plot.

The Man Who Died Twice is a very perceptive, witty and charming novel. It is a worthy sequel to The Thursday Murder Club, which is no mean feat. There is a twist at the end, which I didn’t see coming at all and I fully appreciated it. Discovering the truth alongside a cast of characters who I am still very much in love with was a fantastic, magical experience and I can’t wait to see them again.

I enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club but loved The Man Who Died Twice!
It was great to meet up with Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce again who lead anything but a quiet life.
This outing involved missing diamonds and a cast of characters involved with them.
I felt this book gave more insight to the Thursday Murder Club members as I now feel I know them a lot better.
The story romps along with such fun and humour this is not a book to be missed.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reading copy. It was an absolute delight.

#Netgalley #penguinbooks #viking #TheManWhoDiedTwice

Richard Osman seems to have garnered a lot of interest for the small niche of crime novel he is writing, and although neither this or the first instalment of the Thursday Murder Club overly excited me, he certainly has a handle on the tone, style and humour with which he tells his stories.

Personal style preferences aside, The Man Who Died Twice is a well-written and engaging crime caper. Rejoining the cast of The Thursday Murder Club, the book draws readers in with the charismatic and wry humour of it's writing, The premise of the crime and subsequently the murder, is well-drawn and multi-faceted but very well handled. Neatly using a range of narrative perspectives and character voices to explore the whole saga, Osman never lets the storytelling become convoluted or too complex.
As a second novel this surpasses the first in terms of intrigue and general likability of the narrative mystery - the way he embeds characters within the plot, this time, felt more realistic and read with a genuine sense of place and time. The community he builds amongst the lead protagonists works well against the sharply observed antagonists and the criminal underworld that the team deal with. Never does it feel onerous, or, despite the farcical elements of the story in places, unbelievable. There is a charm to Osman's writing, the world he builds for readers, and the gentle manner by which quite serious events are written about with an edge of froth and humour.
Not one to hold up there with the classics or masters of the crime thriller genre, yet a likeable tale and worthy investment of your time all the same. Entertaining, intriguing and well placed as a potential bestseller for the masses.

I loved The Thursday Murder Club and thought that has got to take some beating but Richard has pulled it of the bag and I loved this one even more.

We are back at Coopers Chase with the whitty gang crime solving again, have they bitten off more then they can chew this time around?

Simply magnificent well written and thought out I love the Plot, the location, the characters.

So excited to know we have book three to look forward to plus a film.

Bravo Richard!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What a brilliant book! Every bit as funny as the first Thursday Murder Club. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. The plot is clever, the characters are witty and so well-written and, all in all, I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone. Please keep on writing this series of books Mr. Osman!!

I got The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club #2) by Richard Osman from NetGalley for a fair and honest review.
The Man Who Died Twice, tells the story of a group of pensioners who all live in a home get drawn into the theft of diamonds, from Lomax by a member of the British security service.
Unfortunately, the diamonds collateral for deal involving the Mafia, and they want them back.
The Man Who Died Twice is the second novel in the Thursday Murder Club series, however this is a series were as a reader it is not necessary to read them in order. As the novel gives enough background information on the main characters, to help the flow of the story.
What really worked for me as a reader was the interaction with the main characters as they will be discussing the crime, then suddenly one of them will mention something mundane and out of nowhere.
which makes this mystery more of a cozy end of the genre.
The novel is told from a number of different perspectives, however there is very little difficulty as a reader telling whose narrative you’re following at the time.
All this makes The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman well worth reading.

Thank you to @richardosman and @VikingBooksUK for this advanced copy of The Man Who Died Twice in return for an honest review.

Description 🔖

There is no break for The Thursday Murder Club. Very shortly after their last adventure, Elizabeth receives a letter from someone from her past who is asking for her help. He’s gotten himself into a spot of bother and knows that he can trust Elizabeth to help him out of it.

Of course, Elizabeth brings Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim along for the ride and they embark on an investigation involving stolen diamonds, the mafia and the MI5. The gang cannot resist but will they be able to find a huge amount of diamonds and a murderer before trouble catches up with them?

General Thoughts 🤔

What an absolute delight to be back with the club so soon after reading the first book in this series. I had high hopes for this book and I was not at all disappointed. It was everything that The Thursday Murder Club was and more. I felt like the stakes were a little higher in this plot yet the characters remained their adorable selves and took it all in their stride.

It was lovely to have all of the characters (at least those that survived the first book) back together for The Man Who Died Twice as well as some new ones. I enjoyed getting to know the new kids on the block as well as learning more about those already familiar to me.

Characters 👫👬👭

I am still so in love with all of these characters. There is something so endearing and warm about them that I can’t help but have an unconditional love for them.

I particularly enjoyed Elizabeth during this book. We got to learn so much more about her and about her past life within MI5 and I felt even closer to her. I also liked that we got to see a more vulnerable side to Elizabeth. The love between her and her husband is so sweet and I felt her pain of trying to hold onto him for as long as possible. I think that Elizabeth truly started to recognise the importance of friendships and appreciate the rest of the gang even more than she already did.

I have to give a specific shout out to Bogdan in this review. I adore his character. He’s like the loveable rogue that we all want on our side. Anything that Bogdan does is forgivable in my eyes as it’s all done from a genuine and kind place. As a side note, I also love how utterly hopeless Bogdan was with women; it was hilarious. I hope to see some romance in Bogdan’s future.

Writing Style ✍️

The fantastic characterisation and relationships between the characters continues in The Man Who Died Twice. I didn’t think that Richard Osman could make me love this elderly fictional bunch anymore than I already did, but he did it. I feel like he took the foundations that he’d laid in The Thursday Murder Club and built something fantastic on top of them.

As mentioned above, this book felt a little more dangerous than the first. The plot was even more thrilling and complicated and I adored having it all unfold in front of me. It was so cleverly done with little hints and clues threaded throughout the story, but not too many that I didn’t give a little gasp when I found out who was behind the crimes.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I love finding a series that I can lose myself in and feel excited about future stories. This is most definitely up there as one of my favourites. Another fantastically written, thrilling, funny and heart warming story from Richard Osman and I cannot wait to see what mischief The Thursday Murder Club find themselves in next.

It's the following Thursday, and Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague. He needs her help to protect him from a violent criminal who thinks he stole some diamonds. Elizabeth reluctantly agrees, and enlists Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim to help. The body count begins to rise but the Thursday Murder Club are on the case, and hey, if they find the diamonds along the way that's a bonus right?

I think I like this one more than the first in the series. I don't know if that's because I knew what I was in for this time or what it was, but I definitely enjoyed the read more.

All of the core characters are back, and we get to learn more about them, particularly Elizabeth. I found her less annoying this time around. We learned a bit more about Ibrahim this time too. I like that the group have all loved very colourful lives, and have a lot of knowledge and experience to share. I think it's awesome that Osman is making a concerted effort to remind everyone that just because people are older it doesn't mean that they aren't interesting or intelligent or highly experienced. Having lived longer just means they have more of a story to tell.

I think Chris, Donna and Bogdan are here to stay too. I'd love to get more insight into Bogdan, he's very mysterious and one of my favourites of the series.

I thought the plot was quite clever. It isn't all smooth sailing for the group, but there's plenty to smile or laugh at along the way. There's a lot more danger in this one, and I think our quartet are a bit bolder in their undertakings, which makes for some hair raising moments!

All I in all I though this one was a great read. If you liked the first one you'll definitely enjoy this one.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, and Penguin Business for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

A good read with some wonderful characters. The plot was a bit unbelievable at times, but the wit and charm of the four elderly protagonists, and some of the secondary characters, made this an enjoyable read.

The silver sleuths of Cooper’s Chase are back — big time! If The Thursday Murder Club was unadulterated joy, then this, the follow up, is unadulterated joy with rainbow sprinkles and a cherry on top. A scrumptious, finger-licking feast of cozy mystery cum sitcom. And it works, it really does!

Fresh on the heels of their last adventure, our four septuagenarians find themselves caught up in a dangerous race against time, involving stolen diamonds, dead bodies, a local mobster and a South American drugs baron. It’s all very fanciful, of course, but who cares when the fun factor is off the scale.

And fair play to Osman, the plotting is superbly entertaining — a smorgasbord of misdirection, twists and fakery that keeps you guessing until the very end. At which point, everything is wrapped up so prettily, all that’s missing are the ribbons and bows.

But what makes this book really sing are the characters, who are such a lovable, relatable bunch that turning the pages is like catching up with old friends. There’s former spy Elizabeth, retired psychiatrist Ibrahim, ex-trade union chief Ron, and former nurse Joyce. A motley crew if ever there was, but each one a delight to know.

I love that Osman uses this second book to add yet more layers of color, not just to the fab four but also to the more minor characters, introducing a smattering of sub plots to add to the intrigue and pave the way for exciting developments in book three.

And let’s not forget the humor. Osman’s wit is both subtle yet sharp and bears the hallmark of someone who is a keen observer of people. But while the narrative is spiked with wisecracks about old age, it is also kind and compassionate, with some quiet reflection on the circle of life. And it is this perfect balance of mystery, humor and heart that elevates this wonderful novel to heights of excellence.

Roll on the next installment. It simply can’t come soon enough for me.

A fantastic second adventure of The Fab Four, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Joyce and Ron. The story picks up almost from where book 1 left off and it's a really good read. Such a joy with lovely characters. I look forward to many more in this series.

This book is somehow even better than the first book. I need a new rating system because five stars just doesn’t cut it.

When Elizabeth is contacted by an old colleague, our favourite foursome find themselves involved in another mystery, this time involving missing diamonds, drug dealers and MI5. The stakes are even higher and the plot effortlessly combines a wonderful mystery with humour, fascinating characters and truly touching moments. We get to know the characters even better in this sequel and some of my favourite moments showed the true depth of friendship and not just between the main four but with Donna, Bogdan and Stephen too. Joyce continues to write in her diary and is responsible for many parts where I laughed so much I got very dirty looks from the cat. She’s such a delight.

I don’t often cry at books but this one made me cry twice. There’s a moment between Donna and Ibrahim that is so moving I feel emotional just thinking about it. I absolutely adore this book and it might be one of the best that I’ve ever read.

A truly delightful second outing for The Thursday Murder Club!

Hot on the heels of their last outing, Elizabeth receives a letter from a former colleague who, having stolen some diamonds, is being pursued by a violent mobster and needs her help to protect his life. As bodies begin to stack up, Elizabeth involves Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim to help bring the guilty to justice and, who knows, perhaps recover the diamonds too? The downside, of course, is that they are up against a brutal killer who would have no qualms about bumping off four elderly sleuths!

The first in this series was superb and I thoroughly enjoyed it but this one easily supersedes it; I suspect because I was familiar with the characters, I relaxed into the story. The story is well-plotted and laced with humour throughout – in fact, it’s worth paying attention to Joyce in particular as she is often unwittingly funny! The characters are skilfully crafted and I love that I now have a strong mental image of each of them which all adds to the enjoyment. Exciting, enigmatic and terrifically entertaining – not to forget a strong sense of justice having been done, this is a splendid read and one I highly recommend. I really hope this series continues as it covers so much and it is all cleverly sorted out by the final page. Worthy of my highest recommendation (it would make a fabulous Christmas gift!) and, as such, easily earns all five sparkling stars!

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

The thursday murder club are back for a second outing. The Coopers Chase community on the south coast of England is still full off life.
Joyce is still match making and interfering. She is determined to adopt a dog. Elizabeth is still controlling and very aware of of her secret service background. She has an appointment with a dead man! Ron the one time Union leader is very much Ron! Ibrahim will soon be traumatised by an attack by some young men. Bogdan the honary club member is always on hand to assist in anyway with his special talents.
The local police are always mindfull of the club's talents. However DCI Chris Hudson is falling in love with PC Donna De Freitas's mum Patrice. Donna meanwhile is concerned that her love life is passing her by.
Drug dealers, gangsters and the Mafia just a normal day in the life of the club!
A cozy mystery with a darker side. Very entertaining and enoyable. Shows that even life in a retirement home adventures can happen.
Very much recommended. Look forward to the third book.

An immensely enjoyable follow up to Thursday Murder Club. This book by Richard Osman can be read as a stand-alone novel, but if you haven’t already done so, treat yourself and read the first book.

It was great to be back with the slightly quirky bunch of characters, with an intriguing story and lots of twists and turns. I really enjoyed this book; it’s endearing, funny and fulfilling. I cannot wait to read more by Osman.