Member Reviews
I really enjoyed this book. It was a great storyline with excellent characters. I would highly recommend this book as it was a great read.
I think this book is better than Thursday Murder Club. The humour and pure escapism is the best yet.
As with its predecessor, The Thursday Murder club, The man who died twice is an uplifting and delightfully clever read.
Its funny, how can it not be with characters in their seventies and eighties who have lived a life, learned a lot and are basically waiting for the end. As Joyce says at the beginning “ Why go on a diet at 82? What’s a sausage Roll gonna do to you? Kill you? We’ll join the queue” That pretty much sums up the four main protagonists (Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron) in this book, they do whatever they want and what they want is to solve a murder or two. How they get there is both funnily entertaining to read and yet cleverly executed. I learnt from his first book not to trust Osman when a “suspect” was in the picture, cause nothing about this book or plot is obvious and that had me turning page after page until I had finally reached the end. And what an ending it was, I was not disappointed instead I was utterly enthralled. The story flows, the characters entertain and the mystery will grip you to the last pages. This is definitely a book to read, and it predecessor too if you haven’t already, I’ll definitely be reading this one again next time I need a good pick me up 😁
Posted to in a nook with a book FB page and goodreads
Well, he has done it again, in even more style.
A welcome return to our four elderly crime solving residents. This time, past relationships are highlighted and we get more back stories.
A mugging, a few murders, diamonds and some dodgy dealings feature in this second book of the trilogy.
The humour remains, the plot is full and rich, and the time just flew by.
I was absolutely thrilled to be given the chance to review this book, so thank you Penguin Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity.
Where do I start!! This book has everything, the brilliant Murder Club foursome, with added appearances by Chris, Donna, Bogdan, and even Stephen who had some great lines.
Just superb, writing even better than the first book, great one-liners and I will never look at Instagram the same way...... I actually laughed out loud at that bit!
Nicely tidied up at the end, with some people getting what they deserved (sorry can't give too much away!!)
Brilliant, amazing, you have to read it!!
Am looking forward to the 3rd book, no pressure Mr Osman!!
I loved the first and I loved the second. Another funny, poignant, clever novel from Richard Osman that is sure to find its way into many, many Christmas stockings. Once again we meet our intrepid investigators, as they find themselves deeply, accidentally and very happily embroiled in an MI5 case that has gone rather spectacularly wrong. There are more revelations about the marvellous Elizabeth, lovely Joyce finds her stride, Ron is, well, Ron and Ibrahim takes a knock he fears there is no coming back from. Osman cleverly balances action with insight, high drama with every day realities for older people and presents a story everybody can enjoy,
Here we are, reunited with The Thursday Murder Club in this sequel. I flew through this, I engaged with this book a lot quicker than TTMC # 1.
I kept saying to myself I’d stop reading for the night when I got to the end of a chapter but because they are so short & lively I kept going!
We have diamonds, mafia, murders, drug dealers and the garden of the year. There was a lot more danger for our crew this time around but also a lot more fun for them.
I love Joyce and Bogdan & the introduction of Ron’s grandson - Kendrick. What a cute, sweet kid! We have more interactions from Donna and Chris with the crew. And also from Donna’s mother - Patrice.
Joyce is giving Elizabeth a run for her money this time around as they hunt for clues. We also learn more about Elizabeth’s background in this book and how she met Stephen 💕
I want to move to Cooper’s Chase with the llamas 😂 and visit the gang for tea.
There will be a third book in the series. Hopefully more are to come. I’m invested in these characters.
If you haven’t read Book # 1 by now, I highly recommend you get to it quick. You will fall in love with the characters.
A treasure of a book! I think this must be my favourite book of 2021! I loved everything about it: the writing, the characters, the mystery, the setting, a little bit of life coaching amidst the suspense. I enjoyed it so much that I went to my bookstore and immediately purchased the first book in the series and I am looking forward to the third book. The characters of this book will hold a special place in my heart! A lovely and wise book.
The second book in the Thursday Murder Club series brings “the gang of four” back together again. Pensioners Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim are still living at Cooper’s Chase retirement village and still dabbling in cold cases at their regular Thursday meeting, however when Ibrahim is mugged and Elizabeth’s ex-husband shows up at Cooper’s Chase, they realise that things are about to take an unusual, and nasty, turn! We are also reunited with Bogdan, the mysterious man who can turn his hand to most things (& probably ought to be considered on of the club now!), and with PC Donna de Freitas & DCI Chris Hudson from the local police force who seem to have an unofficial understanding with the Thursday Murder Club!
We find ourselves following the Thursday Murder Club members as they are drawn into a world of spies, drugs and stolen diamonds via a letter from beyond the grave! There is plenty of humour, observations on modern life, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, but there are also some quite nasty things happening. It’s not a gentle cosy mystery set in an idyllic “Miss Marple-esque” village, this is modern day Britain with all that entails.
I do feel that you really need to read the first book in the series to understand the characters (especially Bogdan), as it lays some solid foundations that are built upon here. We really get to see their different personalities & quirks of the characters.
Overall, this is an excellent sequel to the first book & highly recommended! I look forward to seeing what mischief the Thursday Murder Club get into next.
#TheManWhoDiedTwice #NetGalley.
Better than the first book, utterly compelling and I read it quickly. Glad to see more character development here, especially Elizabeth.
After the first volume, I preferred Thorogood, but have now changed my mind.
Amazon is not allowing reviews yet, but I will be giving 5*.
Needs another proof read. Clue: at one point, conversation is attributed to the wrong character.
“Oh, here we go again,” says Chris.
“I want to organise a meeting with the mafia. In Fairhaven.”
“Of course you do,” says Chris. “Any reason? Or was bridge cancelled and you had a slot in your diary?”
Set one week after the eventful happenings recounted in The Thursday Murder Club came to a conclusion, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are back and the game is afoot once more in everyone’s favourite retirement community. It involves a whole new intriguing cast of shady characters, diamonds, cups of tea, robberies, bus and train trips and a lot of heart, humour and humanity.
This time, an old flame turns up most unexpectedly in Coopers Chase with an unlikely proposition for one of our formidable pensioners, while something else dramatic happens to another of our favourite characters. One thing leads to another and soon our four veteran vigilantes are helping the authorities once again, whether they like it or not.
As in the first book, the story in this sequel comes with some subtle, insightful and wry observations on life, relationships, ageing, hopes and dreams and the whole gamut of human experience. The pace never slows and the plot is as inventive and fun as ever, with some fiendish red herrings and inventive twists, all told in a tone that is entertaining and compassionate but which also never ducks the reality that bad things do happen to good people.
It all goes to produce a charming, touching, hugely enjoyable and engrossing page-turner of a sequel that I flew through in three days and that is as good, if not better, than the original tale.
Brilliant! The gang is back - and what a gang. Each with their different characters and talents,each bouncing off one another.
Humour, suspense, tragedy,intrigue. This work of genius has it all.
The first Thursday Club novel was a best seller,rightly so, this latest work surpasses it. I hoped the sequel wouldn't disappoint and it didn't.
Richmond Osman is a remarkable storyteller. Probably the best novel I'll read this year.
Osman’s done it again! The second book in the Thursday Murder Club series is as charming and unashamedly enjoyable as the first book, which was one of my favourite books of 2020.
I don’t want to give away the plot, but there’s plenty of excitement with stolen Mafia diamonds, mysterious letters from beyond the grave and bringing a dastardly mugger to justice. A recommended read for lovers of cosy mysteries.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.
I received a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books.
This is the follow up to ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ - I enjoyed that book so obviously had to read this one.
I thought the previous book was enjoyable but average. This one however, I thought was much better!
It’s the perfect combination of tongue-in-cheek humour and cosy mystery.
I never thought i’d be so invested in the police officers (Donna and Chris) lives never mind the group of investigator pensioners!
The first book centred more around Elizabeth’s character so it was great to find out more about the rest of the gang, especially Joyce! I loved the sweet moments with Kendrick, Ron and Ibriham!
A fantastic addition to ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ series!
If I could give this ten stars I would.
I’ve read The Thursday Murder Club and, although I enjoyed it because of the language and the Agatha Christie vibes, I wasn’t blown away by it,
What I understand now is that the first book was almost laying the foundations and introducing the fantastic characters to allow for this book to follow up.
This is so much better than the first, you already love the characters and understand their foibles-you care about them and the story line is just perfect!
Just perfect - an absolute delight.
End of - nothing more to say.
Perfect characterisation, perfect plot twists, and perfectly written. I just loved it.
Buy it, read it - Enjoy!
The key thing to know about this book is that if you liked The Thursday Murder Club, then you will love this!
The gang is all back – Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim, as well as Donna and Chris from the local police station, and the man of mystery that is Bogdan. This time around, things take an interesting turn when Elizabeth’s ex-husband shows up at Coopers Chase retirement village, with a secret services handler in tow.
During an operation, a criminal believes that an operative stole some diamonds that he was looking after on behalf of a mafia group. Now those diamonds are needed back, and things are starting to get messy.
Into this world of spies, and career criminals comes our band of quietly confident pensioners who have the wherewithal to bend people to their way of doing things and find a way through it all.
To say much more would give away too much about the plot, but suffice to say that all kinds of things are going on, and it’s great fun seeing how things play out.
Osman hit the ground running with The Thursday Murder Club which has been a sensational hit, and he’s even better this time out. You completely believe in each of the characters and their own individual quirks and foibles. The book is of course littered with little jokes and digs at modern society, and everything moves along very pleasingly.
Yes, this is “cozy crime,” although in fact, some quite nasty things happen, and the impact of some of those things is not underplayed – quite deliberately. This is 21st century Britain, and not some idyllic English village in the 1950s.
Thoroughly recommended.
I was thrilled to get a chance to review The Man Who Died Twice because I enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club so much.
Rejoining the four members of the club (five if you include Bogdan, who is surely an honourable member now) was like sinking my feet into my battered old slippers, at once warm, soothing and comfortable but with the ever-present risk that something is going to become unstitched and fall away.
This time, their adventure carries a little more threat of imminent death – the baddies are definitely ‘badder’ – so our quartet has to be a little more circumspect and play smarter to outwit the assorted villains of this piece, ranging from a local small-time drug dealer and her teenage runner to a genuine New York mafia don with an axe to grind. With a murderer to identify, missing diamonds to find and some personal scores to settle, it’s a testing time for Elizabeth – has she finally lost her edge?
The plot isn’t quite as convoluted as last time, but you still never know what they’re going to find around the next corner. All great fun and I was sad when it ended – Famous Five for 21st Century grownups.
Note for Richard: readers who missed The Thursday Murder Club’s first outing might struggle to work out who Bogdan is and exactly what he’s doing there…
I loved this book as much as Richard Osman's first, and hope this second one will be swiftly followed by more of The Thursday Murder Club. The characters are so warm and enjoyable and you will love their company, and the plot is fun too. All in all, highly entertaining and providing much joy.
‘Why diet at eighty-two?’ says Joyce. ‘What’s a sausage roll going to do to you? Kill you? Well, join the queue.’
Huge thank you to Viking Press & Netgalley for sending me an eArc in exchange for an honest review 😊
Genre - mystery
Publication date - 16th September 2021
My rating - 4.5 ⭐️
‘The Man Who Died Twice’ is the sequel to ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ which i read around february this year! i rated ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ 3.5 stars and ‘The Man Who Died Twice’ 4.5 stars so I thought this book was a long mile better.
The reason I preferred this book is because the pacing was spot on. Book 1 I found nothing happened then too much happened and I got slightly overwhelmed whereas the pacing in this was utterly perfect. Everything was perfectly spaced out which made it incredibly easy to follow the plot and to feel fully involved. Our intro to the characters in book 1 meant the plot in book 2 could kick off instantly.
These books are so quintessentially British with the most wonderful British dry humour. Within page 1 I put the book down to laugh out loud at this book and I was regularly putting my hand over my mouth to stop myself loudly laughing when reading this.
However my favourite part of these books will always be the characters. They have such a special place in my heart (particularly Chris and Donna, although i love you Joyce). Even the more ‘minor’ characters are fully fleshed out and loveable. Characters can often feel like caricatures in murder-mysteries but not in these ones! They felt so real and like I could reach through the screen and give them a cuddle.
This book was such a joy! I’m so excited to get my hands on book 3 soon!
- Lara <3