**We were gifted an e-copy of this book in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are our own**
Confession: I am a MASSIVE Richard Osman fan! Any show he is on I’ll watch it; Pointless, Child Genius, House Of Games, you name it, it’ll be on my TV. So it goes without saying that when I found out Richard had turned his hand to writing I was desperate to get my hands on a copy. Luckily for me the wonderful Ellie from Penguin Random House offered me a slot on the publication blog tour for The Thursday Murder Club – which of course I readily agreed to-and today it’s my stop! I hope you enjoy reading my review.
About The Book
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?
Review
Every Thursday without fail a group of mismatched friends congregate in the activity room of a retirement village and they all have one thing on their mind……MURDER. Created by ex police officer Penny, who now lies ill in the medical wing of the village, The Thursday Murder Club spend their afternoon’s combing over old unsolved crime files, armed with tea and cake.
Ex-nurse Joyce is the latest recruit to their exclusive club, chosen for her medical knowledge and expertise, but before she knows it she is thrown into a real life murder case alongside the other club members. Someone with connections to the retirement village has been brutally murdered and the the elderly quartet know they have the combined skills needed to crack the case. But, one murder soon becomes two and things start to get complicated. Will it be too much for the elderly friends or will they be able to find the killer before the police?
I’m going to go all out and say it…..this is my favourite book of 2020 to date, by a long way. It’s an engaging, multi-layered mystery littered with the wit and humour I wholly expected from Richard Osman. It’s much more than your average crime novel, with layer upon layer of detail that kept me turning it’s pages late into the night. Osman has a cosy, easy writing style yet the skill within to deliberately mislead the reader about the truth, whilst still moving the story towards a perfectly wrapped up conclusion( if that makes sense!)
The characters are written with wonderful attention to detail with fully rounded back stories that brought them vividly to life on the page. I particularly enjoyed the way the elderly residents switched from being kick-ass detectives to frail and confused when it suited their purpose. There is a real diversity to the cast of characters too, something I adore and am always actively seeking in my reading.
It’s written alternating between general prose and frequent diary entries from the latest member of The Thursday Murder Club, Joyce. The diary entries are fabulous, filled with chatty snippets of information that often seem irrelevant, but that Osman has utilised to weave the fabric of the story together. I often found myself excitedly looking forward to the next diary instalment to gain a more personal insight into the others characters though Joyce’s eyes.
Anyway, I could talk about this amazing title for days, but in the interest of avoiding any spoilers I will simply say you MUST read this book. I will certainly be recommending to everyone who will listen and I eagerly await the second book in the series. I loved every second of it and I have already ordered a physical copy after reading it on Kindle as I know it’s one I will want to read again and to have on my bookshelf – some context; I rarely buy a physical copy of eBook I’ve read due to limited space on my shelves.
About The Author
Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter. The Thursday Murder Club is his first novel. He is well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. As the creative director of Endemol UK, Richard has worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.
The Thursday Murder Club is available to purchase now from Amazon*
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE OTHER STOPS ON THE TOUR TOO!
Fraser’s Fun House 
This sounds great! It was already on my radar but I will definitely need to get it!
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