Evening Everyone,

I hope that you’ve all had a marvellous weekend and that you’re enjoying some downtime this evening ready for a new week. I have had a lovely relaxing day doing not a lot really. I’ve mostly been listening to this fantastic book and feeling very content.

Book 📖

It was my partner that first drew my attention to this book but at the time I had so many books to get through, I parked it. Then I saw it taking over my twitter timeline, topping charts and sweeping up awards and I knew I had to read it. I have the second book in this series lined up as an ARC so I wanted to leave this one as late as possible so I can read them in close succession.

Description 🔖

Coopers Chase retirement village is peaceful, serene and is home to some very lovely and very smart people. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are residents and they meet every week in the Jigsaw Room for Thursday Murder Club. They pass their time reviewing and discussing unsolved crimes and prove that even in their old age, they still have a fine suite of skills between them.

The group find themselves in the midst of an actual live murder and throw themselves into trying to find the killer. More people start to turn up dead whilst the clock is ticking for the unusual yet extraordinary Thursday Murder Club.

General Thoughts 🤔

I completely understand why the world fell in love with this book. It was so many things rolled into one piece of work that I struggle to know where to start. It was everything I love about crime books; full of twists, turns and complexities that kept me as a reader on my toes. It was everything I love about comedy; understated, under the radar and completely character focused. It was everything I love about a good, thrilling, heart warming book and I have all of the warm fuzzy feelings after reading it. Who would have thought a book about murder could bring that out in me.

Characters 👫👬👭

The characters were everything in this book. There wasn’t really a character that didn’t warm my heart and make me want to know them and talk to them. Even the “baddies” in the book had mostly good intentions and were kind hearted. That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense until you read the book.

This crime solving gang of eighty year olds were a group of people that probably wouldn’t have ever crossed paths if it were not for Coopers Chase. But when they were thrown together in the club, they just made sense. Not only that, but their relationships with each other were genuine and so sweet that I couldn’t stop thinking that I want my elderly years to be like theirs.

I can’t possibly pick a favourite from the characters. Not even just the characters from the club but the “periphery” characters. Without the whole set, I don’t think this book would be as fantastic as I thought it was.

Writing Style ✍️

I know that Richard Osman has written for TV but I imagine the transition into writing a novel isn’t as easy as some people would imagine. After reading this book you would not think so. He showed such an amazing talent for developing characters that feel like family or friends and that’s what really made this book so great.

If someone would have told me that the characters were what would make me fall in love with this book, I would have gone into it expecting a weaker plot, but that was not the case. The plot was complicated and clever, delivering the unexpected on numerous occasions.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I think it’s safe to say that I adored this book, just a little bit. The moment that I had finished I had recommended it to my friends that hadn’t already read it and I’ll continue to do so. I already know that The Thursday Murder Club gang are all returning for the second book in the series and I cannot wait to sit down with a Viennese Whirl or a lemon drizzle cake and join them on their next adventure.

😍😍😍😍😍