The Thursday Murder Club

by Richard Osman

Joyce, a recent resident of an upscale retirement home, is invited to join the Thursday Murder Club, a group of three other pensioners. Elizabeth, a woman whose past hints at secret service work, Ron, a former union leader, and Ibrahim, a retired psychiatrist, like to go over police cold cases as a hobby. When the local greedy yuppie land developer's right hand man turns up dead, the four unlikely but still sharp amateur detectives are excited to take on a current case. Managing to get into the reluctant good graces of the actual police investigating the case, they make good progress, but when more bodies start turning up, things get really complicated.

This debut mystery captivated me instantly. It's witty, fast-paced, full of twists and turns and red herrings, and had a large cast of endearing characters with their own quirks and secrets. Extremely clever, genuinely funny, and even poignant at times, when it discusses loss, friendship or death. The authorial choice to alternate between one first-person narrator (Joyce) and a third-person narrator that keeps things teasingly ambiguous is original and fun. The characters are vivid and the plot is dizzying. It just might be a five-star book, but I ding it one star for "cheating" the reader by using previously unknown information to reveal one of the mysteries (oh yes, there's more than one whodunit here). I may say this a lot, but I really do want to read more of this sly, moving, lively series.