What to read next
Books Like The Thursday Murder Club
More murder over tea, with sleuths who know how to make being underestimated pay.
Elizabeth can show Joyce a photograph of a corpse without making it feel like an imposition. Joyce can discuss a stabbing and still find time to think about lunch. They’ve spent their Thursdays going over cold cases with Ibrahim and Ron. Then a murder near Coopers Chase gives the four of them something fresh to work on.
If you miss the company at those meetings, start with Vera Wong or Gladdy Gold. There are also a few ways to keep the dry jokes and get out of the village, including a retirement cruise with a very different sort of club.
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01Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
by Jesse Q. SutantoVera texts her son at 4:31 a.m. to tell him he’s sleeping too late. So when she finds a dead man in her San Francisco tea shop, naturally she pockets his flash drive and leaves the police to do what they can without it. She keeps an eye on the people who might come looking for it, feeds them, and grows rather fond of them. The closest match for anyone who came to Coopers Chase for a murder and stayed for the friendships.
02We Solve Murders
by Richard OsmanMore Osman, at private-jet speed. When a job goes wrong, bodyguard Amy Wheeler calls her father-in-law Steve, a retired cop who would happily spend the evening at his pub quiz. He joins her hunt for a killer and packs chocolate biscuits for the flight. There’s still room for grief in all the rushing around. Steve has recently lost his wife.
03Getting Old Is Murder
by Rita LakinGladdy Gold has spent thirty years reading mysteries and considers this a perfectly good qualification for detective work. When deaths in her Florida retirement community start to look suspiciously alike, she enlists her neighbors. The police are unconvinced and the sleuths have bedtimes to consider. Gladdy also has a few things to say about what happens to your memory at seventy-five, once she can remember Sue Grafton’s name.
04How to Age Disgracefully
by Clare PooleyPick this for the club. A group of London seniors teams up with the daycare next door to save their community center. During a police stop, passengers in a minibus start confessing before the officer can say what she wants. Then a child swears, and the adults applaud because those were his first words.
05The Quiche of Death
by M.C. BeatonRetired from London PR, Agatha Raisin treats winning over the village of Carsely as one last account. She enters a bought quiche in the baking contest. The judge dies after eating it, leaving Agatha to investigate while her new neighbors are forming their first impressions. She’s prickly company, which makes the social blunders worth sticking around for.
06Murder with Peacocks
by Donna AndrewsThree weddings in one summer, all Meg Langslow’s problem. A death gives the Virginia blacksmith a case, though the brides keep her just as busy. Her mother calls with a question about the color blue and won’t say why.
07Killers of a Certain Age
by Deanna RaybournThe bloody one. Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have been killing together for forty years. When their employer sends someone after them on their retirement cruise, they have to find out why. An early flashback finds Helen worrying about Billie’s ripped pantyhose on an assassination job.
08Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
by Benjamin StevensonErnest Cunningham writes guides to plotting mysteries. At a family reunion at a ski resort, a body turns up in the snow and he gets to show his work. He gives you page numbers for the deaths and admits he’s made himself younger to improve his chances of being played by a movie star. Read this for the puzzle and the narrator who keeps interrupting to tell you how he put it together.
09A Most Agreeable Murder
by Julia SealesBeatrice Steele embroiders a portrait of her favorite detective. Everyone thinks it’s a potato. When a bachelor dies at a ball, she gets to use her better skills alongside a disgraced detective. The village gossip here comes with Regency manners and the pressing question of whom everyone is supposed to marry.
Another guide to try
Books like
One for the Money
by Janet Evanovich
For Stephanie Plum fans who want more broke sleuths, nosy families and one detective who’s a dog.
Funny Mystery11 picks
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