# The Thursday Murder Club

By Richard Osman · The Thursday Murder Club, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-thursday-murder-club-909b8a2f/

At Coopers Chase retirement village, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron meet weekly to examine unsolved killings. A murder nearby gives their club an active case and a chance to test its members’ different skills against the police investigation.

## What makes it funny?

Joyce’s account of a conversation about a stabbing keeps returning to lunch and a familiar department-store kitchen knife. Elizabeth shows her a corpse photograph with the social ease someone else might reserve for a grandchild’s graduation picture.

### The comedy at work

Joyce’s digressions bring domestic concerns into crime analysis. Elizabeth keeps impeccable social manners while asking about fatal injuries, making the lunch-table conversation as awkward as it is purposeful.

### Try this if…

Older investigators and dry British wit make this a companionable mystery. Their differing backgrounds give each club member a way into the case, with the police drawn into the competition.

### Good to know

Serious illness accompanies the humor: Penny, the former officer whose files helped start the club, lies comatose in the nursing home. The opening also discusses a young woman’s fatal stabbing.

## What to expect

- Genre: Mystery
- On the shelf: Amateur sleuth · Cozy mystery
- Kind of humor: Dry wit
- The atmosphere: Warmhearted
- Format: Novel
- Length: 368 pages (ebook)
- Audiobook: 12 hr 26 min
- Published: 2020

## A few distinguishing details

- Retirement-village friends take their cold-case club into a live investigation

## Sources & further reading

- Book information: [The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman on Apple Books](https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-thursday-murder-club/id1498369650)
- Book information: [The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel (Unabridged) by Richard Osman on Apple Books](https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-thursday-murder-club-a-novel-unabridged/id1531798907)
- Reading sample: [Publisher first chapter](https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/extract-the-thursday-murder-club-by-richard-osman)
- Publisher: [Publisher](https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315815/the-thursday-murder-club-by-osman-richard/9780241988299)
- Review: [Kirkus review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/richard-osman/the-thursday-murder-club)