Prompt: a favourite prompt froma previous challenge

This is one of my favourite prompts. My basic plan was to pick a book I was desperate to read and see what category I could slot it into. It just happened that the book I wanted to read, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman genuinely fitted one of my favourite ever prompts- a book featuring an amateur sleuth from the 2019 challenge.

What it’s about?

From Goodreads:

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to…
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?

What I think:

I really enjoyed this wonderfully British book. Witty, clever, poignant – this book really does have a bit of everything.

The characters are wonderful.

Elizabeth is intelligent and logical, quick-witted and caring.

Ibrahim is a retired psychiatrist, he’s thoughtful and pays attention to details.

Ron is a former trade unionist. Confident and argumentative.

And Joyce. Lively, friendly, flirty and the writer of the most perfect journal entries.

The club began with Penny, a retired police detective with access to cold case files. The group meets on a Thursday to discuss the cases and “solve” them. Penny has been moved to the attached care home. But the group still meets each week.

When a local property developer with connections to the retirement village is found murdered, the group of amateur sleuths have a real case to investigate.

The local police are investigating but can the unassuming old folks solve the case first.

I loved the characters and the different dynamics between the group. Joyce’s diary is genuinely funny and it was great to see the group running rings around the police in an effort to beat them to an arrest.

The developing friendship between PC Donna De Freitas and DCI Chris Hudson is great and I think they work will well together in the future.

I found the resolution to the murders over complicated and I had to re-read a couple of bits. There are a lot of characters in this book with complicated back stories.

Theres going to be at least two more books in the series so it will be interesting to see how the characters develop.

This is a great read and very enjoyable and I can see why so many people are raving about it.

See for yourself by grabbing a copy of The Thursday Murder Club from:

Waterstones: click here

Amazon.co.uk: click here