Farm Fresh Blog

If you are looking for a mystery series that you can slip into like a favorite flannel shirt, this is it. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman follows a group of friends in a retirement village who get together every Thursday to review cold murder cases. Only two of these old folks have any police experience whatsoever. One worked in British intelligence, and the other one is in a coma. Their move from working cold cases to investigating fresh murders is unexpected and yet most satisfying. Starting with The Thursday Murder Club, the series spans five books with more in the works.

As a retired crime scene investigator, I tend to get annoyed quickly with mystery novels that slide to the absurd or silly and this has none of that. Each mystery is rich and woven into the tapestry in such a way that it’s entirely believable. The books are mysteries, but they are also character studies. Osman thoroughly fleshes out these characters in such a way that you care deeply for them as people. They aren’t words on a page, they are your friends, your parents, your grandparents.

The only thing I didn’t like, and I got over it quickly, is that the books are written in third person present tense. “Elizabeth nods.” “Elizabeth raises an eyebrow.” This grammatical perspective draws many readers into the story. It tends to pull me out of the story because I prefer past tense. That said, after the initial distraction, I quickly fell into the story and found that I didn’t notice it as I read.

This is a very popular series and I’m ashamed to say that I just now sat down to read the books because I saw the movie on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it yet, you absolutely must. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie play our sleuths. I was so smitten with them that I immediately grabbed the first few books. And then more. I planned to wait until the final book in hardback moved to paperback, but that didn’t happen. The very moment I finished Book 4; I bought Book 5 in hardback. I was obsessed. I had to know what my dear friends did next. These books are that good.

If you enjoy a good mystery that also pulls you into the lives of the main characters, grab The Thursday Murder Club series, where the reading glasses and slip-on shoes are beside the evidence markers.

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