The Thursday Murder Club

Starred review from July 6, 2020
British TV celebrity Osman mixes mirth and murder in his exceptional debut, a series launch featuring the four members of the Thursday Murder Club, residents of the Coopers Chase Retirement Village in Kent. Despite their different backgrounds, Elizabeth
, Ibrahim, Joyce, and Ron share an interest in solving mysteries. When 26-year-old Donna De Freitas, a police constable who dreams of pursuing serial killers, visits the home to talk to the pensioners about “Practical Tips for Home Security,” the club members arrange for Donna to be assigned to a homicide case they have a connection to by manipulating her boss, so that they can get access to the investigation through a grateful Donna. That way they can take a crack at solving the bludgeoning murder of drug dealer Tony Curran, who operated a building business as a front, and whose killer left a photo of three men, one of whom is Ron’s son, near Curran’s corpse. They use their individual talents, including Joyce’s gift for gathering information unobtrusively, and Ibrahim’s medical knowledge, which enables him to narrow the timing of a second, related killing. Osman’s witty prose (labor activist Ron’s “picture was rarely in the papers without the caption ‘Talks between the two sides collapsed late last night’”) is a highlight. Fans of Lynne Truss’s Constable Twitten mysteries will be tickled. Agent: Juliet Mushens, Mushens Entertainment (U.K.).

Four residents of the Coopers Chase retirement village meet regularly in this audiobook to try to solve cold cases until a real murder happens at the village. The septuagenarians then pit their detecting skills against those of the police. Narrator Leslie Manville captures the humor that arises organically from the very real characters she voices, making this audiobook fun to listen to. Listeners gain appreciation for the experiences of retirees as they face the deaths of their friends and family while continuing to keep active. As more bodies are added to the case, including a 50-year-old skeleton found in the Garden of Eternal Rest, Manville keeps listeners engaged. V.M.G. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine