Well worth reading. I was sceptical when I started reading this, but I needn’t have been. It’s part mystery, part comedy but so readable. We meet 4 characters in a retirement village and they are all members of The Thursday Murder Club. They look through old cases to try and solve them, but then a real murder comes along and the 4 get involved. These are not just 4 old people in a retirement home, don’t be fooled. The plot is pacy, the characters interesting and believable and it keeps you guessing, or it did me, every step of the way.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Viking for the chance to read this one pre-publication in exchange for an honest review.
I read this in about 3 sittings, usually a great sign, and no different in this case. Richard has written a superb murder mystery, perfect for putting your feet up with a cuppa and getting to know the characters and the retirement village they reside in.
There's a rich range of characters throughout, all with little quirks that you'll either love or hate.
It isn't a gritty murder mystery at all, but rather a 'Sunday afternoon' kind of book - not a criticism
at all. It's full of twists and turns, and amusing plot points, and has you thinking all the way through.
I'm looking forward to the next one already! I would recommend reading this to anyone, and already have the actual book on pre-order.

A gripping crime novel with plenty of twists and turns, along with a nice touch of humour, making The Thursday Murder Club an extremely enjoyable read.

The story moved at a fast pace and I particularly loved the relationships between the characters, especially between the residents and the police.

I recommend this book to any readers who enjoy crime and cozy mysteries.

A favourite book of 2020!
This charming mystery revolves around a supported living establishment of a quiet village.
The characters get together once a week to review cold murder cases.
This book flows well through the story and the characters are just delightful. They are well described and you can visualise them easily.
The story takes many turns and takes you on a journey of humour, sadness and love.
The plot is not guessable and here are mysteries right up until the end.
A book to read again and again and is definitely one of my favourite books of 2020.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley in allowing me to read in return for a review.

This is set in an upscale retirement complex where a group of retirees meet on Thursdays to solve murders. It is a lightweight comedy in which you can hear Richard Osman's voice throughout - it has quips, rambling anecdotes and asides to the audience - just the way he normally speaks on Pointless. There is no depth of character or attempts at tension. I found it very tiresome to read.

Picture the scene, an expensive retirement village in Kent (think pilates, Zumba, a gym, a swimming pool and cafe), called Cooper's Chase Retirement Village, built on the site of a former convent and four retirees meet every Thursday to try to solve old murder cases.

Then the retirement village's shady owner Ian Ventham decides he wants to expand by digging up the nun's graveyard and cutting out his builder and minority partner Tony Curran, the retirees are up in arms and Tony Curran is found bludgeoned to death in his own home. Soon there is an embarrassment of murders, old and new, for the club to solve, working alongside local detective DCI Chris Hudson and PC Donna de Freitas. There are red herrings galore and it is all set in my corner of the world (I don't know why it gives me a thrill when characters are on a train that stops in my home town of Orpington, but it does). Think Miss Marple but with an iPad and brought right up to date with modern concerns. It had a plethora of engaging characters, all with interesting backstories.

I had two niggles with this book. First, Richard Osman writes in the present tense a lot and it can be difficult to determine whether one of the characters is speaking/writing or whether the author is speaking directly to the reader, then he mixes his tenses, like this:
Ron had come to her with the photograph that Karen Playfair had seen. Karen would have been young at the time, but she was sure. Elizabeth had tried to piece it all together in her head. It seemed impossible at first. But the more she thought about it, it began to seem horribly true. She worked out the steps, one by one. Ibrahim had come back an hour ago, with the final piece of the jigsaw, so now is the time. The case is solved and only justice remains.
I could follow it but the changing tenses pulled me out of the story to be honest.
My second niggle may merely be a formatting issue with my ARC, scenes changed and the character changed within the same paragraph with no warning. One minute Elizabeth and Ron were talking in the Jigsaw Room and the next sentence features Chris and Donna watching TV and can take a sentence or two before you realise the change. Now, as I say this could be formatting of my ARC, I seemed to lose the chapter numbers partway through the book so it could be that the final version doesn't have this issue.

Overall, loved this quirky gang of octogenarian sleuths, able to find out what the police cannot (just like Miss Marple) and would love to read another one.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A great premise... a group of 4 pensioners in a retirement home set out to solve a murder that has happened on their doorstep in their retirement village. Great cast of characters, plenty of twists and turns. Reminded me a lot of old episodes of midsummer murders... and that’s no bad thing!

At times I got confused by the sheer number of characters and suspects, but I liked the two police detectives Donna and Chris, reliant on the eighty-somethings to help them solve their crimes

I see book 2 already on the horizon and this I am sure will be a great commercial success.

I enjoyed this book about an eccentric bunch of murder solving old codgers - all rather implausible but amusing. I did find the layout of the book annoying to read. Part of the story is told through Joyce's diary and part is narrative but one minute I was reading the diary, then with no break or new paragraph, it was suddenly the narrative. It may be partly due to formatting on the kindle. With so many twists and turns in the plot it was a bit confusing.

I requested this book out of curiosity. The description sounded really interesting. I am always a fan of murder mysteries and this seemed really different featuring 4 members of a retirement community. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim were very diverse characters and there were some very poignant scenes. I enjoyed the beginning of the novel, it was really obvious that it was written in a witty ‘Richard Osman’ style, but I felt it dragged and was quite drawn out/ meandering. It was also quite hard to read as the paragraphs ran together. Moving to another characters input into the story with very little notice. I assume this was because it was an early copy but I did find it confusing.
I prefer mysteries that provide hidden clues so you can try and work out the twists. I didn’t feel this was achieved in this book. Maybe that was not the intention anyway? It seemed to meander on then suddenly the answers were provided.
I am sure given who the author is this book will sell very well,
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read a preview copy of this novel.

This was a meandering cozy crime novel. When I saw it was by Richard Osman I had to read it because I love his dry wit on Pointless. Although I usually like gritty thrillers I found this novel a welcome change. The characters are well portrayed. The moral of the story is don't underestimate the elderly! People assume they are hard of hearing and short-sighted and don't remember things. But Richard's characters are all retired professionals and very astute. However, they aren't afraid to play to typecasting at times and pretend to be dotty when it suits them

I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. I literally couldn't wait to pick it up and I smiled the whole the way through.

This is a murder mystery but set in a luxury retirement home and four elderly residents a.k.a The Thursday Murder Club are the sleuths!

Richard Osman is obviously such a funny man and I am so glad this came through in this book! I absolutely loved every character and I laughed at the utter madness of the conversations. It is absolutely brilliant and I really hope there is more from The Thursday Murder Club!!

This was absolutely brilliant, I'm so sad I've finished it but I am sure I will often think of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Viking for the advanced copy (I did a happy dance when I received it). This book is due to be published the 3rd September, BUY IT!!!

I have always enjoyed watching Richard on TV and was very much looking forward to his debut thriller. It certainly didn’t disappoint.

On the surface, the location and the characters would seem an unlikely setting for a murder mystery. The setting is a peaceful, idyllic retirement village called Coopers Chase. The main protagonists are four octogenarian friends who meet every Thursday to study cold murder cases from old police files. This unorthodox group each of whom have interesting past histories, comprises feisty Elizabeth, who it is believed was something to do with MI6 and is certainly the ring leader of the group, and Joyce an ex nurse, who is a fairly new member of the group; Ron a former engineer and Ibrahim a psychologist.

When a brutal murder takes place on their own doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. The race is then on to see whether the four amateur, but brilliant sleuths can solve the murder ahead of the police.

This is a delightful book, but more of a cosy, entertaining read than an exciting page turning thriller. More like Marigold Hotel meets Midsomer Murders. The crime solving is almost secondary to the wonderful array of characters, who aren’t afraid to play the dementia card if and when it sits them. There are also some wonderful one-liners and endearing comic moments.

I would certainly recommend this for a relaxing enjoyable summer read.

This quirky, fun, witty and emotional cozy mystery has a deep emotional heart.
The members of the Thursday Murder Club at the Coopers Chase Retirement Village are quite unique. Each character has emotionally evocative and sometimes heart-rending challenges to cope with as they face old age.
Yes, I did guess who killed the unlikeable victims very early one, but one thing is certain. Indomitable English ladies are still a force to be reckoned with! They are not going down without a fight!

My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for a copy of “ The Thursday Murder Club” for an honest review.

What a talented man Richard Osman is ! He seems to have the golden touch to whatever he puts his name to.
I found this book to be a joy from start to finish , so I was so glad to see the next one is already in the pipeline .
I loved the style of writing , the story kept me intrigued and was laced with humour.I can easily see this televised
This is definitely a book I will be recommending .

Richard Osman is a favourite of mine, love him on Pointless and his tweets always keep me amused! His first novel didn’t disappoint either; loved the characters in the Murder Club! A lovely book to read on a rainy afternoon, and it was a Thursday too!!

Thoroughly enjoyed this tale of four octogenarian sleuths. Joyce, the main narrator is both an observant investigator but also just like someone’s nan. Osman’s writing is funny and well observed. His characters are likeable and diverse. Their interwoven stories come together beautifully. Particularly enjoyed the Sussex references. It will always be Shoreham Airport to me.

Usually I read the proper gritty, grim crime books however, once in a while you need to take a step back and read something that isn’t full on.
I loved this book, the characters are likeable, I can envision everything that they done as it’s just what I imagine OAPs would do in a retirement home! If you love a cosy murder mystery then this one is definitely for you. When my time comes, I 100% want to end up somewhere like Coopers Chase!

I was intrigued when I saw this book come up on NetGalley having watched Richard Osman on TV and wondered what a book written by him would be like. So after being successful in obtaining an advanced reader copy I settled into the story of The Thursday Murder Club.

It tells the story of four octogenarians who, in a peaceful retirement village, set up a weekly group to meet and investigate unsolved murders. However they soon end up involved in new murders as they happen around them and quickly set to work in solving the case - however unorthodox their methods may be!

You can’t fail to love the four characters of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim and you do feel like part of the community knowing all their ins and outs and quirks by the end of it. It’s very cleverly written and very funny, you could actually imagine your grandmother writing a diary as Joyce does to tell you, in quite a blasé way, about her daily activities and her discoveries of the evolving world - especially loved the discovery of Tinder and Grinder from her perspective!

I did feel that it was slightly longer than it should have been and the format I received the advanced reader copy in made it a very confusing read - there were abrupt endings but no break in the text so you were unclear as to where sections ended and it did unfortunately break up the flow of the book. I am sure this will be eliminated by the time this gets published next month and this would definitely improve the reading experience of this title. An enjoyable read despite this though!

An absolutely brilliant book. An excellent story with many intriguing twists and turns, laced with Richard Osman’s unique wit and humour. I would love to watch this on TV!

A well written crime story for lovers of the more gentle murder mystery- you may just be surprised by hi ability to write and to make you laugh out loud. With Alan Bennett's ear for an original phrase and a touch of the Exotic Marigold Hotels, this is an easy read which you will thoroughly enjoy, full review at booketybook.com