The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman.

 

            Hands up anyone who thinks the gang from the Thursday Murder Club has done its dash, grown a bit hackneyed and predictable – in short, can’t cut it any more:  Harrumph.  NO HANDS AT ALL!!   I should think so.

            It’s such a pleasure to meet these singular characters all again;  they are so dear to us that we would be happy to follow the most boring of their routines at Coopers Chase Retirement Village just to be part of their unique way of looking at the world, and at themselves – which as we know, can come up wanting.

            Joyce, former nurse, who sometimes employs a wildly different kind of logic to her friend Elizabeth (ex spy) to arrive at the same sharp conclusions is in raptures because her only daughter Joanna is marrying Paul, a Sociology Professor and at the reception Joyce is in 7^th Heaven because she can introduce him as ‘my Son-in-Law, Paul’ – which she does to tiresome effect.  Elizabeth (ex spy) is grieving terribly for her beloved husband who has recdently died, and is taking a break from the reception and its festivities, only to be approached by the Best Man, who asks for her help in finding out who has put a bomb under his car parked in the driveway of his home.  Grief in its many forms is forced to take a back seat as Elizabeth and Joyce embark on their latest mystery, ably assisted by the rest of the members of the Thursday Murder Club, including ex-eminent Psychologist Ibrahim and retired Firebrand Unionist Ron, who is having troubles of his own:  his daughter’s drop-kick violent husband has finally been given his marching orders by Ron’s daughter, but he doesn’t like being told what to do, so he hires a hit man to dispose of them all.  Big mistake! 

            Ron’s son foils the plot and ex-hubbie is forced to plan another hit by himself – which he is greedy enough to do because he has gotten wind of the fact that Ron has access to an enormous fortune in Bitcoin, left to gather value until it has reached a total that sounds like a multitude of phone numbers.  Shouldn’t be too hard to access;  that old Ron is way past his use-by date:  piece of cake!  Or not.

            Once again we are turning pages at breakneck speed and loving every minute;  new characters are introduced and minor characters have been given a dusting-off so thorough that I hope they will appear in the next book – yes, Richard Osman has done it again:  made us forget, however briefly,  what a worrying place our world is at this time.  FIVE STARS      

 

The Frozen People, by Elly Griffiths.

    
     

          Detective Ali Dawson works for the Police on cold cases – some of them so old that the victims are known as the Frozen People, especially when she is asked to apply 21^st century investigative techniques to Victorian crimes, like that involving the ancestor of her son Finn’s ambitious boss, Isaac Templeton:  he has aspirations to lead the Tory party to victory sooner rather than later, but his ancestor has scandalous stories whirling about him – even in 2023 – that could damage his chances if it is revealed that Caine Templeton belonged to a gentleman’s club called the Collectors, ostensibly for collecting art – and oddities (a murderer’s brain, for example) – but to join, would-be applicants had first to kill a woman.  Ali is relieved she can’t travel back in time to investigate – until an ambitious young physicist finds a way that works, and like it or not, Ali is on her way.

            And what she discovers is more than enough to stay to solve more crimes (including Templeton and his Collectors) – but it transpires that her one chance to return to the 21^st century has been nabbed by someone else – and that someone has murder on his mind (oh, really?) – yes, here was I ambling along enjoying all the Dickensian characters and Elly Griffith’s wonderfully well-researched descriptions of every-day life in 1850 London (Chamber Pots – thank goodness for modern plumbing! And the enormous amounts of clothing that women had to wear:  if nothing else, the world has become a more comfortable place.)  But not a safe one with a Victorian killer on the loose.

            Ali is able to return to her own time after a few days of horrible suspense – only to find that her son Finn’s boss Isaac Templeton has been murdered at his country estate, and Finn has been charged with murder – by an over-zealous Detective Sergeant who wants everything tidied away with the minimum of fuss;  the CCTV showed a few blurry photos that could have been anyone – including Finn, so that is another mystery for Ali to solve. Whether she wants to or not.

            The ending leaves lots of questions unanswered as this is the first of a new series – which is SO good I hope Ms Griffiths already has Book Two ready for publication,  Ali is not glamorous;  she’s had three husbands of varying quality, celebrated her 50^th birthday and is past her prime, but she’s not dead yet, and capable of carrying this new series high.  FIVE STARS.