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 Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman.

           

      
      Who by now surely needs no introduction:  his familiar and much-loved characters from his first three books about the elderly sleuths of a British retirement village have been smash hits, not least because he ably demonstrates that old people, particularly his main characters, can still run rings (metaphorically) around those much younger.  (Chronically!)

            The members of the Thursday Murder Club are grappling with the news that one of their friends, antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma, has been murdered after receiving a terracotta box containing heroin worth a hundred thousand pounds – then attempting to sell it on himself.  Hard for the friends to believe, but that’s where all the evidence points. 

            Naturally, the Club members are not privy to gathered police evidence – except for the efforts of Constable Donna and her boss Chris, who are miffed because the National Crime Agency have been mysteriously alerted and are now running the investigation, including taking over Chris’s office, AND the Senior Officer has made herself as unpleasant as possible, seconding them to horse thefts.  No wonder there is mutiny in the ranks!  Which means that the friends know as much (or more) than the official investigators.

            Needless to say, the dealers who were waiting for the heroin also do their best to find the missing powder, and people start to die – Bad Buggers mainly, but the body count is rising and the mystery remains as to who will survive – and do they deserve to?

            Richard Osman’s wonderful characters remain the same, reliable and true to each other and themselves, but behind the humour and still-enviable zest for life lies the spectre of aged vulnerability – that which every old person fears:  the terrifying loss of self, dementia.  Ex-spy Elizabeth has to face daily the gradual and obvious mental deterioration of her beloved husband Stephen and, whilst he is still capable of making giant decisions, they must decide between them what, when, and where to finish their long and beloved union.  I defy even the most stoutly unemotional reader not to be moved by Elizabeth’s predicament; it happens to so many thousands of couples and Richard Osman writes with great empathy and poignancy on behalf of them all:  thank you, Mr Osman, for writing of old age with such humour and grace - my only worry being that he says he’s going to give the Thursday Murder Club a rest for a little while as he concentrates on a new series:  well, all I can say is that Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron or Ibrahim better not have popped their clogs in the meantime!  FIVE STARS.      

              

 

The Bullet that Missed, by Richard Osman.

           

Game-show host Richard Osman has, with his third novel about a gang of retirement-village sleuths, cemented his reputation as the new master of the comic Crime novel:  his Thursday Murder Club series is rightly lauded as perfect entertainment, while glossing over none of the sadness and isolation that affect so many of the elderly – and the vulnerability, physical and emotional, that they are forced to deal with in their everyday lives, as shown so powerfully in Book Two, ‘The Man Who Died Twice’.

In Book Three, the gang is still meeting every Thursday, and have decided that their latest cold case investigation should centre upon the murder ten years before of Bethany Waites, an ambitious and talented young TV journalist whose car was found at the bottom of a Dover cliff.  Her blood and clothes were found in the car, but her body has never been found.  There was no doubt of her murder, as she was investigating a huge VAT fraud at the time, but the police investigation revealed practically nothing – just the sort of mystery that former spy Elizabeth, retired nurse Joyce (whose new rescue dog Alan loves them ALL with tongue-licking abandon), retired psychiatrist Ibrahim, and former firebrand unionist Ron delight in sinking their teeth into.

There’s just a tiny complication, though:  Elizabeth has just received a text from an unknown number instructing her to kill Viktor, an old friend from her spying days, a retired (naturally!) KGB officer, who now lives in great style and wealth in London as a money-launderer:  if Viktor is not disposed of in two weeks, Joyce will die.

Naturally, Joyce is blissfully unaware that she may have only a fortnight to live, and when she and Elizabeth take the train to the Big Smoke, she is enjoying herself tremendously – until she meets Viktor in his palatial Penthouse and Elizabeth suddenly points a big gun at him:  even her threat never to speak to her best friend EVER again does not persuade Elizabeth to lower her weapon.  What had been a lovely day out (it wasn’t even raining!) has turned into the worst time of Joyce’s life.

Once again, we are all willingly sitting in the palm of Mr Osman’s hand:  his plotting is water-tight and his supporting characters are, as always, people like thee and me, and wholly delightful (as thee and me are)!  And because life isn’t always a laugh a minute – even though it should be – we must make the journey with Elizabeth as she witnesses her beloved husband’s inexorable decline into dementia.  With this great series, Mr Osman has shown that he is a true voice of Those of a Certain Age – the Elderly.  And he does it with great style and wit.  Well done!  FIVE STARS.   

 

The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman.

   

         ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ was TV presenter Richard Osman’s first and (he said) ‘finest novel’.  Fair enough.  The story of various elderly residents of a Retirement Village solving not only a cold case murder, but two very recent ones was a smash hit, and endeared its characters to millions.

            Could he do it again?  And with the same flair and riotous humour that left readers sorry they had reached the last page?

            Of course he could, and it’s the perfect antidote for doom and gloom in these Covid times.

  The Thursday Murder Club is still meeting, having become very fond of each other whilst solving crime.  Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce are now firm friends and it isn’t long before the next mystery  demands to be solved:  Elizabeth has been sent a letter from a man thought to be long and most definitely dead, and when she makes reluctant contact, discovers to her horror that the ‘deceased’ is her ex-husband Douglas,  a marriage she ended for all the right reasons – his infidelity; utter unreliability;  irresponsibility – and fatal charm.  He was also, like Elizabeth, an excellent MI5 Operative.  Now, he wants to stay for a short time (unspecified) at the retirement village:  it's the perfect safe house.  Who would think of looking for him in an Old Folk’s Home?

Meantime, retired Psychiatrist Ibrahim has been attacked by street toughs in front of – of all places – the police station, and has to spend several days in hospital.  When he returns home he is a frightened old man and decides never to leave his apartment again, which incenses his best friend Ron, ex union-organiser (among other things until old age caught up) who always has his ear to the ground:  it doesn’t take him long to find out who the attacker was and plan a fitting revenge.

Once again, Richard Osman delivers a complex plot with well-drawn lesser characters, several different corpses, and everyone getting their just desserts at the story’s conclusion.  All I’s and T’s are dotted and crossed.  And again, he explores the vulnerability and loss of confidence that old age brings, and the fear that should never be felt when walking past teenage boys.

And the fear that the three friends feel when they hear that ex-nurse Joyce is contemplating getting a rescue dog!  There’s one at the local shelter called Alan, and his online credentials look sound. We’ll find out if that’s true in Book # three.  Scary stuff!  FIVE STARS.

 

   

 

THE BEST OF THE BEST, THE CRÈME DE LA CRÈME 

THE FIRST FOURTEEN OF THE GREATEST READS OF THE YEAR 2020, FOR ALL GREAT READERS!

1.    The Testaments, byMargaret Atwood.

2.    The Butterfly Girl, by Rene Denfeld.

3.    The Overstory, byRichard Powers.

4.    American Dirt, by JeanineCummins.

5.    Saving Missy, byBeth Morrey.

6.    The Mirror and theLight, by Hilary Mantel.

7.    Broken, by Don Winslow.

8.    The Dickens Boy, byTom Keneally.

9.    The Last Crossing,by Brian McGilloway

10.          Call Your Daughter Home, by Deb Spera

11.          The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donohue

12.          The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

13.          Like a House on Fire, by Caroline Hulse

14.          The Sound of Stars (YA), by Alechia Dow

 I thank you all for your interest throughout the year - isn't it great to have great stories at our fingertips.  In spite of Covid and its attendant worries, we are still able to enjoy the best escapism of all.  Season's greetings everyone, and let us hope that 2021 will be a vast improvement on crappy old 2020 - we all should have a refund on this year!  Lots of love to all.  

 

The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman.

 

            The Thursday Murder Club is Osman’s first, and so far, his best novel.  Well. You can’t say fairer than that.  And that statement alone will give readers a taste of what’s to come, all of which is a pure delight.  I’ve been wading through some pretty heavy stuff lately and it was an utter pleasure to sit back and enjoy that rare combination of excellent characters, a complex plot (you have to pay attention at all times!), and wonderful humour combined with shrewd observation on what to expect when we reach the wrong end of life.

            The residents of Coopers Chase retirement village have reached that stage of their existence, but a number of them are refusing to throw in the towel just yet, and have formed The Thursday Murder Club, held on that day in the Jigsaw Puzzle room and organised by Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron, all of whom had very interesting occupations before Old Age caught up and galloped past them:  Elizabeth was something mysterious and high up in law enforcement (she has influential 'friends’ seemingly everywhere);  Ibrahim is a retired psychiatrist with a huge, not to say alarmingly pedantic grasp of facts and statistics, and Ron – Red Ron is a famous Union stirrer and battler of legendary repute, the bane of every British Prime Minister for the last forty years until arthritis and his short-term memory did for him.  They are still intent on using their combined formidable intelligence to solve a Cold Case, and have just recruited Joyce as a new member.

            Joyce is practical, disarmingly cheerful and a prolific baker of excellent cakes – and she’s a nurse, providing necessary medical knowledge to the group – oh, they’re going to have great fun solving the cold-case murder of a young woman who died in the 70’s!

            Except that not one, but two ‘fresh’ murders occur within days of each other:  first, the builder of the retirement village is bludgeoned to death in his home, then the developer for whom he worked is poisoned with a massive overdose of Fentanyl.  Never mind that the police are on the scene with alacrity – the Thursday Murder Club will provide invaluable assistance, not least because they live On the Job.  And it’s great to have mysteries to solve, for it makes them feel young.

            Mr Osman successfully negotiates the fine line between pathos and bathos by treating his great characters with utter respect, and giving them – and the reader – myriad opportunities to laugh;  at themselves, at each other, and at life.  SIX STARS!