The Thursday Murder Club
I deliberately avoided this because A) it was written by a celebrity and I’m fed up with them jumping to head of the publishing queue; B) it’s about OAPs investigating a murder; and C) because of that, I thought it was a genre I’ve never been able to take to. Cosy crime. Cosy crime is all about people doing dreadful things to each other but it’s all right really because nobody ever actually really gets hurt – except that poor victim at the beginning – and it all winds up nicely with a nice cup of tea, or a pint in the pub, and a cuddly joke to wrap everything up. OAPs feature in them a lot! Big mistake! Richard Osman is a terrific writer, with a wicked sense of humour and an eye for genuinely original characters.* What’s more, his four main ones, the members of the club, are NOT defined by their age. They just happen to be old, which doesn’t mean that they can’t bring the skills they acquired in their working lives to bear on solving the mystery at hand. And it’s this that lifts the bo...
