This debut novel by Richard Osman was one of my most enjoyable reads in a long time. It was just a wonderful combination of unique characters (all oldsters like me), witty dialog, charm, an English setting, and sufficiently complicated plot...a perfect English cozy! Four residents of a retirement community like to get together on Thursdays in the meeting room “between Art History and Conversational French” to go over unsolved murders. One of the former members, Penny, was a detective inspector, although she is now in a coma. But her replacement is a former nurse, Joyce, who offers useful medical knowledge and keeps a log of their work in her diary; and there is Red Ron, former union firebrand and still a reliable rabble rouser; Ibrahim, a psychologist who still meets with some of his patients; and Elizabeth, whose past is a mystery but who has contacts who can get information for her that no ordinary person should have access to. When they are confronted with the actual murder of the retirement community's shady developer, they gleefully go into high gear, co-opting a local woman constable, Donna DeFreital, who had come to give a safety talk. They are endlessly inventive in finagling information from her boss, and are often a step ahead of the police. But we also witness love and loss and friendship among a truly diverse group. Just pure fun and a terrific antidote for our troubling times; I would love to read more adventures of this group and the publisher promises one this time next year.
Favorable review from The Guardian, Kirkus, Christian Science Monitor, and Publishers Weekly.
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