This is Richard Osman's 3rd installment in the "Thursday Murder Club" series and there is no letdown in the pace of challenges and mysteries to solve by our intrepid quartet. Publishers Weekly offers this favorable review: "Osman’s diverting third Thursday Murder Club mystery (after 2021’s The Man Who Lived Twice) delivers laughs along with a nicely woven plot involving fraud, murder, and life in the Kent retirement village of Coopers Chase. At the club’s regular meeting in the Jigsaw Room, the four members—Elizabeth, a retired but still well-connected British spy; Ibrahim, a well-meaning psychiatrist; Ron, a still-feisty activist for workers’ rights; and the unexpectedly shrewd Joyce, whose diary entries enliven the narrative—decide to tackle the cold case of Bethany Waites, a journalist for the local TV station whose wrecked car was found at the bottom of a cliff 10 years earlier. The police declared it a murder, surmising that Bethany’s body had been washed out to sea. The group’s investigation stirs up a hornet’s nest and leads to another death, a kidnapping, and blackmail. The pace is breezy, the characters are intelligent and varied in their interests and backgrounds, and the humor is often pitched to readers who understand the vagaries of getting older. Osman reliably entertains.
Library Journal calls it a "character-rich mystery" with "...investigations into fraud, murder, and threats in a case that takes the group into prisons, TV studios, and danger; romance, humor, and a clever trap to catch a villain..." Booklist concludes, "Plenty of layers, but plenty of laughs, too." Kirkus also praises and ends their review "The mysteries are complex, the characters vivid, and the whole thing is laced with warm humor and—remarkably, considering the body count—good feeling."
No comments:
Post a Comment