In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?

I read this five years ago and while I reviewed it on Goodreads and Amazon, it never made its way onto my blog. I wasn’t reviewing on here yet – that came later.

With the release of the film which I watched on Netflix last night, I thought I would pop my review on here with a few comments about the film.

My Review

Written by TV presenter Richard Osman – and I’m a huge fan – I just had to read it didn’t I. And I wasn’t disappointed.

It’s choc full of of red herrings. Even the red herrings have baby herrings and just when you think you’ve cracked the mystery, something else turns up. Having finished quite late in the evening, I had to concentrate when I woke up to check if I could remember it all. It’s highly entertaining and will keep you guessing right up to the very end. And some of the answers might even be pointless (see what I did there).

There are so many references to the four main protagonists’ previous lives – Elizabeth for instance was a spy – but also to popular culture, some of which made me laugh out loud. As well as a murder mystery, it’s also a sharp observation of life with plenty of humour and often hilarious dialogue. However, I didn’t expect to cry while reading it, but I did. The last part was so touching that I couldn’t help shed a few tears.

I know our gang will be back in a few months time to solve another tale of bludgeoning (it’s a wonderful word), poisoning and derring-do or whatever crime will take place in book two and I have a sneaky feeling that The Thursday Murder Club will become a modern classic and a TV series.

And the moral of the story – never underestimate the combined wisdom of a group of octogenarians when it comes from the pen of one of our cleverest writers. And I almost forgot their partners-in-crime-solving – our two detectives Chris and Donna.

Now for the film. I loved every minute of it and what a cast! Ghandi, James Bond, The Queen (watch out for a moment when Elizabeth is in disguise), Miss Babs from Acorn Antiques, and Dr Who, aka Ben Kingsley, Piers Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie and David Tennant. All brilliant! And not forgetting Jonathan Pryce as Elizabeth’s husband (who steals the show whenever he’s on screen) and Daniels Mays as the police officer in charge of the murder investigation with his sidekick PC Donna De Freitas (played by Naomi Ackie).

The film is very funny, but it also handles dementia sympathetically, and the ending is touching and poignant and had me in tears. I think I might watch it again.

About the Author

Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter. The Thursday Murder Club is his first novel. He is well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. As the creative director of Endemol UK, Richard has worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.