SEPTEMBER 2023 - AudioFile
Fiona Shaw returns to the Thursday Murder Club series with a tour-de-force performance befitting Richard Osman's rich character development and cleverly connected crimes. Shaw's subtle variations in tone, cadence, and accent distinguish the familiar residents of Cooper's Chase, as well as the sweeping cast of police detectives and criminals. Osman's wise decision to continue aging his intrepid pensioners is echoed by Shaw in her emotional connection to the characters, particularly through her understated rendering of Joyce's contemplative diary voice. Osman expertly weaves an intricate tale of heroin smuggling, online elder scamming, and the sometimes-crooked antiques business with the vicissitudes of aging and its ensuing pain, all warmly realized by Shaw's stellar narration. A fascinating discussion between author and narrator ends the audiobook. S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
Praise for The Last Devil to Die:
“Skulduggery and laughs abound as our favorite gaggle of amateur-detective retirees tackle drug runners, dodgy antique dealers, art forgers and Battenberg cake recipes.”
—People
“The best Murder Club book yet. . . A poignant complement to both the fair-play mystery plot and the characters’ lively humor.”
—New York Times Book Review
“So what is it about the Thursday Murder Club books that make them so broadly appealing? The simple answer is that they are really good. The writing is pithy and fresh, so much so that I kept writing down lines from The Last Devil To Die. . . But there’s more than just quotable sentences at work here. Osman’s plots play fair with the reader, carefully placing 'red herrings' to fool the reader into picking the wrong possible murder suspect—a gambit that has improved with each successive book. The endings feel both inevitable and earned: the exact combination one wants in a good mystery. . . Osman’s greatest strength is fusing the puzzle-mastery of Christie and her Golden Age peers with emotional earnestness and wry humor.”
—Esquire
“There may be other aged detectives in print and on television, but for wit, intelligence and humanity, the Thursday Murder Club outranks them all.”
—Wall Street Journal
“While author Richard Osman will be moving on to write a second series, he assured me (and the many other readers who are similarly invested) that he’ll return to the funny, sweet stories of my favorite retirement home sleuths. The Last Devil to Die is a beautiful send-off that will get us through the wait."
—Elle
“Richard Osman’s books are a slyly sophisticated bunch, boasting emotional development equal to the memorable mysteries. . . Thursday Murder Club mystery stands up well on its own, but given the richness of character and relationships, as a set, they’re bloody brilliant.”
—NPR
“Osman doesn’t disappoint… Everything is here that fans of the series have come to expect: humour, warmth, the confounding of expectations as these pensioners investigate… Along with the laughs, there is grief, and an ending that is handled sensitively (I was weeping)… We all need a regular injection of the Thursday Murder Club to keep our spirits up.”
—The Guardian
“Richard Osman returns with an enchanting fourth installment of his retirement village mystery series. . . Osman takes readers on an emotional journey, penning a story that deals with love, life and dementia, for a softer, more thoughtful tale than previous books in the series. I found myself tearing up at times, so maybe keep a box of tissues nearby.”
—Seattle Times
“The Last Devil to Die is equal parts well-plotted mystery, scintillating repartee and deep reflection on what it means to love and live.”
—BookPage, starred review
“I cannot think of another series with a more moving exploration of love after a lifetime together, and The Last Devil To Die reduced me to tears at more than one point.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
“What is truly special in the books are the characters, whose age allows for a beautiful kind of interaction… For all the fizz of jokes and romance, the books carry with them a sense of grief and sadness which becomes much stronger in The Last Devil to Die… The kindness is his books comes out of something greater for Osman. It’s how he wants the world to be and it’s how he thinks the world is, if only we could realize it.”
—Town & Country
“Incredibly clever, with some deeply poignant scenes and laugh-out-loud shenanigans from the elderly friends, this fourth entry in the series is chaotically fun… Osman weaves numerous plot lines, both tragic and hilarious, into an irresistible novel, perfect for fans of Mrs. Pollifax or Miss Marple.”
—Shelf Awareness
“The latest adventure of the Thursday Murder Club is also its best... Even if the mysteries weren't absorbing — which they are — Osman's books, like Alexander McCall Smith's, would work simply because it's such fun to spend time with these people. What sets Devil apart from its predecessors is the deftness and humor with which Osman confronts a subject that's completely not funny: dementia... In the end, the murder club books are not really about crime but about friendship and finding ways to stay involved in life.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Delivers the same kind of clever dialogue, colorful characters and corkscrew plotting that made the other books so much fun… As you reach the last chapters of this book, you’ll think you’ve figured out the mystery. You’ll think so several times. But Osman and the Thursday Murder Club will keep the surprises coming.”
—Tampa Bay Times
“It’s impossible to resist Osman’s quartet of septuagenarian crime solvers, so go ahead and give in to the Thursday Murder Club. But start at the beginning and work your way to this one; it’s the best and most fully realized of the series’s four books.”
—AirMail
“The strands of the plot multiply entertainingly and get tied together in the usual satisfying way… Osman serves up another delightful mystery.”
—Kirkus
“Osman follows The Bullet That Missed with a bittersweet mystery about the problems facing many older people: dementia, computer fraud, death. Humor does, however, alleviate the poignancy in this strongest, most emotional book in the best-selling series.”
—Library Journal, starred review
Praise for The Bullet That Missed:
“Osman concocts a satisfyingly complex whodunit full of neat twists and wrong turns. But unlike most crime novelists, he ensures his book’s strength and momentum stem not from its plot or its thrills but rather its perfectly formed characters. Once again, the quartet of friends makes for delightful company… Heartwarming and enthralling. ‘They carried a kind of magic, the four of them,’ a policeman muses. That magic is still there in abundance.”
—Washington Post
“The Bullet That Missed hits on every front. Its quandaries stymie, its solutions thrill, its banter is worth reciting and its characters exemplify an admirable camaraderie. One can only hope that the Thursday Murder Club’s next outing appears before long.”
—Wall Street Journal
“The Thursday Murder Club is back, and that should make everyone happy — except, of course, murderers. Richard Osman's engaging series about a group of crime-solving retirees has delighted readers since the first book. The Thursday Murder Club, an international bestseller, was funny, original, baffling, poignant and thoroughly engaging. That's a high bar to set from the get-go, but Osman has easily achieved it in subsequent books… This book is as delightful as the others. A remarkable achievement, Osman up there effortlessly balancing on that very high bar.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Not to be missed.”
—Parade
"Charming."
—People
“The mysteries are complex, the characters vivid, and the whole thing is laced with warm humor and—remarkably, considering the body count—good feeling. Your next must-read mystery series.”
—Kirkus, starred review
“Bestseller Osman’s diverting third Thursday Murder Club mystery (after 2021’s The Man Who Lived Twice) delivers laughs along with a nicely woven plot....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.”
—Publishers Weekly
“It's charming and, as always, will leave you guessing the murderer until the very end.”
—Town and Country
Library Journal
★ 09/01/2023
A murder on Boxing Day strikes close to home for the Thursday Murder Club. Antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma knows some of his transactions are shady, including his purchase of a box, contents unknown, that he's warned not to open. He suspects his shop has become a drop-off for drugs. Following Kuldesh's murder, the box and its contents, which turn out to be heroin, go missing. The local police are thrown off the case so a national force can search for the killer and the drugs. Meanwhile, a local dealer is frantically looking for the box too. Thankfully, the four senior sleuths from Coopers Chase are already on the job. Kuldesh was involved in their last adventure, and he was a friend of Elizabeth's husband Stephen. Elizabeth is preoccupied at the moment, as Stephen's dementia worsens, so Joyce steps up to lead the case. By the time there are a couple more murders, several tragic deaths, and a computer crime or two, the club members are once again cognizant of their own mortality. VERDICT Osman follows The Bullet That Missed with a bittersweet mystery about the problems facing many older people: dementia, computer fraud, death. Humor does, however, alleviate the poignancy in this strongest, most emotional book in the best-selling series.—Lesa Holstine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-06-21
The Thursday Murder Club is so busy solving crimes that they don't even have time for their weekly meetings.
Osman's series about a group of four British old-age pensioners and the helpful friends—police officers, cocaine dealers, former KGB operatives—who help them solve crimes has been so popular that, in this installment, the author barely bothers to fill in the background for new readers, so we'll give you a helpful primer: Former spy Elizabeth Best, retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft, psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif, and longtime union organizer Ron Ritchie live at the seemingly peaceful but surprisingly deadly Coopers Chase retirement community, where they started off meeting every week in the Jigsaw Room to solve cold cases—but now find that the murders are hot and coming directly to them. In their last outing, they were helped by antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma, an old friend of Elizabeth's husband, Stephen, and now they're devastated to learn that Kuldesh has been murdered, shot in the head while parked at the end of a dirt road. A missing shipment of heroin seems to have been involved. This gives the gang another chance to fearlessly poke their noses into places you wouldn't expect to find people their age as the body count grows by leaps and bounds. In a moving subplot, Elizabeth and Stephen come together to face his advancing dementia. Other than that, the characters feel a bit more quickly sketched than usual, though the strands of the plot multiply entertainingly and get tied together in the usual satisfying way. Perhaps Osman knew he needed a break; in the acknowledgments, he promises that this won't be the last Thursday Murder Club book, but he says his next novel will be about a father-in-law–daughter-in-law pair of detectives. There's something to look forward to.
Osman serves up another delightful mystery even if he's not at the top of his game.
