The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman is a charming, funny, and thrilling mystery novel. A group of seniors meet every Thursday in their retirement community for their true crime murder club, but when a murder occurs in their very midst will they be able to solve the case? The great strength of this novel is its cast of characters. Osman has created a large ensemble of distinctive and interesting human beings to populate his story. From the four central retirees to the many supporting roles throughout the book, every character seems to be brimming with nuance and life. Most of the characters are very relatable and, as Osman says on his interview at the end of the audiobook, present a view of aging in which we see just how much these older characters really do still have in them, even while facing the challenges of aging. In many regards this is a profoundly human book, addressing so many facets of the human condition with courage, complexity, and grace. In addition to being a compelling whodunnit, this is a compelling novel about so much more. With that said, it might be argued that the book suffers a bit from that large cast and it's reflective introspective nature as the pacing can be pretty slow. It takes a while to get going, and then even once going it still meanders a bit and is just wordy. There are, perhaps, characters and story elements that could simply be cut from the book all together. I don't read a lot of cozy mysteries, and I'm not sure if that's the appropriate description for this book, but readers of fast paced thrillers might struggle with the leisurely tempo found in much of this book. Overall I think this is a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read.