Review: The Thursday Murder Club is a breath of Whodunnit? fresh air

A classic Whodunnit?, but set in a retirement village.

In the market for some new crime content but in desperate need of a break from the doom, gloom, and intensely graphic crime scenes? Enter Richard Osman's debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club - a book that's about as wholesome as you can get when you're dealing with murder. The Thursday Murder Club's concept is simple enough: a person is killed, people are shocked, and they set off to find out who the culprit is. It's your classic Whodunnit?, rife with mystery, scandal, twists and turns. The only difference is that it's set in a retirement village. Osman, best known for his co-presenting and co-creating of BBC gameshow Pointless, recently turned his talent to novels. The presenter and producer started writing the book a few years back, in total secret for fear that people would get wind of the project and lament another TV personality trying their hand at writing. Thankfully, he didn't keep the finished product a secret for very long, and on September 3, fans of the classic quintessentially British murder mystery will have something new to sink their teeth into. The Thursday Murder Club is charming, it's funny, and it's an ideal respite from the pain and uncertainty of real life. Sure, there's pain and uncertainty in the book (it is a murder mystery, after all), but there's also charm, there's intrigue, and there's a group of pensioners who you'd not only like to have around if you were ever brutally taken out, but who you'd like to have a cup of tea with too. This is not your typical crime novel, this is about as wholesome as you could get while still having a murder victim and a group of amateur sleuths that just won't quit. True crime aficionados may be disappointed by the book's lack of grit, but really, that isn't what this book is about. Nor is that who it's for. At over 400 pages, the novel is hefty enough, but it's an easy enough read. Osman's debut takes a little while to get going, but once it's there and it's certainly there - with full force, too.  Allow yourself a bit of time to get into it and once the host of quirky characters are established and the case is in full swing, you'll be very much hooked. Osman recently told The Guardian that since finishing the book, he has decided that he wants to be writing forever. "The blurb on The Thursday Murder Club says is my 'first, and, so far, best novel,'" he said, after being asked what book he'd like to be remembered for. "True though this is, I would love to be remembered for my 10th or 20th novel, because I want to be writing them for the rest of my life now." And he may very well be. With a couple of sequels in the pipeline and a Steven Spielberg movie in the works (yes, really), it looks like the residents of Coopers Chase will be around for a good while yet. Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club is available to buy now.