Tag: Richard Osman

Book review: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

The Last Devil to Die is the final in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murderer Club mystery series. Book 1, The Thursday Murder Club and book 2, The Bullet that Missed are also reviewed on this blog. In The Last Devil to Die the four intrepid pensioners Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim from Coopers Chase retirement village look into the murder of antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma after he is shot in the head and a package he was meant to be looking after disappears. 

We complain about life so endlessly and so bitterly, and yet we cling to it so dearly? Surely that makes no sense?

Additional plot lines are threaded in. Our investigative elders grow suspicious when new resident Mervyn Collins tells them about his online relationship with a Lithuanian called Tatiana. He keeps trying to help her out financially, but the money keeps disappearing and his girlfriend never materialises. They decide Mervyn needs to be saved from himself and what they believe to be a relationship scam. Meanwhile former spy and leader of the oldies gang Elizabeth and her husband Stephen grapple with his advancing dementia.

But, however much life teaches you that nothing lasts, it is still a shock when it disappears. When the man you love with every fibre starts returning to the stars, an atom at a time.

The Last Devil to Die true to style is packed with Osman’s cheeky humour. He manages to make fun of the human condition and aging while still covering difficult topics with sensitivity. Osman crafts Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim as pensioners to aspire to be – feisty, fearless and friended to the grave.

That’s the thing about Coopers Chase. You’d imagine it was quiet and sedate, like a village pond on a summer’s day. But in truth it never stops moving, it’s always in motion. And that motion is ageing, and death, and love, and grief, and final snatched moments and opportunities grasped. The urgency of old age. There’s nothing that makes you feel more alive than the certainty of death.

I have now read and thoroughly enjoyed the entire Thursday Murderer Club series and am inspired to develop some outrageous retirement goals myself. I would live at Coopers Chase any day.

Book review: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

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I am very exited about Richard Osman’s latest novel (and new series), We Solve Murders. Osman is best known for his Thursday Murder Club Mystery Series about a group of mischievous septuagenarians who solve cold case murders (if you search his name on this blog you will find reviews for three).

If you have any sort of personality, someone will eventually want to kill you.

True to Osman’s style, We Solve Murders is a hilarious murderous romp with a bunch of misfits.

There are friendships forged in fire, which end up disappearing like smoke, and other casual, nodding friendships, which will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Private Security Guard, Amy, is charged with the care of best selling novelist Rosie D’Antonio on an exclusive island. 

Steve is grateful that at least he feels loved. Because if you don’t feel loved, it’s difficult to feel anything at all.

Amy’s father in law and widower, Steve, is a retired police officer who lives with a stray cat called Trouble. Steve likes a quiet, predictable life and the Wednesday night quiz at the pub. Amy and Steve are close and speak regularly on the phone.

It’s not every daughter-in-law who will high-five you when you’ve shot a drug dealer in a Coldplay T-shirt, is it?

When Amy discovers she has been set up as the scapegoat for a slew of murders that require her death to wrap up, she and Rosie go on the run, a killer in pursuit. Amy doesn’t know who she can trust to help her. She loves her husband, but he’d be hopeless in a dangerous situation. She lands on Steve – he has relevant skills and she trusts him implicitly. Steve is reluctant to get involved, but he does it for Amy.

Every criminal wants to tell the truth eventually. Enough of the truth to be seen but not enough of the truth to be convicted.

We Solve Murders has the feel of a comedic heist with a cast of larger than life absurdist eccentric characters that make the globe trotting journey such fun, I couldn’t put the story down.

one rule in life: if you see a door, walk through it.

Book review: The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman

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Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series are great for cozy crime aficionados who enjoy a good laugh. And I do love stories about seniors who not only don’t let age get in the way of a good time, but use it to their advantage to get the upper hand. The Bullet That Missed is book 3, following The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice.

If murder were easy, none of us would survive Christmas.

Pensioners and amauteur detectives, Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim take an interest in the case of television reporter Bethany Waites who’s car went over a cliff into the sea ten years earlier while she was investigating a tax fraud operation. Her body was never found, presumed consumed by creatures of the deep. The gang from Coopers Chase Retirement Village start to ingratiate themselves with people surrounding Bethany’s disappearance. Then their main suspect has a fatal incident with a pair of knitting needles.

Very few things are so important you would risk your life for them, but all sorts of things are important enough to risk somebody else’s life.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been receiving mysterious and threatening text messages that lead to her being kidnapped by a man who calls himself Viking. Viking threatens to kill Joyce unless Elizabeth kills a former KGB chief called Viktor. He gives her two weeks.

Very few things are so important you would risk your life for them, but all sorts of things are important enough to risk somebody else’s life.

Will Elizabeth commit a murder, and can the Thursday Murder Club solve two murder cases?

People drift in and out of your life, and, when you are younger, you know you will see them again. But now every old friend is a miracle.

The Bullet that Missed is a witty whodunit full of twists and red herrings and delightful characters interspersed with some of the very real challenges of ageing such as how Elizabeth battles with her husbands advancing dementia, the importance of friendship, and love in later life.

It’s the people, in the end, isn’t it?” says Viktor. “It’s always the people. You can move halfway around the world to find your perfect life, move to Australia if you like, but it always comes down to the people you meet.

Book review: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

There is something quite joyful about mischievous septuagenarians. Comedian and television presenter Richard Osman turned his hand to writing cosy mystery The Thursday Murder Club after a visit to an affluent retirement village.

In life you have to learn to count the good days. You have to tuck them in your pocket and carry them around with you. So I’m putting today in my pocket and I’m off to bed.

Residents of Coopers Chase retirement village in Kent, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron meet weekly over wine and cake in the Jigsaw Room for their group ’Japanese Opera: A Discussion‘. It’s a front for the Thursday Murder Club and ensures they are not disturbed whilst they work on their cold-case murders. The ringleader, Elizabeth, has her ways…of getting hold of cold case files, and leveraging others for information the police would be envious of. Her conspirators are an ex nurse (Joyce), a retired psychiatrist with excellent attention to detail and logistical skills (Ibrahim), and militant unionist, Ron, or Red Ron as he is known.

Many years ago, everybody here would wake early because there was much to do and only so many hours in the day. Now they wake early because there is much to do and only so many days left.

When local developer and drug dealer, Tony Curran is found dead, the Thursday Murder Club decide they are going to solve the case. They talk disenfranchised PC Donna de Freitas into secretly working with them, promising her credit to help get her off mundane administrative work and into serious investigations. Soon the bodies start to pile up. There is another murder and a mysterious discovery of human bones that don’t belong in the part of the cemetery where they are found – on top of a coffin.

Donna has always been headstrong, always acted quickly and decisively. Which is a fine quality when you are right, but a liability when you are wrong. It’s great to be the fastest runner, but not when you’re running in the wrong direction.

The sassy characters and gentle humour make The Thursday Murder Club an entertaining and light read. The older I get, the more enjoyment I get out of reading stories with quirky old folk with a zest for life and The Thursday Murder Club hit the spot. The novel is a lovely reminder that the elderly should not be dismissed or ignored – they still have plenty to offer.

After a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy. No one tells you off, except for your doctors and your children.