The Thursday Murder Club

I found it bad too. Actually got a refund from Audible after about 50 chapters as I thought it was awful. Poorly written, cliched characters and no hook at all. I wanted to like it too!!

I have firmly given up and taken it to the phone box

@Musication it doesn't get better! That's what I was hoping for too!

I'm about 1/3 way through this and not really feeling it. I keep waiting for it to get better but it hasn't yet - not sure whether to keep going!

@Egghead81
I though it was only me. DH got this for me,, I can’t imagine why apart from my constant observations that Richard Osman is a fine specimen of a man.
I have tried and tried to read it, but can’t get past my dislike of little Miss now it all seen and done it all Elizabeth

I went to see Richard Osman speak about it as I like him as a TV presenter. Lovely interview, very likeable. Decided I should probably read the book. Read it quickly (thanks for short chapters! He talked about that in his interview), but it didn't really do anything for me. I really ought to know by now - that Eleanor Oliphant/Elizabeth is Missing type of thing just doesn't really grab me, and I end up racing through them to get to the end so I can start something new. I actually thought the characterisations were a bit patronising if I'm honest. But I think it will do well on screen - Richard Osman definitely has an eye for a telly hit! Apparently there will be 3 more in the series...

I really enjoyed it too. I thought it felt like it had been written ready to be turned into a TV show or film. It felt like a home counties version of a Harlan Coben book.

Couldn’t stand the characters, especially Elizabeth

It was like the de Vinci code
Massively popular amongst people who don’t generally read much!

I really enjoyed this book. Had it bought for Christmas together with Just My Luck. The latter was so annoyingly bad that starting The Thursday Club was a joy. If he writes another I will want to read it.

I have no idea why this book is described as warm and uplifting - I'm finding it rather depressing and bleak, and the mystery isn't intriguing at all. The characters voices are convincing and there is some humour, but I'm not sure I will bother finishing it.

Really enjoyed this.....despite still not understanding why Penny killed Peter Mercer!

I can imagine she was hating that he'd got away with killing his girlfriend Annie but it seemed a pretty straightforward 'solve' when they explained about the length of time it would've taken her to die - so why wouldn't she push to show this at the time rather than hunt him down and kill him?!

Bit of an extreme move for a previously normal person/copper unless she had some very close connection to Annie which made her lose her senses...which it appears she didn't.

And then for her husband...also a previously normal person...to casually decide to murder someone too even though they were unlikely to connect penny to this random murder....I don't know, that whole bit was weird.

I remembered them discussing the case at the beginning but didn't remember the gunshot to the leg bit at all, too much else had happened.

That whole chapter read as though a really important paragraph had been left out explaining all this!

Can you tell I've literally just finished reading? Gah. Still, other than that weird glitch, it was good fun!!

Loved this book! So wonderfully uplifting really despite all the death and murder LOL

I suspect it's only done well because of ego the author is.

I Have just finished listening to it and have no idea why I carried on with it. The plot was so complicated it lost all interest for me. I read/listen to crime novels regularly and this is the worst one for ages. I felt like the author had written down plots on pieces of paper and then tried to work them into the book, no matter how bizarre or unconnected they were.

A real disappointment.

I was another one who listened to it then realised I didn’t know who’d killed who.

I was really underwhelmed by it. Very convoluted, but quite gentle, nothing exciting, but a good twist. Wouldn't recommend it. I do prefer more gritty american crime thrillers though.

I liked the observations of life in the retirement village and the characters’ thought-processes but I found the plot too confusing towards the end.

I really enjoyed it but I thought it was very unlikely that the body would be linked to Penny. Even if he was identified though the leg injury which seemed a stretch how could anyone prove who killed and buried him?

I noticed it's on BBC radio at the minute but I haven't had a chance to listen to it.

I have a question of my own, which I can't work out...

So in relation to the 'extra' body in the grave, the Thursday Murder Club were looking for someone who was around in the 1970s, who is also around now. That's what led them to John via Karen recognising his picture in the village magazine.

He told them the story about him killing the farmer, burying the body, then moving to the retirement village to keep an eye on it.

Was this all a complete fabrication, given we then find out that the body is actually that of Peter Mercer and it was Penny who killed him?

Was it just a coincidence then that Karen recognised John from the 1970s?

Did Penny bury his body there in the 1970s? Was it her who drove the move to the retirement village so she could keep an eye on the cemetery?

It seems that John, Penny's husband, had only recently become aware of what she had done given that she was in advanced stages of dementia when she told him.

John killed Ian Ventham to protect Penny, but it was obviously a very recent "decision" to do so, given he hadn't long known about Pennys past.

This is the one loose end in the book that I can't work out.

It was ok. I thought he was trying to hard to be clever early on but it got better. An easy read but definitely not great literature!

At the beginning of the book the Thursday Murder Club are investigating the unsolved murder of a young woman, but they don't come to any resolution as the murder of Tony Curran takes over.

When Bodgan digs up the newer bones in the cemetery and they take them to the bone expert, the expert says that whoever this person is, they had a gunshot wound to the femur, but was a pre-existing injury and unlikely to have killed him.

Much later on, the Thursday Murder Club confronts John and he says that he murdered (mercy-killed?) a farmer, then buried his body in the Garden of Remembrance. He said he and Penny moved to the retirement village so he could keep an eye on the grave.

But the Thursday Murder Club had evidence that Penny had killed the person (Peter Mercer) who killed the young woman (Annie) they were investigating at the beginning of the book. Its actually his body in the Garden of Remembrance as Peter Mercer's military records showed he had been invalided from the army due to a gunshot wound in the lower leg.

John killed Ian Ventham to try to stop the body being dug up in order to protect Penny.

I've just read it. I enjoyed it in a gentle way. I could 'put it down' (the short chapters helped with that) but soon found myself wanting to pick it up again. I'll definitely but the sequel. I enjoyed the plot twists without worrying too much about who was who or why things happened.

Im just about to start it 🤗

Another 100 pages to read but really enjoying it. Keep laughing out loud. Agree, if this is made in America with an American cast it will be robbed of its charm and reduced to an average, nothing special film.

Oh do you know, I imagined Helen Mirren as Elizabeth all the way through! Particularly if you've seen her in RED...