Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club

[WineIsMyCarb]

My 9 year old DD wants to buy Thursday Murder Club by R Osman. I appreciate its an adult's book that centres around some pensioners solving a murder, so on the face of it would have little appeal to a primary school child. However, she has got it in her head that she wants to read it - so if she doesn't get into it I will very happily read it.

My question is: Is it too harrowing/ racy / brutal / visceral in any places as to be actively inappropriate?

Save me a week of cram-reading to check its suitability please!!!

Murder Most Unladylike. It's Agatha Christie for kids, set in the 1920s and 30s I think. My DD actually sobbed when she finished the last one and had to mentally say goodbye to the characters.

I think the Thursday Next books work best if you know the books and characters being referenced - Miss Havisham would lose a lot of her 'oomph' if you didn't know anything about the Dickens character.

But my DD LOVED Sherlock Holmes at around this age.

I think Miss Havisham was a brilliant character from her first introduction in GE. Osman's characters are dull and he definitely needed a better editor.
Top bloke, terrible books.

My literary taste must be worse than I thought because I've enjoyed all of them and hope to see the adaptation which is about to start filming. Not for a 9 yo, though.

Brilliant advice, thank you all for the recommendations. Will give those all a whirl.... and steer clear of Osman's book!

It’s not harrowing - let them read it. If they’ve got a phone they’ve no doubt been exposed to much worse already! I quite enjoyed it as a holiday book. I read Agatha Christy at the same age.

I liked the books,they are a very easy read but probably not enough in it to enthrall a 9 year old.

Murder most unladylike - there's meant to be a trans character depending on your thoughts on that I havent read them but the author is TWAW you may be fine with that.

I'd be looking at book series like Atemis Fowl, Enola Holmes, Benedicts Society, good ol' Nancy Drew if she wants that type of story and all have shows or films to watch after reading.

If she's particularly precocious delving into Sherlock might be ok - I'd leave it until she's read the above ones though so she's a bit older. Obviously Sherlock has murder, adultery, drug use as central themes and a technically more challenging read.

Love to read a good murder mystery (Agatha Christie, D.L.Sayers, Colin Dexter, M.C.Beaton etc etc) so was really looking forward to TMC but found it totally unengaging and I was unable to visualise the characters (something I normally love to do).
Stuck with it but by the end I didn't care who did it and I skim read just so I could get to the end, close the book and put it in the "not to be read again, give to charity" pile.

They could try the Diamond brothers mysteries by Anthony Horowitz starting with The Falcon's Malteaser. They are all designed for young adults but based on film noir - The Maltese Falcon and are excellent, perfect for this age group.

I know of the characters but I have never read the books they originally came from, so not necessarily the case. But I guess it helps knowing the tiny amount I know about them

Much as I live D L Sayers, I would leave them for a while, age 14-15 she would appreciate them (and the literary references within them) much more.

I found that it just went on and on. I'm not reading another one.

Probably not suitable for your DD age wise either.

One of the main detective turns out much later in the series to be a lesbian.

Not sure about a trans character, it's set a long time ago.