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The Thursday Murder Club

63 replies

Clawdy · 03/10/2020 13:26

Anyone else read it? Slightly too long, very well-written, bit convoluted, but great fun!

OP posts:
Schehezarade · 17/12/2020 18:44

i tried the audiobook but didn't find it engaging - gave up - I dont normally like whodunnits.

burnoutbabe · 25/12/2020 22:17

It didn't madly grab me but I read it over 4 nights and was nicely twisty. If it was really good it would have just taken 2 and stayed up to midnight. As a library book it was fine, if a bit twee!

Pixiepia · 27/12/2020 00:33

Book very convulated. Please tell me who killed who. Are you allowed to give spoilers on this thread

WobblyLondoner · 27/12/2020 23:24

I've just finished this. Enjoyed it but was confused by the part at the end when Elizabeth confronts John and Peggy (in the coma) about Peter Mercer. Are we meant to understand who he was (had we met him?) and the significance of him having a bullet wound in his leg? I also realised in thinking about this I had no idea who killed Ian🤭

It's driving me a bit crazy, please help!

Pixiepia · 27/12/2020 23:35

Peter Merser is the boyfriend who killed a girl ( forget her name) and who did not get any justice as he ran away and got away with the murder. Apparently Penny found him and killed him as she wanted justice for the poor murdered girl. She told her husband John who then was desperate to keep it a secret in order to protect Penny.

WobblyLondoner · 27/12/2020 23:43

Thanks @Pixiepia. I got that much but I got the impression that we were supposed to know who Peter was rather than this being a totally new plot twist. To confuse things my mum has just said Peter is John Gray (Penny's husband) - is that really right or is she even more confused than me, bless her ?????

Lesson to self, don't read when indulging in continual Xmas top ups!

Pixiepia · 27/12/2020 23:55

No I don’t think John is Peter Gray. It is just a sub plot within the main plot. There are so many of these all over the book.
I now know who killed Curran but confused again about who killed Ian and why

OhWhyNot · 28/12/2020 14:11

Reading it now and really enjoying it

Haven’t been able to get into a book for a while it’s easy reading

Toddlerteaplease · 04/01/2021 22:58

Just listened to this on audible. I couldn't make head nor tail if it. So many characters and so many storylines. It's going to date terribly as there is so much product placement in it.

Toddlerteaplease · 04/01/2021 23:03

Also didn't get the Matthew Makie thing. At one point I thought it said he'd never been a priest, but then turns out he actually was. Some of the plots really irritated me because they just don't happen like that. You can't just go and dig up a grave yard without Home office permission. Nor would a nun ever commit suicide in a church and definitely above the altar. It would be a huge sacrilege.
I fully admit I'm a pedant!

Ikeameatballs · 04/01/2021 23:07

I really enjoyed it in a “comforting” way. I liked the characters and found the whole thing very pleasing but in a completely unbelievable way.

I can definitely see Art Malik as Ibrahim and Bill Nighy as John perhaps? Dennis Waterman as Ron?

Helen Mirren for Elizabeth and maybe Alison Steadman as Joyce?

HappydaysArehere · 05/01/2021 10:52

My dh was given this as part of Christmas present. I am about to start it as he is reading something else.. Mumsnet reviews, in my opinion.are the best.

NovemberR · 06/01/2021 02:38

I really enjoyed it - particularly as Standrewsschool said, once I'd got into it. I thought it was light, witty, typical British quirkiness and thoroughly character driven.

The characters - even the minor ones - were really well rounded and real! And the plot twists and turns were great.

NovemberR · 06/01/2021 02:39

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

HappydaysArehere · 13/01/2021 10:27

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.

Feelinglow8736 · 15/01/2021 22:04

Im just about to start it 🤗

TeenPlusTwenties · 25/01/2021 10:48

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.

SkepticalCat · 10/02/2021 16:31

@WobblyLondoner

I've just finished this. Enjoyed it but was confused by the part at the end when Elizabeth confronts John and Peggy (in the coma) about Peter Mercer. Are we meant to understand who he was (had we met him?) and the significance of him having a bullet wound in his leg? I also realised in thinking about this I had no idea who killed Ian🤭

It's driving me a bit crazy, please help!

I've just finished reading.

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.

Cookerhood · 10/02/2021 16:35

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!

SkepticalCat · 10/02/2021 16:49

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.

FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 10/02/2021 16:54

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.

ChoccyJules · 10/02/2021 17:01

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.

BradleyCooperwillbemine · 10/02/2021 18:30

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.

Magicbabywaves · 10/02/2021 18:59

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

FiveShelties · 11/02/2021 09:49

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.