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The foursome can escape a confrontation with an armed murderer using nothing but a kindly smile and a poisoned slice of Battenberg. The threats, the victims, even the crimes themselves, never really matter. If the villains enjoy tea and cake too, their sins may be forgiven; the group employs a brand of vigilante justice that respects no laws or conventional morality. They adopt a Polish builder, Bogdan, though they suspect he’s a killer himself; become firm friends with charismatic drug dealer Connie after entrapping and imprisoning her; and bring cheery former KGB colonel Viktor along with them after deciding not to kill him. Usually by the fourth book in a series, my interest starts to wane and I don’t continue on, but I have grown fond of this gang, and look forward to what’s next! Have you been feeling that it’s high time someone did a takedown of Richard Osman, a TV star who has also become phenomenally successful in the publishing world? Amid knotty conversations about the rise of the “celebrity novel”, were you hoping that someone would say at last that the emperor has no clothes? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, but that’s not going to happen here. Osman concocts a satisfyingly complex whodunit full of neat twists and wrong turns. But unlike most crime novelists, he ensures his book’s strength and momentum stem not from its plot or its thrills but rather its perfectly formed characters. Once again, the quartet of friends makes for delightful company… Heartwarming and enthralling. ‘They carried a kind of magic, the four of them,’ a policeman muses. That magic is still there in abundance.”
As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home. There may be other aged detectives in print and on television,but for wit, intelligence and humanity, the Thursday Murder Club outranks them all.” The accolades accumulated with the ensuing installments, The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet That Missed, so much so that the series, with the fourth book soon to hit shelves, has now sold 6.6 million copies in Britain, another 1.7 million in “export markets” (countries that also sell the UK edition), and nearly 1.5 million copies (in all formats) in the US. It seemed impossible to find someone who hadn't read at least one of Osman's novels. “My 99-year-old aunt is obsessed with them, but so is my 21-year-old niece,” said Penguin Random House UK CEO Tom Weldon. “He crosses generations.”Returning in The Last Devil to Die are DCI Chris Hudson, PC Donna De Freitas and the unflappable, Bogdan Jankowski. Elizabeth’s absence means that Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron step into new investigative roles, with delightful results. Their humor and lighthearted banter carry the novel through the deadly investigation to its satisfying conclusion. And happily, it seems another Coopers Chase resident is joining the group. Bob Whittaker, aka Computer Bob, doesn’t seem fazed by his new friends’ dangerous interests—a sure sign he’ll fit right in with the brave, meddlesome Thursday Murder Club. I think we're all very aware of how rare it is to find a writer who just never stops delivering. Its like dating in your twenties, you fall for a pretty face across the room and spend a dazzling few weeks or maybe even months being wooed right off your feet with poetry, pretty gifts, and hot sex but then some time goes by and the honeymoon's over and its just the same verse, gifts and positions over and over again.
The format continues to work well, combining “real time” events with Joyce’s journal recapping other scenes. But then he had a story idea—one he kept secret from almost everyone. It wasn't difficult to pursue; quiz shows are filmed in bursts, which left a lot of down time during the various breaks between seasons of Pointless. He was also filming a new, celebrity-oriented show, Richard Osman's House of Games, which debuted in September 2017. All of that love of information and knowledge, and of crime fiction in particular, had to go somewhere. And his mother, now living at a retirement village, offered an endless supply of stories about the lives of the other residents. They could be anyone, anything—maybe even spies, once upon a time.I have to warn you though, this book feels like the series' most intimate and emotional one yet, so get the tissues ready. Osman doesn't shy away from talking about growing old and dying. In fact, couched in all that humor and sleuthing is the ever-present specter of death coming for everyone, especially when you are of a certain old age. Osman turned 50 two years ago, something he admitted to feeling “depressed” about at the time. But so far his fifties have been a period of thrilling reinvention. Along with his success as an author, Osman got married last year to the actor Ingrid Oliver, whom he met when she was a contestant on House of Games (he has two twenty-something children from his previous marriage).
If you haven't started on your journey with Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, & Ibrahim, then I'd suggest you get a move on. Seriously. Go!What is truly special in the books are the characters, whose age allows for a beautiful kind of interaction… For all the fizz of jokes and romance, the books carry with them a sense of grief and sadness which becomes much stronger in The Last Devil to Die…The kindness is his books comes out of something greater for Osman. It’s how he wants the world to be and it’s how he thinks the world is, if only we could realize it.” As we have come to expect from Osman's writing, there is more than one tightly plotted mystery to unravel. Osman and I end the Zoom call a few minutes later. I'm still thinking about the last line in The Last Devil to Die, uttered by Joyce but equally an encapsulation of Osman's relationship with his readers: “I know it sounds silly, but I feel less alone when I write. So thank you for keeping me company, whoever you might be.”
Kuldesh thinks about his friend Stephen. How he looks now. How lost, how quiet, how reduced. Is that the future for him too? What fun they used to have, the whole lot of them. The noise they would make. Incredibly clever, with some deeply poignant scenes and laugh-out-loud shenanigans from the elderly friends, this fourth entry in the series is chaotically fun…Osmanweaves numerous plot lines, both tragic and hilarious, into an irresistible novel, perfect for fans of Mrs. Pollifax or Miss Marple.”
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Fiona Shaw is FABULOUS! I got quite attached to Leslie Manville with the first two books, but Fiona is an obvious transition as narrator! She's incredible and continues to pull you in every step of the way. I really love reading along with the audiobook. It helps you stay engaged and feels like you're IN the world of these character. That's a testament not only to Richard Osman, but certainly Fiona too. All in all, this book is fantastic and I highly recommend it to YOU and YOU and YOU and YOU! And yet, reading about these four friends who take life by the horns when it would've been much easier to just coast and fade out is so inspiring and invigorating. As Richard Osman puts it wisely via Joyce, "The urgency of old age. There's nothing that makes you feel more alive than the certainty of death." And yet, just as visits to Coopers Chase are becoming an annual tradition, Osman has announced that he is to abandon the Club for a while to write a new series “about a father-in-law/daughter-in-law detective duo”. Thank goodness that in an afterword to this book, he promises to reassemble Joyce and co soon. It will take a lot more of the painful reality of old age to intrude on Coopers Chase before it stops being, for hundreds of thousands of readers, an essential refuge from the cares of real life. This is not a new phenomenon. Agatha Christie had been publishing mysteries for over two decades when the Second World War made her a household name, and she began her career in 1920, two years removed from the end of the WWI and the influenza pandemic. Osman’s greatest strength is fusing the puzzle-mastery of Christie and her Golden Age peers with emotional earnestness and wry humor. Mortality is a subject simply too great to be avoided entirely, but it can be done without sinking into despair. Elizabeth’s husband Stephen’s dementia is progressing – something Osman, whose grandparents both had the condition, portrays heartbreakingly. He feels a responsibility. “I’m not going to write something that represents everyone’s experience of it. I’m trying to write one man’s experience of it and I’m trying to write a man who has dignity and wit and warmth.” Osman got married last year to the actor Ingrid Oliver, whom he met when she was a contestant on House of Games (Photo: David M Benett/Getty Images)
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