The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club is a murder mystery book that centers a group of people from a posh retirement community who take it upon themselves to try to solve local mysteries. The characters are a delight and the mystery is solid: red herrings, bonus mysteries, and satisfying answers.

The best part about this book is the characters themselves and their retirement community. It felt like a real portrayal of folks who might live there and what they're dealing with--grief around death of loved ones and friends, the possibilities (and realities) of senility and disability, and also just the complications of younger family. All of the characters felt like unique and interesting people, and it was quite fun to see the murder club team in action playing off of each other.

(All that said, there are some minor unintended things in this book that rubbed me the wrong way that I'll put in its own comment here.)

In a retirement village, Joyce is asked a question by member (well leader, let's be honest) of the Thursday Murder Club Elizabeth about how long it would take to bleed out from a certain wound. They meet in the jigsaw room every Thursday hence the name. There she meets the tough as nails but heart of gold Ron and the ex-psychologist Ibrahim.

Together they solve cold cases. But when a murder occurs related to their retirement village it uncovers secrets that end up closer to home.

Mechanically the story alternates between Joyce's journal entries and a third person view but it does have a fairly decent pace.

The characters a very likeable and have very distinct approaches, Elizabeth has many contacts and is very observant (with a history that's very hush hush), Ron is rough around the edges, Ibrahim is more for the analysis (and I suppose the little grey cells style) and Joyce acts as our entry into the club but is one of those people who really wants everyone to like her but not in a painful way.

And with Donna and Chris in the story you also get some police procedural thrown in for good measure.

There's a lot of mysteries in here that get uncovered, though it's not one of those tales that you're expected to be able to solve it before the characters do. The ride however is an intriguing one and looking forward to what the sequel presents.