I heard Richard Osman being interviewed on one of my favourite podcasts recently (Fortunately with Fi and Jane) and was intrigued by the sound of his book The Thursday Murder Club. I do like a bit of crime fiction (see my blogs), so I thought I’d treat myself to this for some summer reading and it didn’t disappoint.

The novel is set in an upscale retirement community in Kent, where the very with-it older people impose fierce parking fines, enjoy meals in a posh restaurant, run an allotment, have a jigsaw puzzle room and partake in a weekly murder club, where a small group of friends examine cold cases. Things hot up however, when the smarmy owner of the complex Ian Ventham gets bumped off in front of the very eyes of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron. They are soon hot on the trail of the killer, working out what a seaside florist, a seedy pub turned gastro-pub, an old graveyard, some nuns and a priest impersonator have to do with his death.

Helping them out is local PC Donna De Freitas, who has moved down from London due to a broken heart, and who is excited to finally be part of the action, after too long making tea for her colleagues. The murder club team up with Donna and together they rule out a seemingly endless list of possible suspects, until they are drawn to the nursing home at the complex and a history that connects back to the present is uncovered.

There were a lot of parallels here with the William Shaw series featuring DS Alexandra Cupidi (another lovesick detective who has left London for Kent) and with The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths, where another group of pensioners goes haring around trying to solve a crime and getting in the way of another female detective, DS Harbinder Kaur. However, this is a formula that works for me, so I was happy to indulge and I am looking forward to reading the next in Osman’s series.