Nancy quizzes Linny on which of their books appeared on the New York Times critics list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st century. Linny is correct in guessing it was a non-fiction book, but did not guess the answer: Far From the Tree: Parents, children, and the search for identity by Andrew Solomon. Nancy mentions she’s read 17 of the books on the list. Next month she will reveal which of their books appeared on the New York Times readers list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st century. This month’s book is The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. It was a New York Times bestselling book. It is the first in a series that takes readers to a peaceful retirement village in England where four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss old unsolved crimes. They call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. But when a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. We’ve never done a cozy little murder mystery. This is a fun summer read! The Thursday Murder Club is the first in the series. It is followed by The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet that Missed, and the Last Devil to Die. Warning about this episode – if you haven’t yet read the book and don’t want to know who is murdered and who might or might not be guilty, stop now and listen after you’ve finished. If you’re like me and will forget what we said or have already read the book, keep listening! Linny thinks this book is a great beach read. We’re not too sad about any of the murders and we are mostly charmed by the cunning of the Thursday Murder Club members. So we’ll be talking pretty lightly about the murdered and the murderers. It’s that sort of book and this is nothing but a merry romp. Think Agatha Christie or Murder, She Wrote! You mentioned that this is a “cozy mystery.” I wasn’t familiar with that term. According to Writer’s Digest, a cozy mystery is: considered to be more ‘gentle’ than other subgenres of mystery. They don’t usually feature any on-screen violence, graphic descriptions of sex, or profanity. Instead of having the main character be a professional sleuth, they tend to be someone who has been pulled into the mystery through proximity. They might have discovered the body, worked for or near the murder victim, or have a job that allows them to be close to the investigation or gossip surrounding it (like a pub or coffee shop owner or innkeeper). Often, these protagonists are female, but they don’t have to be. It’s a cozy mystery, but that doesn’t mean it’s a simple story. I thought this book had a very complicated plot. And, there are lots of bodies that pile up to keep track of. The first body is Tony Curran, a former drug dealer who doesn’t feel bad about the people he’s murdered. Then Ian, the developer who we hate. He is the owner of the retirement village but is buying more land to further develop it. Then someone was killed in the 1970s. And there’s even more after that. I like Richard Osman’s writing, because he simply shows us what people are thinking about and that leads us to understanding the characters, or being okay with them being killed. It is a complicated plot. Throughout the book, we get different points of view, people change their names, we visit other countries, we meet lots of people at various times of their lives all of whom could have been a murderer, we go back in time to a couple different time periods. There are really four main characters who are members of the Thursday Murder Club: Joyce was a nurse, Elizabeth was in the secret service, Ibrahim was a psychiatrist, and Ron was a trade union leader. They come from very different backgrounds and are each facing their own trials and sorrows. But, they also each have their own unique set of skills that make them very good at sleuthing. Joyce is recruited to be a part of the Thursday Murder Club as the book gets underway. She, in a way, is a replacement for Penny who is unconscious and dying in the nursing home part of their retirement village. I think we sort of fall in love with these characters and the shenanigans they get up to. They’re also coming to terms with not being as strong or as sharp or as powerful as they were earlier in their lives, so we feel a lot of empathy for them, too. Linny was excited to read about Turkish Johnny and the journey we take to Cyprus since we learned so much about Cyprus when we read The Island of Missing Trees (episodes 65 & 66). Linny’s favorite character is Elizabeth since she is the character who orchestrates all the actions of the Thursday Murder Club. Nancy’s favorite character was Joyce. She watches what’s going on, is very quick, and curious. One thing we get with Joyce are occasional diary entries. She’s decided to start back up writing a diary because of the excitement of joining the club. Some of the entries are pretty funny. The other two characters we get to know pretty well are Donna and Chris. Donna is a female cop trying to make a name for herself in this new, sleepy police department, after moving from South London. Donna has left London after breaking up with her boyfriend. She’s now trying to overcome sexism at the police department by day and stalking her ex on social media at night. Her supervisor, Chris, is unhappily single, overweight, eats poorly. These two police professionals are a sort of foil and help to the Thursday Murder Club. Nancy thought it was really funny that Ron, in order to get what the Club wants out of Chris when they first meet him, pretends to be senile. Later, Elizabeth describes to Chris exactly how helpless and confused they’ll pretend to be if Chris tries to arrest them. It’s fun how Richard Osman has the Thursday Murder Club members play with stereotypes of aging in order to get an upper hand. There’s plenty they can no longer do, but they can do this. It’s really something that there is a lot of death in this book, but it is humorous. Nancy reads a passage she thought was particularly beautiful about the reality of ageing. Linda likes how Richard Osman plays with ageing stereotypes. Linny thinks some of the seriousness about what makes a good life ground the books. She thought the themes about suicide, dying, and dying with dignity are important themes and give us the book a gravity. She also likes how these seniors live by their own rules and that their perspective is different because of their age. Linny also likes the many love stories in the books: -Joyce for her daughter Joann and for her deceased husband Gerry -Elizabeth for Penny and Penny’s husband John for Penny, too -A character we haven’t talked about, Father Mackie, for a young nun Maggie when he was a young priest -Another character we haven’t mentioned, Bernard for his late wife We also think we’re going to get some budding love stories. In her diary, Joyce confides that she is interested in Bernard, the widower, but he is unable to get over his grief over his wife’s death and eventually takes his own life. There are also some clues that Chris and Donna might get together, but in the end, it’s not Chris and Donna at all, but Chris and another character. Linny and Nancy were both happy Chris and Donna did not match up. We loved how Joyce is trying out men for possible love interests. Aside from the love stories, Richard Osman had Nancy guessing who the murderer was. The first body is Tony Curran and the obvious suspect is Ian Ventham, but then Ian is killed. As readers we understand that would have been too easy and this author is going to take us on more of a ride than that. Nancy thought it was going to be Joyce. Linda also worked through all four main characters as possible suspects. Linny and Nancy were interested that the Thursday Murder Club didn’t turn in the character who was responsible for one of the deaths. Nancy thinks it is because they felt justice had been done. She feels there’s a bit of an Old Testament “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” sort of theme in the book. This book is being made into a movie by Steven Spielberg. Here’s who has been named to the cast so far: -Helen Mirren will play Elizabeth, a former spy -Ben Kingsley will play Ibrahim, a former psychiatrist -Pierce Brosnan will play Ron, a former union activist -Celia Imrie will play Joyce, a former nurse -David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes are also in the cast, all in as-yet-unspecified roles. Linny says if she could play anyone, it would be Father Mackie! Linny says she is interested in reading the remaining books in this series. For our next episode, we will welcome Dr. Karen Roggenkamp to the front porch to talk more about The Thursday Murder Club. Karen is a Professor of Literature and Languages and Interim Dean, Honors College at Texas A&M University-Commerce. She has written and taught about Crime Fiction in American Literary Culture.