So, there haven't been that many blog posts from me about books lately. That's because I have been very unambitious in my reading of late. I took one look at Doctor Zhivago, saw that it started with a description of the protagonist's sad childhood rather than some juicy romantic stuff involving villains as love rivals, and concluded that on second thought, it looked more like a winter novel. Not even the self-indulgent reads have always lasted the course – fairy-tale inspired novels I've given up on include Marissa Meyer's Gilded, although it looked so promising (a teenage boy with freckles? Really, Marissa??). One typical summer read I managed to finish, though, was The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I liked it fine, but I suspect other readers of not-too-grisly crime stories may enjoy it more than I do, and I'll try to explain why.
I can't be the only one who tried on The Thursday Murder Club because Richard Osman is "that guy from Pointless". There is an international channel for us foreign anglophiles called BBC Brit, which basically only airs a handful of Beeb programmes, usually reruns too. Luckily, Pointless is one of those programmes, and thanks to one of my many streaming services I can watch it on catch-up. I love this game show. The premise (the contestants must try to score as few points as possible by finding the most obscure, correct answers to questions that have been put to a number of people before the show – the more people who knew the answer, the higher the score) is tricky to get your head around, but once you have it's a mildly educational delight. If I don't feel like watching anything else, an episode of Pointless usually works.
One of the reasons this is such a comfort blanket of a show is the friendly atmosphere provided by the programme's presenter, Alexander Armstrong, and said Richard Osman, who is the one giving out the correct answers. The blessedly un-barbed banter between Armstrong and Osman leaves the viewer with a warm, fuzzy feeling towards both of them. In other words, to regular viewers of Pointless, Richard Osman has goodwill in spades.
I was a bit doubtful about the plot of The Thursday Murder Club, though. As advertised on the blurb, it features four senior citizens at a high-end retirement residence who take an interest in unsolved murders, and soon get a fresh, local murder to sink their teeth into. This sounded to me almost like a parody of "cosy crime". Also, though I like Christie's Miss Marple, four oldies solving crimes seemed too much of a muchness, as I'm not really that interested in the daily routine of senior citizens (hopefully, one gets there soon enough). As I feared, the novel focuses heavily on the lives of its four aged protagonists – hard-as-nails ex-spy Elizabeth; Joyce, an retired nurse who's not as ditzy as she seems; tough old union boss Ron and polite and pedantic ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim. The plot takes its time to get going; there's a lot of scene-setting, and once I was actually close to quitting.
Once the crime story gathers momentum, though, it has many pleasing twists and turns, and I swallowed more than one red herring along the way (perhaps you trail after red herrings rather than swallow them? – Joyce or Elizabeth would probably set me right). The senior amateur sleuths are charming, though I occasionally found Joyce's decided opinions and Elizabeth's hard-ball-playing a little trying, and the police officers who try – and fail – to keep the quartet in check are very likeable. But this kind of mystery novel is not quite for me. There wasn't enough focus on the brainwork, and the quartet's different specialities and knowledge weren't used that much to solve the mystery. It wouldn't have mattered if I enjoyed the setting and atmosphere more, but I didn't particularly. I know the novel's message is that we should not discount the old, and it wants to show how intelligent and interesting these old'uns are, but to me, a little of Joyce's recounting of the daily life at the residence went a long way. However, I'm aware that this is very much a question of personal taste.
The Thursday Murder Club does exactly what it says on the tin. If you like the idea of senior citizens solving murders, with the focus being on the cosy rather than the crime in "cosy crime", you'll probably enjoy this novel a lot. If the makers of Pointless asked 100 persons the question "Did you enjoy The Thursday Murder Club?" (not that they would as it's not a knowledge question, but bear with me), I suspect "Yes" would get a high score.
