The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club is a mystery fiction novel focused around a murder at a retirement home called Coopers Chase. It was written by Richard Osman in 2020 and published by Penguin. Osman is a British television show producer, and the chosen style of narrative reflects this in the novel; the chapters are often left on cliffhangers and switch to follow different characters as a television show would when compiling several plot threads together. The novel alternates between a first-person narrative told through the perspective of the protagonist Joyce and her diary entries, and a third-person narrative focusing on all the characters. The story follows Joyce and her friends as they attempt to solve a series of murders happening at Coopers Chase. Together, the group works with the police and proves their worth by racing to solve the murders before the detectives assigned the case do. Other novels in the series include The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022), and The Last Devil to Die (2023).

Plot Summary

The story opens with Joyce’s diary entry, in which she is discussing an old murder case with Elizabeth.