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The Thursday Murder Club

By: Richard Osman
Narrated by: Lesley Manville,Richard Osman,Marian Keyes
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Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The first book in the number one best-selling, multi-million copy selling series by TV presenter Richard Osman.

Read by Lesley Manville, soon-to-be star of The Crown, and featuring an exclusive Q&A between Richard Osman and Marian Keyes.

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, might be pushing 80, but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

CrimeFest Audible Sounds of Crime winner: Best Audiobook 2021.

©2019 Richard Osman (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"The best escapist listen of the year.... [Lesley Manville] skilfully immerses herself in Richard Osman's characters, making the most of his comic flair." (The Times, Audiobook of the Week)

"Smart, compassionate, warm, moving and so very funny." (Marian Keyes)

"A great read, I really enjoyed it." (Graham Norton)

What listeners say about The Thursday Murder Club

Average Customer Ratings
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Brilliant!

Richard Osman claims he did not write this as a comedy but it is hilarious. I have never laughed at loud so much at a book. All the characters are complex and thoroughly believable. The plot has so many twists and turns that keep you guessing but it is the insightful observation of relationships and human nature that really draws you in. Can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t get pleasure from this wonderful book.

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15 people found this helpful

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Star of 2020

This has been the best book I've read (heard) all year. As well as the usual twists and turns of a whodunnit, it touches on some of the most beautiful aspects of life, death, friendship and love. In reading this, I've chuckled, laughed, reflected, puzzled and cried. From start to finish, it was a warm and touching fireside novel - fantastic read: 5 stars.

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9 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • B
  • 17-04-2021

Too tedious for me.

I am usually a fan of detail, and I love books built around characters. But this book was a chore . I tried so hard to like it.

The dialogue was just too tedious for me. I almost didn’t finish it a number of times-but rarely give up on a book. So kept going to the end .

The plot was ok. And although it had twists and turns was reasonably obvious to me.

I did like most of the characters though and that was a redeeming feature.

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6 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars

How disappointing

Quite a few others have felt as I do about this book and it's strange it doesn't seem to be reflected in the overall star rating.
Like many, I really admire Osman and thought this would be witty and clever. It's actually tedious and scattered. I have tried three times but the furthest I reached was three and a half hours in.
The narration is rather good and should enhance the story, but unfortunately there was nothing to hold on to - no flow drawing the listener in.
Returned.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

One of the best books i have read in a long time The first i have bothered to review totally loved it!!

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6 people found this helpful

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Love Love Love

Fantastic story and wonderful reader.
So refreshing after so many intense stories that I have listened to in recent times .
Can’t wait for the next one .
So well rounded and very satisfying.
I feel like I know all the characters after listening to both books back to back lol

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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British humour at it's best!

Loved this book. The characters were so interesting & funny & the plot was great. Reminded me of Alan Bennett, Talking Heads. Will recommend to everyone I know

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Oh so English

loved it. loved the characters and the twists and turns. Crafted with a clever mind. But oh so English!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Confusing

Found this story, as good as it was, over-long and rather confusing. Too many characters speaking in the first person making it very difficult to follow. Way too many chapters and it became rather tedious. Good idea but not very well executed. Got very confused with the characters coming in and out of the story and i kept forgetting their place in it. Shame cos I'm a big fan of Richards

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Not for me

The performance was quite annoying, the story was OK but the interview at the end with Marian Keyes and Richard Osman was really boring.

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  • Muhammad Kashif
  • 21-02-2021

Exquisite

Loved it, of course. It was different from most criminal fictions and made a fantastic listening. The characters were interesting and the storyline was captivating.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 04-02-2021

Listen to this now

Cannot recommend this book enough. Particularly the characterisation is fantastic, and the setting is equally original. Funny sad and exciting all at the same
Time

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  • Kate C.
  • 03-02-2021

Every bit as good as I hoped

I love witty well-observed humour. Love unusual and unexpected heroes. Love a crime novel. So not surprisingly I loved this book so much. Narrator brought it to life in a wonderful way. Made me miss my Mum and grandparents for that gentle humour and politeness. Very jealous. If I could write a book I’d want it to be like this.

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  • Norma Miles
  • 07-04-2021

"Talks collapsed late last night."

The inhabitants of Cooper's Chase Retirement Village might be elderly but they have !let none of their personality traitts and only some of their faculties. And acting forgetful and helplessly innocent can conceal a multitude of sins. When a murder takes place locally, the four members of the Thurday Murder Club replace the cold case files for the current crime, generously allowing the local police detectives to occasionally assist.
This is a delightful, and convoluted story of misdeeds, friendship, love and death, and very much character led. Written partially in the first person through a quirky diary written by one of the Club as well as being viewed from the perspective of several other protagonists, the reader is gently led through the twists and turns of the lives of all of the characters, good humour oozing generously throughout, to reveal some surprising conclusions. Excellent personality development makes these very varied protagonists real life, living people still very much alive despite, or perhaps because of, their advanced years.
Narration was by Lesley Manville and, had she been restricted to reading the text alone, she would have been magnificent. With obvious interest in, and understanding of, all she read, her delivery was varied, interesting and emphatic in all the right places. Her female voices were also varied. But her abilities, sadly, did not include male conversations and, though this did not prevent enjoyment of the book as a whole, this reader rather wishes it had been the printed, rather than the audible book which has been read.

But print or audible, this is one murder mystery not to be missed. Beautifully written, imaginatively plotted and surprisingly uplifting, I am now really looking forward to the next in Richard Osman's series. which is briefly mentioned in the interesting interview with the author at the end of the book. Great fun, deliciously visual, meet some new friends in Cooper's Close Retirement Village.

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  • Josef
  • 29-01-2021

A page turner

I wish I had read the book first. You just want to keep listening. I can’t wait for the second book!

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  • Clearthoughts
  • 03-09-2020

VERY DULL

THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB.

No characters pull you in. You don't get interested or invested in them.
Descriptive. Places, what they do what they think, description of what people feel. Small people comments to each other. Really dull. You don't feel any tension. As dull as a retirement village meeting.
3 stars
One situation after another, no link or progression of story or
Not interesting.
I tried going forward to see if the plodding Descriptive style continued. I decided not to waste another 10 hours of my life trying to get into a story, a plot, an investment in the characters. Very dull style.

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  • Jera Media
  • 28-08-2023

Jess

Great book, with twists and turns. Very entertaining! Can’t wait to go on the next adventure with the gang!

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  • Anonymous User
  • 13-06-2023

Milkshake crime novel

I’m not sure if it’s the story or the narration but somehow every single character in this book comes across as incredibly dumb and twee. The aged characters all seem stereotypically lame and pushy in a way that would not be accepted in real life and the police are all incompetent pushovers. Wish there had been one fleshed out character in the club - not this one is the leader and doesn’t take no for an answer, this one is horny and pathetic, this one is an immigrant and this one a rough tough sort of old man. My favourite part of the story was when the police stood up to this rag tag self appointed murder detectives and highlighted the real life consequences of playing games and withholding information from murder investigations. The story doesn’t come together at the end and it seems like all the narrative threads just had their own unrelated resolutions. Thought this would be a good book to read during 3am breastfeeding sessions as was told light and funny but I just found myself constantly irritated by the slow speaking characters.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 01-05-2023

Nothing special

I struggled with a lack of cohesion and too many threads. Great narration. Obvious red herrings spoilt the adventure for me.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Rana K.
  • 19-04-2023

Superb!

The book and the narration were cozy, funny, and the twists just so smart! Loved every minute.

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  • mollyeyre
  • 03-09-2020

Oh WHAT a disappointment!

I have listened for 2 hours of the 12 hours of this book! I am really losing the will to live! I am a fan of Richard Osman, but really this leaves me cold, where is his clever wit and sense of humour? This book is totally boring, not one of the characters is likeable, and even the narration is irritating, I've had to speed it up to get it bearable to listen to!

I cannot say how disappointing this is, I have had this on my preorder list for ages and I am absolutely hating it.


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  • the typist
  • 03-09-2020

Just not very good...

Like a lot of people, this book has been on my Wish List for some time now. However, after just 4 1/2 hours of listening I had to give up. The characters are puddle deep, the plot is muddled and the witty asides few and far between. It reads like it needs a damn good edit. Whose story is it? Why isn’t the murder club properly established before we hare off into the crime they’re solving? Why is the characterisation of the care home owner so cartoonish? Why isn’t there more subtext and subtlety? I think the author is aiming for Kate Atkinson via Sue Townsend but he falls short on both fronts. Why on earth has another been commissioned?

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  • Lesley
  • 04-09-2020

So wanted to like this

Like a previous review , so sad to say how disappointing this was - sorry Richard. I was expecting something better written from such a clever and engaging man.
Copied from previous reviewer as felt exactly the same

''I have listened for 2 hours of the 12 hours of this book! I am really losing the will to live! I am a fan of Richard Osman, but really this leaves me cold, where is his clever wit and sense of humour? This book is totally boring, not one of the characters is likeable, and even the narration is irritating, I've had to speed it up to get it bearable to listen to!

I cannot say how disappointing this is, I have had this on my preorder list for ages and I am absolutely hating it.''

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  • Dominic Macmahon
  • 05-09-2020

Utterly Dreadful

Written for the poor souls in old people’s homes

Why didn’t Lesley Manville refuse to read this tripe!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Miss Ah
  • 05-09-2020

Very sorry to say I gave up.…

I loved the first few chapters, really enjoyed them, really seemed like my type of book, very well written, seemed so promising.....
.....
Then it seemed to change and it got very long winded (with very little happening) .
I finally gave up at 5 hours 40 left to go, I just couldn't listen anymore, I wasn't enjoying it and couldn't see it getting any better.
I think I gave it a fair go.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • linda c edward lcedward
  • 05-09-2020

Slow and quite boring ..

I was expecting something far more exciting from Richard .. very slow and boring ..
Disappointing as I did anticipate being wowed by this witty clever man . It was laboured ...

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Steph Warren
  • 05-09-2020

A warm, witty, clever murder mystery - I LOVE it!

I loved this book so much, that I went ahead and pre-ordered the audio book and added a hardcover copy to my Christmas list. This is a keeper!

The book introduces us to Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim, a small group of pensioners living in luxury sheltered accommodation and solving old, cold murder cases in the Jigsaw Room on a Thursday, just for a bit of fun. Well, fun, companionship, keeping their minds sharp, and a burning desire to see justice done, depending on who you ask. And Ron just like to have people to argue with on a regular basis. On the other side we have Donna and Chris, representing the official police presence, and trying desperately to keep up with the Murder Club crew, who seem to easily run rings around everyone they meet, despite the occasional use of a walking stick!

Joyce – the newest member of the TMC – tells her side of the story through her journal, but we get some omniscient views into the other characters as the story unfolds. And what a story! Richard Osman has created an intricate web of entwined mysteries, secrets and murders – old and new – that kept me guessing right up to the end. But he writes in such an accessible style – warm and witty – that makes it very easy to follow the plot and characters, despite the complexity of the case.

I’m not usually keen to read fiction books written by celebrities, as I worry that no matter how well they write, their public personality may overwhelm their narrative. This is not the case here. Yes, the public persona of Richard Osman is clever and witty, and so is his book, but he has created a cast of characters that are individual, memorable and live entirely on their own merits in the reader’s mind.

If I could ask the author just one question, it would be: when is Book 2 due out, please? And I have everything crossed that this will be a long-lived series… along with it’s octogenarian characters!


Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 09-09-2020

Disappointed

Like others I looked forward to this book. Reading some of the earlier book reviews the sound of a witty, lighthearted detective novel sounded great but .... I am so sorry to say it doesn't live up to expectations. I haven't written a novel so hats off to anyone who has or in the process, unlikely this book would have been published without the famous author name - perhaps it was a ghost writer. The plot is slow, tedious, tries too hard ( brought back memories of Janet & John /Peter & Jane), no surprise to me lots of older people have personalities and interesting pasts - but I just don't care about any of them. I am up to chapter 18 of 116 and will plough on for now, loads of chapters 5 minutes or less, perhaps it will get better but it is incredibly hard work as I am struggling to engage. If you want a great book read We Begin at The End, Chris Whitaker.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Binka
  • 04-09-2020

Absolutely brilliant!

This book had me laughing one minute and crying the next I thoroughly enjoyed the relationships between the excellently drawn characters and can’t wait until the next book in the series comes out so I can join them on another adventure.
I greatly appreciated the lack of unnecessary swear words and hope it continues, it proves that it is still possible to write a fantastic modern crime story without every other word beginning with F.
Whilst reading this book was a great deal of fun, some of the more serious moments made me stop and think. For an author to combine such disparate elements into one narrative shows them to have true talent.
Add to all of this the perfect choice of narrator and I could do no no less than five full marks!

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  • Miss C.
  • 03-09-2020

Delightful

Great fun. This has had me smiling all morning. The characters are believable and not the stereotypical “plucky old things” that I was worried they may be. The plot keeps you interested and the balance of humour isn’t overplayed. It’s an easy read but intriguing and is beautifully read by the wonderful Lesley Manville.

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