I read this book in May, 2021.

"The Thursday Murder Club" is book one in a series of crime novels - a stunning, fastest ever selling debut novel written by TV celebrity and presenter, and now author, Richard Osman. It is set in an upmarket retirement village of Coopers Chase in the Kentish Weald, near Fairhaven. The Murder Club consists of 4 main pensioners, each pushing eighty, with time on their hands and each wanting to keep their minds active. They are Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim. Elizabeth is the leader, very, very clever, and persuasive, but with a background not yet disclosed to us. There are hints that she may be an ex diplomat, possibly ex secret service, she still seems to have access to an extensive world wide list of contacts and agents, and can call in favours and get whatever information she needs. She even talks of fieldcraft and knows the best ways to kill someone. She is married to Stephen, her third husband, a retired art expert. Sadly, he is showing the first signs of memory loss, but she is covering up for him, and giving him appropriate medication. Strangely, although she is an able chess player, Stephen can still beat her, and elegantly. Elizabeth sets herself daily memory tests to check for any impairment she might suffer - each day she writes a question of the day in her diary, but to be answered two weeks in the future. Joyce Medowcroft is a former nurse, a recent recruit to replace Penny Gray, an ex Kent police inspector now a victim to dementia and in a terminal coma in the adjacent Willows nursing home. The Club had been investigating the death by stabbing of Annie Madley, apparently at the hands of a mysterious burglar, and discovered by her boyfriend. The Club suspect the boyfriend did it. They had asked Joyce how long it would take Annie to bleed to death. Joyce had been married to Gerry, but is now a widow, and would like some new company - she has formidable cake baking skills and has eyes on Bernard Cottle, a fellow resident at Coopers Chase. Joyce has a daughter Joanna, working in financial investment in the City. Ron Ritchie was a well known union leader and rabble rouser, and he is still trouble. His son is Jason Ritchie, a famous ex boxing champion, with a shady, criminal past, but now going straight and much in demand as a media celebrity. Ibrahim Arif, is a retired psychiatrist and the Clubs spread sheet using fact checker. Penny Gray's husband John, sits by her bed side all day long - he is retired vet.

There are two main, very interresting police characters. PC Donna De Freitas is ex Met - she fled London to escape from a doomed relationship - and is currently doing menial office tasks, but she wants to be part of the murder investigation squad. DCI Chris Hudson is in charge of this squad. He is now middle aged, and does not look after himself, nor his diet. He gets out of breath climbing stairs but Donna likes him, is trying to take him in hand, and drag him from his century into the current one. Donna pretends to have a phobia of lifts so that Chris has to walk up the stairs with her. Chris is not sure if he is alone, or lonely - but he would like a life partner / wife. We meet Donna when she calls at Coopers Chase to give a standard talk to the residents but they change the subject, and introduce her to the Thursday Murder Club. Later the Club, by trickery and cunning, will enlist Chris and Donna into their Club as sources of information. They trick their way into seeing Donna at Fairhaven police station, and do a deal - if we get you on the police murder squad within the hour, will you share information with us. Meanwhile, DCI Hudson is trying to interview Ron, and contact his son Jason, but Ron says he lacks confidence and could only speak to that nice constable they all met, Donna - "Is she a member of your team ? " "Yes" says Chris, Donna is in, and the Club get their contact.

Now to the crime part of the story. Coopers Chase is built on the site of an old monastry, then Nun's retreat. It's ancient chapel is still in use, and the Nun's are buried in the old graveyard of eternal rest. This graveyard is an important part of the story. Coopers Chase is owned Ian Ventham, not a very nice character. He was in partnership with a local bulder / hoodlum, Tony Curran who had committed murder but it could not be proved. Ian is greedy and wants to ditch Tony, and replace him with a cheaper Polish builder, Bogdan Koslowski. He also wants to knock down the old chapel and build 8 flats there - and a similar story for the graveyard. But there is a buried secret at this graveyard, and several people want this secret to remain hidden. Tony Curran is found dead, knocked senseless with a heavy spanner. An old photo is left at the scene as a clue of sorts - it shows Tony, Bobby Tanner (then local muscle) and Jason Ritchie sitting at a table piled high with probably drug money. Also, who took the picture ? Later we will hear the photographer was Cypriot Gianni Guntaz, who disppeared years ago. Who killed Curran ? DCI Chris Hudson is on the case, but the Thursday Club have their first live case, and swing into action. Next Ian Ventham gets Bogdan to start digging up the graveyard, but the Coopers Chase residents protest, and an Irish priest, Father Matthew Mackie turns up. He definitely does not want the graveyard disturbed. The residents stage a sit down strike to block the bulldozers' advance. The police attend, and in the confusion Ian Ventham falls to the ground. He has been killed with a Fentanyl injection, but who in the crowd did it ? This is murder two to be tackled by DCI Hudson (and the Thursday Murder Club, who set aside their who killed Annie Madley cold case).

Bogdan had started digging manually in the old graveyard and uncovered some bones - two bodies in one grave, only one in a coffin, one buried on top. Whose bones were these? Significantly, the grave was that of Nun Maggie Farrell, and eventually we hear her achingly sad story. Bogdan buried the bones again to get time to think, and with his boss Ian Ventham dead, eventually sought advice from Elizabeth ( and met and got on well with her husband Stephen). I think I have now said enough - I never want to spoil any of these stories for anyone still to read the book. The story of course now takes off, and there is a lot more to discover. But let me make some comments. It's a complicated, well written tale with lots of red herrings, and not all we are told turns out to be true. Various suspects come and go with often touching eventual personal stories and alibis. Osman can write movingly when required. Throughout it all, there is a lot of humour, and a sense of goodness and justice that guides the story. Even at the end, there is a twist. The theme is what we do for love, and to protect those we love, and maybe, one murder leads to another.

In conclusion, although I didn't like Richard Osman's excessive use of very short chapters - I wanted the story to flow faster and unfold in larger chunks - all in all, I liked the story and agree it's a terrific debut novel. It also even manages a feel good ending for DCI Chris Hudson who ends up with a new girlfriend. What next, I wonder - we must read on ?

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I read this book in Jan, 2022.

If the test of a good writer is not in the writing of a first novel, but in the writing of the second, Richard Osman passes the test with flying colours. "The Thursday Murder Club", was marvellous and stunningly successful, but I thought book two, "The Man Who Died Twice" is even better ! What a cracker of a series this is going to be. I love a skilfully constructed book. We open with what we think is the "man who died twice" - an unidentified / unidentifiable man washed up on a muddy bank of the Thames, appropriated and renamed Marcus Carmichael by a team leader of MI5, the British Secret Service - Elizabeth, one of the 4 pensioner Thursday Murder Club in an earlier life - and given a very public burial. But then a great surprise. The tale has been told, and the book closes - with the real man who died twice, one of many. Actually, at the very, very beginning of the book is a despondent Sylvia Finch about whom death "clings like a mist." Mysteriously she both hopes to be clear of this, but hopes not. Almost as an epilogue Sylvia reappears at the finale of the book - an indirect Thursday Murder club beneficionery when bad money is put to good use.

Lets introduce most of the cast. We are back in Cooper's Chase Retirement Home, near Fairhaven, in the company of the Thursday Murder Club - mysterious (in book 1) Elizabeth, ex nurse Joyce Meddowcroft, ex trade union rabble rouser Ron Ritchie, and ex psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif. Joyce still mourns the death of husband Gerry, and has a daughter Joanna. Ron has a daughter as well as a son, and her marriage may be in danger. Ron's grandson Kendrick visits for a weekend, and, put to work by the pensioner gang, his keen eyesight spots a clue they all missed. Ibrahim has been playing it safe all his life, but he now determines to be bolder and get out and about. Soon we have confirmed what we all suspected from book one - Elizabeth is indeed not only ex Secret Service, but was a legend there, and it's Dame Elizabeth. Two co-opted members of the Thursday Club are DCI Chris Hudson, and PC Donna de Freitas of the local police. Chris is being reformed to a gym going, healthy diet ex slob. Donna introduced DCI Chris to her teacher mum Patrice and they have fallen in love. No love interest yet for Donna. She is ex Met - a very lonely coloured lady with no friends in a strange town. She has been sleeping around for human contact, but a chat with ex psychiatrist Ibrahim points to a better way forward. Two new Secret Service characters are Sue Reardon, a clever, sharp modern version of Elizabeth, and Lance James, ex SBS. Three new crooks are Martin Lomax, an international money launderer, banker for master criminals, Frank Andrade Jr, one of his NY mafia clients, and local drug dealer and villain Connie Johnson. Bogdan Jankowski, project manager at the Coopers Chase expansion takes a starring role in this story. He still plays chess with Elizabeth's dementia suffering husband Stephen. Bogdan has many surprising talents which prove invaluable to the Thursday Murder Club.

There is a major murder / missing diamonds / spy plot to solve, and numerous sub plots. All sorts of simple incidents turn out to be linked, and things do get very complicated. But we encounter the complications very slowly thanks to the author's use of very short chapters, lots and lots of balls are kept in the air at the same time, and we never lose our way. There is plenty humour, but sadness too - Elizabeth's husband Stephen is on a one way street sinking into dementia, and a mother has to identify the dead body of her daughter. Richard Osman handles each with skill. How did he become such a good writer so quickly? I was going to write that true to it's spy story connections "nothing is as it seems," and Elizabeth is very skilled at seeing alternative explanations, but sometimes things are just as they seem, and it's often less complicated Joyce that solves the puzzle.

The major story starts simply and then gets complicated. Elizabeth gets a letter from Marcus Carmichael - the dead man on the muddy bank of the Thames. He has moved into a neighbouring building, and wants her to visit him, but who is he ? Elizabeth visits, Marcus knows Elizabeth, and she knows him from her earlier life. He is not only a fellow spy, but her ex-husband Douglas. As part of an investigation into international money laundering, he and fellow agent Lance James had broken into Martin Lomax's country mansion. Douglas had pocketed a bag of diamonds (£25 mil. worth) owned by NY mafia boss Frank Andrade Jr which banker Lomax had been holding as a deal deposit. The mafia and Lomax want the diamonds back, and are on to Douglas, who is under MI5 protection. Elizabeth drew attention to herself with all the information requests she had been making in book one, and now MI5 want a favour in return. She must baby sit Douglas hiding out in Coopers Chase. Douglas also has an MI5 minder - Poppy whom we met in an earlier chapter as the hopeless new waitress in Cooper's Chase restaurant. There is a murder, and then a double murder but are the dead people who they seem to be, or did one survive and plan to escape with the diamonds. Truly a worthy case for the Thursday Murder Club. To say more would spoil things, but complication piles upon complication, Sue Reardon and Lance James of MI5 appear - Elizabeth and Sue say the trust each other, but do they - and Frank Andrade flies in, and it all builds to a thrilling climax. What a brilliant plot, well done Richard Osman !

Lets touch upon some of the sub plots. DCI Chris and Donna have been staking out drug dealing villain Connie Johnson. She tries to scare them off and tells Chris she knows where Patrice lives. This does worry Chris, he admits whilst talking to the Thursday Murder Club. Leave it to us, we will sort it. How on earth can they sort such a thing ? Another sub plot unfolds when Ibrahim, trying to live life more fully, borrows Ron's car, drives alone into Fairhaven, and gets mugged and kicked in the head by a local teenager later identified as Ryan Baird. Nothing can be proved, and he has to be released after questioning by Chris and Donna. One of there own has been attacked, the Thursday Murder Club will take over. But Ibrahim is now too afraid to ever venture out of Coopers Chase. A problem for Joyce more than Elizabeth.

I liked the pensioner's banter, especially early discussions about the wisdom of Joyce getting a dog. Ibrahim had said it would be cruel to get a dog that would outlive them. Mostly ignoring the arguments, Elizabeth eventully suggests a simple solution - "get an older dog."

Somehow at the end, everything has been solved, diamonds found, justice prevails, and lonely hearts offered solutions. So it's a feel good story after all.

One minor criticism persists from book one - I wish Richard Osman would write longer chapters so that we can follow the action more smoothly. We are constantly fed a little bit of one story, then jump to a little bit of another story, and so on, and so on, until several chapters later we return to the first story again. It's sort of clever juggling so many things but it's very disjointed (says me). Read the book and see what you think. All that said though, I really liked and enjoyed the story. Roll on book three.

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I read this book in January, 2023.

Richard Osman, best known for presenting the "Pointless" TV Quiz show, burst onto the book scene in 2020 with an excellent first novel featuring an assorted gang of pensioners - the Thursday Murder Club. They all live in Cooper's Chase Retirement Home in Kent. They meet to exercise their brain cells, and attempt to solve cold crime cases. Richard followed this up with another excellent second book in 2021, a further case for the Thursday Murder Club, and now comes the third book in the series. Happily it's just as good as the first two. The books are funny, very clever but sometimes quite heartbreaking - e.g. Stephen Best's diminishing intellect, and descent into dementia. The books consists of a succession of amazingly short chapters - 91 in this book - and I would rather read the story in larger chunks. However I accept this allows the author to lead us gently into very complicated plot lines without getting lost, and also to have multiple plots running at the same time.

Let's start by introducing some old and some new characters. The Thursday Murder Club are Ron Ritchie, a retired union boss, Joyce Medowcroft, a retired nurse, Ibrahim Arif, a retired psychiatrist, and Stephen's wife Elizabeth Best, an ex MI5 spy section chief. Ron has a son, Jason, an ex boxer, a daughter Suzi, and a very clever grandson Kendrick (8) who sometimes helps. Joyce has a daughter Joanna, who with her colleague Cornelius also gets roped in for financial analyses, and computer searches / hacks. Joyce now has the dog she had been thinking of getting, Alan, and Ibrahim who previously advised against it, loves the dog. The police are DC Donna de Freitas, DCI Chris Hudson, and Chief Constable Andrew Everton, who also writes crime thrillers. The Chief Constable plays a major part in this story. We also meet again Connie Johnson, in prison because of Ron and Bogdan, awaiting trial, but wanting revenge. New characters include Mike Waghorn, TV presenter and journalist on South East Tonight, Fiona Clemence, TV star and Pauline from make up. The Thursday Murder Club battle against two rival international money launderers, Viktor Illyich, and a tall bearded Swede - "the Viking."

Romance seems to be in the air. Chris Hudson is still with Patrice, Donna's mum. Donna and Bogdan have now fallen in love. Ron Ritchie has paired up with the make up artist Pauline, and 10 years ago, Mike Waghorn and his TV co-host Bethany Waites had been in love. Joyce is trying to get friendly with Mervyn, a new arrival at Cooper's Chase. There are multiple plots - the disappearance of Bethany Waites 10 years ago ; Connie Johnson, in prison awaiting trial, wants to kill Ron and Bogdan ; the "Viking" wants Elizabeth to kill his rival Viktor Illyich ; and later who killed Heather Garbutt and Jack Mason. Of course all these plots are related.

The book opens with a prologue set 10 years ago. The reporter Bethany Waites emails her South East Tonight co-host Mike Waghorn to say she has almost cracked an amazing story and is off to meet a risky contact - Death or Glory. Much later we will learn that she was on to a massive VAT fraud scheme involving the import / export of moble phones. The police convicted Heather Garbutt and she went to jail. Her gangster boss Jack Mason was obviously involved but the police could not find any evidence to charge him.

Jumping up to date we find Ron Ritchie being made up by Pauline for a TV interview with Mike Waghorn about life at Coopers Chase. This is part of a Murder Club ploy to get access to Mike to help in their latest cold case investigation - the disappearance / presumed death of Bethany Waites. This case was chosen by Joyce who always wanted to meet Mike Waghorn. Mike and Pauline do visit Cooper's Chase - Bethany had been getting threatening notes, told Mike her scoop was "absolute dynamite", but was last seen in her car with an unidentified male near Shakespeare Cliff. The car was later found at the foot of the cliff, but Bethany's body was never found, presumably thrown clear of the car, and washed out to sea. Was it murder or suicide ? Readers of crime fiction always prick up their ears on being told someone's body was never found. Is it a bluff, and they are alive and well somewhere, or a double bluff, and really are dead ?

Elizabeth is out for a walk with Stephen. They always go the same way as the familiar is reassuring for Stephen, but an ex spy knows it is not good practice to be predictable. She barely catches a glimpse of a man and seconds later is unconscious. She comes to in the back of a speeding van, bound and tied, and a sack over her head. Stephen is there too. They are lifted out of the van, and find themselves in the huge library of a posh mansion. Stephen is amazed at the book collection - the library is stuffed full of priceless first editions, and antiquarian rare treasures. A huge bearded man enters. He has a Swedish accent - Elizabeth calls him "the Viking". In brief, he wants Elizabeth to kill his money laundering rival, the ex KGB section head, Viktor Illyich. He says the diamonds you stole really belonged to Viktor, and after I send him photos of you he will come after you and kill you. So kill him first. Although he has the upper hand, Elizabeth holds a secret ace. She says she will not kill Viktor, knowing she and Viktor had been secret lovers. He won't kill her, she won't kill him. The Viking will not be outwitted. If Viktor is not dead in two weeks, I will kill Joyce.

The Thursday Murder Club get on with their investigation of the Bethany Waites case, and split up. Ron visits Jack Mason and they get on well. Jack says he didn't kill Bethany, but knows for a fact that she is dead. Ibrahim visits Connie Johnson in Durwell prison, and asks her to befriend Heather Garbutt to get information from her. She went to jail over her connection to the VAT fraud case Bethany had been investigating. Ibrahim and Connie also get on well, and Connie not only says yes, but will pay psychiatrist Ibrahim £60 a visit for weekly therapy sessions. Joyce's daughter and Cornelius had analysed the court documents from the Bethany case, and discovered an elaborate and very professional money laundering scheme. Cornelius managed to get back to the early days of the scheme when it was less sophisticated, and finds a bogus company Trident Construction with 3 directors - Jack Mason, Carron Whitehead, and Robert Brown. Joyce will try to find Carron Whitehead and Robert Brown MSc. Meanwhile, DCI Chris Hudson and Donna are on the case too. There are four unaccounted for hours before Bethany went over the cliff in her car, but no CCTV sighting of the car. They find the only way she could have got out of Fairhaven without a CCTV trigger would have been through the car park of a block of flats - Juniper Court. Who lives there, did Bethany visit someone there, perhaps her murderer ? Much, much later, when Bogdan is giving Ron a lift, he says he is not going home, but going to Pauline's who lives in Juniper Court.

I'll say just a little bit more and then leave you to read the story. The Chief Constable Andrew Everton, on one of his regular weekly interviews on South East Tonight sees a video of some pensioners at Cooper's Chase, and recognises Ibrahim as the mystery "journalist" who had visited Connie Johnson. From now on, Andrew Everton takes a starring role in the story. Elizabeth tells Joyce she is going to kill Viktor, and takes Joyce with her to Viktor's sumptious London penthouse. Joyce does not agree with the killing. Elizabeth takes Viktor into his bathroom, and a shot is fired. Here we meet the book title - "The Bullet that Missed."

There is so very much more to this book that I have not covered, e.g. Heather Garbutt is killed, as is Jack Mason, and various sometimes unlikely recruits join and help the Thursday Murder Club investigation. Some may still be there in the next book. Elizabeth "borrows" Fiona Clemence's Instagram account to broadcast a spectacular Mike Waghorn interview. In the end, it all builds to a succession of clever climaxes, and every loose end is covered, and there are happy endings galore. Success is due to great Thursday Murder Club team work - every one of them solves something, even Ron who works out who Robert Brown Msc is. It's such clever writing, a story so well constructed - a tour de force by Richard Osman.

However I will conclude with two themes handled with extreme sensitivity by the author. Firstly, the members of the Thursday Murder Club are getting very old - they are 77 upwards, and know they will not be around for ever. Although it's winter, Joyce goes swimming in Viktor's sky high glass swimming pool - holding her head out of the water to keep her hair dry. Ron and Ibrahim say wait till it's summer, but Elizabeth knows they must take their their pleasures whilst they can - Joyce may not be around in summer - and that applies to all of them. Secondly, Stephen's descent into dementia. We get a rare glimpse of his fierce intellect so admired by Bogdan. It is Stephen who identifies the Viking as the Swede Henrik Hensen - Stephen had followed the rare book trail with help from his "iffy" Brighton, antique dealer friend Kuldesh Sharma (80). All through the book, somehow Stephen's international level chess skill remained intact - and Bogdan and Stephen lost themselves in some memorable chess tussles. Half way through the book Stephen asks Bogdan if he is going doolally. Bogdan parries - we are all going doolally. At the end of the book, Bogdan takes out the chess board for another match, but Stephen looks blank - "not me, old chap, it's Elizabeth's set. I never could get the hang of the game." Bogdan hides his tears. Elizabeth knows there is something Bogdan is not telling her - and unfortunately this is it.

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I read this book in December, 2023.

This is book 4 in Richard Osman's excellent series, set in Cooper's Chase Retirement Home in Kent, where four pensioners meet on Thursdays to solve murders - the Thursday Murder Club. Some reviewers have written that this outing is not quite up to the standard of books 1 to 3, but I don't agree. However, there are sections where the author paints a very depressing view of life - that the world has existed for millions of years before us, and will exist for millions more after us, we are all dying, and all we do is completely insignificant and meaningless. Why not just praise the kindness and friendship of which he writes - never a meaningless waste of time. I'll start by introducing the main characters, then say a little about the personal lives stories, and then get on to the main plots.

Main Characters :The Thursday Murder Club are Ron Ritchie, retired trade unionist, Joyce Meadowcroft, retired nurse, Elizabeth Best, let's say retired Secret Service, and Ibrahim Arif, retired psychologist. Ron's son Ritchie has some dodgy friends, Joyce's husband Gerry is dead, her daughter is Joanna, her dog Alan, and Elizabeth's husband Stephen is suffering late stage dementia. Demon driver, mighty Bogdan Jankowski helps out generally. The police are DC Donna de Freitas, DCI Chris Hudson, and Chief Constable Andrew Everton. Jill Regan heads an NCA team that sweeps in and takes over. Donna and Bogdan are together, as are Ron and Pauline, as are Chris and Donna's mum Patrice. Stephen's friend Kuldesh Sharma (80) is an iffy Brighton antiques dealer, and Mervyn Collins is a gullible newish retirement home resident that Joyce is trying to befriend. Ibrahim visits Connie Johnson, in prison, as her therapist. She controls the English cocaine drugs scene from her cell. The rival heroin drug gang are Sayed, who flies over his Afghanistan poppy fiends in his helicopter, Hanif works for Sayed, Mitch Maxwell gets the drugs into the country, and his partner Luca Buttaci then distributes them. Dom Holt is Mitch's assistant. Connie's equivalent for art forgery and stolen antiques is Samantha Barnes, now married to the giant Canadian Garth she previously tried to swindle. Viktor Illyich is a former high ranking KGB officer, Elizabeth's opposite number. They are unlikely friends based on former mutual respect. Bob Whittaker is a new resident at Coopers Chase who is enlisted to the Murder Club for his computer skills, and as a possible future friend / partner for Ibrahim. Finally, the Murder Club consult two Archeology Professors at the University of Canterbury, Nina Misha and her boss Jonjo Mellor.

Private Lives Stories :There are lots of little stories here, and a huge one as Stephen's descent into dementia comes to it's conclusion - "the joy love brings and the price we pay". Chris Hudson is trying to pluck up enough courage to propose to Patrice. Ron and Pauline spend Christmas together. Set in his ways, he has a silly quarrel with her over the sequence of Christmas rituals (when do you open presents, etc). He keeps trying to contact her to apologise but she won't pick up (although she wants to). Finally it's an invitation to the funeral of such a special friend that brings Pauline back - they are holding hands and have never let go since.

The Mervyn story starts slowly. He hadn't realised the home baking Joyce had been giving him had romantic intentions. During his Christmas lunch with the Murder Club, Mervyn announces he has a girlfriend - Tatiana in Lithuania. He has been sending her money to get her a passport, pay for flights, etc, but something always goes wrong because of Lithuanian corruption. It's obviously a money scam, and Ron and Ibrahim and Donna help Mervyn, although he won't accept its a scam. They do get his money back from Tatiana's friend Jeremmy, but it's part of the main story climax. Even then, with his money back, Mervyn is about to fall into another scam. Some people are just gullible and can't be told.

There is a nice silver fox story which, as an aside, tells us of an allotment beside the wood behind Cooper's Chase. A fox has been visiting Stephen every night - just standing outside looking at his window. One night it isn't there, Stephen becomes agitated, and when Bogdan goes with him to look for the fox they find it dead in the snow. Later Bogdan buries the fox in a clearing beside the allotment, but the burial is well attended by many Cooper's Chase residents, all of whom thought the fox their special friend. Later Stephen will talk of his allotment, and ask Elizabeth to dig up his vegetables - but she dismisses this as Stephen's confusion, he doesn't have an allotment. The significance of this only comes to Elizabeth in the middle of the night when she lies in bed, unable to sleep. There is also a nice Ibrahim story which he tells to his new friend Bob Whittaker, computer skilled and possible new recruit to the Murder Club. Sixty years ago, when he, an Egyptian, was a 20 year old medical student, he went to a jazz club, met Marius, German, a 20 year old chemistry student, they were both equally shy, but they got talking, bought each other a drink, went for a meal, were in the same place / same time the next week, held hands beneath the table, and eventually moved in together to a new flat. Two lonely people had met soul mates. Sadly the police knock at the door one night, to tell Ibrahim his flat mate has died in a road traffic accident, and does Ibrahim have parents' contact details? Ibrahim said he would contact them, but never did. Saying he represented the parents, he had Marius cremated, and kept his ashes. They are in a wall safe behind the boat picture that Ibrahim often sits and gazes at. He has never told anyone this story, so why is he telling Bob, who kept asking, what happens next. Yes, indeed, what happens next for Bob and Ibrahim ?

Finally, the major Stephen story. Stephen's progressive, worsening dementia has been mentioned in all the previous books. There are good days, and bad days, but not many good days. Elizabeth loves Stephen, and wants to care for him as long as possible. Matters come to a head when Stephen asks Elizabeth to read a letter to him that he has just had delivered. Apparently she has to read this letter to him every day. A brave man has written to Stephen to say that he has dementia. Elizabeth is furious, how dare they write such a letter, but as she reads on, she realises who has written the letter. Is it true, asks Stephen - yes. Is it bad - yes. Stephen tells Elizabeth "you are my lover, not my nurse." What to do for the best? Elizabeth tells the murder club she will be absent for a few days (Joyce takes over), and takes Stephen to visit Viktor Illyich, former repected KGB rival. She knows she will get good advice, and Stephen will tell Viktor things he will not tell her. Viktor asks Stephen if he is in pain. Yes, he is in constant, indescribable pain, like drowning all the time in a sea of confusion, faces he does not recognise, nothing makes sense. And so, back at Cooper's Chase, Stephen is getting his hair cut - he looks elegant and will make a good impression. Everyone gives him a hug, thinking Elizabeth is finally taking Stephen to a special nursing home. I'll leave the story there - there is a lot more to the story than this, and it's handled beautifully by the author with no nonsense about nothing mattering.

Main plot: This seems to concern drug smuggling (but there is a lot more to it than that !) and starts slowly with a prologue where someone drives to a secluded wood apparently to hand over something for money, but is shot in the head. The someone is Kuldesh Sharma, Stephen's friend who helped the Murder club in the previous book. We now read the story proper. Mitch Maxwell, illegal drug importer, is in his country warehouse with a £ 100k batch of heroin smuggled in, in an old terracotta box. We later learn that Connie Johnson runs the cocaine illegal drugs, but heroin is a different set up. Sayed owns the poppy fields in Afghanistan, Hanif is his assistant, Mitch gets the drugs into the country, and hands them over to his partner Luca Buttaci who distributes them. Mitch's assistant is Dom Holt. Back to Kuldesh. Christmas is a lonely time by yourself, and so Kuldesh opens his Brighton antique shop early on the 27th. Not many other places are open, and so it's the Kuldesh shop that Dom Holt enters. He has a terracotta box that Kuldesh is to buy for £50, and someone will arrive next morning, and buy it for £500. The prices are fixed, and if you don't have the box, "I will kill you." Kuldesh knows not to argue - he knows a drugs deal when he sees it. Has he tried to steal the drugs, and got himself killed? Later the question is why, and why would he contact Stephen and why would Stephen help him, but start reminiscing about a museum in Bagdad, and about taking Elizabeth there for a visit ?

I'll say just a little bit more about the story, then leave you to read it. Kuldesh's body is found, and DCI Chris Hanson and DC Donna de Freitas investigate. Kuldesh was Stephen's friend, and he helped them, so the Murder Club also take on the case. Chris tries to warn them off - fat chance. Donna will always share with Bogdan, and he will tell Elizabeth. Joyce and Elizabeth visit Kuldesh's ransacked shop - someone had been looking for something they obviously failed to find. Donna and Chris Hudson were also at the shop, and chase Elizabeth and Joyce away. We are not sharing. Elizabeth takes Joyce to a teashop just down the road. She noticed it's external CCTV. They are friendly harmless pensioners, and people tell them things. They see video, and hear of a tall stranger with a Scouse accent. Ibrahim is sent to speak to Connie Johnson in jail - he is her therapist. She easily identifies the man as Dom Holt who works for Mitch Maxwell. Since they obviously know more than him, Chris agrees to share. But a National Crime Agency team headed by Jill Regan arrive, throw their weight about, and she tufts Chris out of his office and off the case. Elizabeth does not think the NCA would be involved with a simple murder case - there is more to this. Donna has Kuldesh's phone, and he made two calls before his death. One was to Prof Lina Misha, and the other was to an undisclosed code "777" number. The gang visit Nina and meet her boss Prof Jonjo Mellor. Nina knew Kuldesh well, he often asked her advice if he came across something iffy. Asked where she would go if she had £100k of heroin she mentions Samantha Barnes, an art forger and dealer in stolen paintings. Elizabeth phones Samantha to make an appointment for Joyce to visit. Later she gets Donna to check her phone - as suspected Samantha has a code "777" phone number. Oh, Elizabeth, you know someone else who has such a number. We also meet Garth, a giant Canadian, now Samantha's husband. Dom Holt gets killed, the body is discovered by Chris Hudson, who then needs the murder club to give him a reason to be in Mitch's warehouse. Finally Jill Regan asks for the Murder Club's help - she has lost the heroin, is hated by her team who will stab her in back and whom she cannot trust.

I think I have said more then enough. I loved how Bob identified Jeremmy as Tatiana, and how Jeremmy was set up by his own greed. Even his own lawyer doesn't believe his story about getting heroin from four pensioners. I also loved how brilliantly Joyce took over from Elizabeth, switching into capable former nurse mode. There are lots of other murders, Garth commits a murder and has one to avenge , etc, but eventually Kuldesh's murderer is more or less discovered, and handed over to Jill, Chris, and Donna, now working as a team. Jill doesn't like being misdirected by the murder club, but Donna tells her just to settle for what they have, its the best approach.

I usually say roll on the next adventure, but Richard Osman has said his next book will feature a father-in-law/ daughter-in-law duo, before returning to the Murder Club. We will have to be patient.

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