The Last Devil To Die: The Thursday Murder Club 4

Product Information

Elizabeth's friend reveals he's been accused of stealing millions in diamonds, and he's desperate for her help. Before too long, bodies are piling up and the friends find themselves in serious danger. Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club is concerned. A decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers. This is an emotional and heartbreaking read. Osman handles a delicate situation with care. He balances the hardship with love and support. He also weaves in a lot of fun and humor. This is one of the few series that makes me laugh out loud.

This was an entertaining mystery, with more chaos and mayhem (hehe) than you'd expect old people to get themselves into. We see Joyce really come into her own here, stepping in for Elizabeth who is otherwise indisposed. I feel like all the side characters were particularly charming, and I even started to like Connie if you can believe it. We also have a little side mystery going on to catch an online scammer, just to add a bit of extra zing to the whole thing. This book was part of my birthday present to myself. Yesterday I decided that it was time to enjoy it. This makes two nights in a row that I have stayed up far too late reading, unusual for a woman who is often in bed before 10 p.m. But even the new characters we have not had the chance to build an understanding of manage to be well-rounded. And if not sympathetic then at least interesting and understandable. Bourton said: “Since the launch of his debut in 2020, Richard Osman has been entertaining millions of readers around the world who have taken his characters into their hearts. While the gang’s sleuthing will continue in future instalments of The Thursday Murder Club, we are extremely excited that with this new deal Richard will also be introducing us to a new series. The entire Viking team believe in Richard’s longevity as an exceptional storyteller, and this four-book deal marks Penguin’s long-term partnership with him: a career we are endlessly ambitious about.” The residents of Coopers Chase have seen a lot, but the impact has rarely been felt so close to home. Drawn into the world of international smugglers and scam artists Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are on the case.When a local developer is found murdered and in possession of a mysterious photograph, they'll find themselves up close and personal with a very real, very current homicide investigation. Will their combined skills be enough to solve the murder before too many more bodies pile up? Joyce plays a more major role in The Last Devil to Die and almost becomes more Elizabeth than Elizabeth herself. Ibrahim makes a quiet revelation to Computer Bob and I wonder whether he will ever make this revelation to the other members of the Thursday Murder Club.

Osman concocts a satisfyingly complex whodunit full of neat twists and wrong turns. But unlike most crime novelists, he ensures his book’s strength and momentum stem not from its plot or its thrills but rather its perfectly formed characters. Once again, the quartet of friends makes for delightful company… Heartwarming and enthralling. ‘They carried a kind of magic, the four of them,’ a policeman muses. That magic is still there in abundance.”

Books Like Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club

I’ll miss my yearly September visit with the gang next year, as Osman is taking a break from the series to write a father-daughter mystery. Though I’m looking forward to seeing where his creative mind takes him with that story, I hope to see my Thursday Murder Club friends again soon. Fall just isn’t the same without them! The fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series will hopefully prove to anyone who has had their doubts that these are not cosy mysteries. Like the members of the club itself it feels like these books are sometimes dismissed as gentle or cosy. But, the emotionally loaded fourth instalment shows that there is so much more to these books.

I will say that while this entry was every bit as charming and full of life as its predecessors, it also had more emotional heft due to a loss that impacts all of the characters. As a reader of the series, it wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but the amount of tears I shed was! My apologies to the drivers in the cars next to me who surely thought I was having a breakdown of some sort. Kudos to Richard Osman for handling the potentially controversial topic sensitively, with room for opposing views.The cast was a bit smaller this time but still had diverse and fascinating characters including an art forger, her comically psychotic Canadian husband, some drug runners, a couple museum experts, a victim of romance fraud, a brief return of Stephen’s friend, antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma, imprisoned drug maven Connie, and of course, the eminently lovable Bogdan, along with detectives Donna, Chris and others. Narrator Fiona Shaw did a stellar job once again of voicing them all. I highly recommend The Last Devil to Die to those readers who enjoy a Cozy Mystery with a solid group of main characters!

THE SECOND NOVEL IN THE RECORD-BREAKING, MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING THURSDAY MURDER CLUB SERIES BY RICHARD OSMAN The strands of the plot multiply entertainingly and get tied together in the usual satisfying way… Osman serves up another delightful mystery.” As we have come to expect from Osman's writing, there is more than one tightly plotted mystery to unravel.

Opening the new Osman is like sitting down to dinner with treasured friends you know are going to kill you - deliciously!' PETER JAMES