Read time: 4 minutes
📚 Read as a book
📃 422 pages | ⏱ 5 hours read time
🏷️ Penguin Random House on September 19, 2021
📖 Read as part of April Book Club
Book Blurb:
Elizabeth receives a letter from a former colleague, a man with a shady past, a dangerous mistake, and a desperate plea for help. Soon, bodies start dropping, diamonds go missing, and a violent mobster lurks in the shadows. With Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron teaming up once again, the Thursday Murder Club must untangle a twisty web of secrets before the killer finds them. Mischief, murder, and mayhem meet irresistible charm in Richard Osman’s equally witty and heartfelt second installment.
Let’s talk … murder!!!
Okay, I owe Richard Osman an apology, a fruit basket, and possibly a handwritten letter on fancy stationary. For two years, I was that person at every gathering insisting the Thursday Murder Club was overrated. I watched the Netflix movie. Unmoved. I read Book 1. Twice. Unimpressed. So when my book club voted this in for April, I volunteered to moderate specifically to avoid having to have opinions about it. That was the plan. A solid, airtight plan. And then I made the catastrophic mistake of actually reading it.
Plot twist!! I LOVED IT! LOVED IT!!!
Book 2 is where Richard Osman apparently decided to stop playing nice. He took everything that was mildly amusing me in book one and dialed it up to an eleven. The pacing is tighter, the stakes are genuinely higher, and the characters, Elizabeth, joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim feel less like a quirky concept and more like people you’d absolutely want in your corner. The banter between the gang feels sharper, warmer, and somehow more alive. The emotional backbone, especially Elizabeth’s past and the way it collides with her present, hit me harder than I expected. The mystery layers itself beautifully. Stolen diamonds, a mob connection, an old flame with secrets, and a body count that keeps climbing just when you think things are settling. I found myself sneaking in chapters whenever I could, flipping pages with that delirious “just one more” energy I hadn’t felt in ages, and I say that as someone who showed up to this book looking for a reason to complain.
What really got me is how Osman handles the emotional weigth without ever tipping into melodrama. These are people in their seventies, living full, sharp, messy, funny lives, and the book never once condescends to them or to the reader. I borrowed books 3 and 4 even before I finished this one, with zero regrets. I deserve this series far less than I’m getting it.
Would I recommend it?
Consider this my official recant. If you bounced off Book 1, same! Come back anyway! This is the one where The Thursday Murder Club crew found their rhythm, and it’s brilliant. Sharp British humor, a mystery that actually surprises you, and characters with enough warmth and depth to carry a dozen books. It’s the kind of read that’ll make you call your book club and say I was wrong, I was so wrong. Please forgive me.
If You Loved This Book, Try These:
- Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz — For readers who love a mystery that’s clever about being a mystery — layered, witty, and satisfying in ways you won’t see coming.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - The Appeal by Janice Hallett – Multi-format cozy mystery that’s as clever as it is inventive.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto – A warm-hearted amateur sleuth tale with charm to spare.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith — Warm, character-led, oddly cozy mysteries with an ensemble that feels like family. Perfect Thursday Murder Club hangover cure.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Still Life by Louise Penny — If the emotional gut-punch moments in Osman got you, Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series delivers that cozy-mystery-with-actual-feelings combination in every single book.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Ever Eaten Your Words (and Loved Them)?
What’s a book or series you swore you’d given up on, only to fall in love later? I clearly learned my lesson with this one!
Book Links:
Want to purchase this or any of your favourite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below — they work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfil your book orders. #SupportLocal
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy
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