(A Four of Five Star Read)
*****

As usual, I’m late to the party! This book must have been reviewed thousands of times already. So I’m sure I’m not going to write anything you’ve not already read, but here’s my tu’pence worth anyway, for what it’s worth.

This is not a genre of book I would generally read, as you can probably tell from the other reviews and comments on this blog. However, with time to kill in town one day, I visited a charity shop and saw this for a pound.

I know – what a tight-wad! That though, is the simple reason for me reading this.

I remember seeing author Richard Osman on television saying how he was inspired to write the novel by visiting a family member in a Retirement Home. He was enthralled about the new lives the elderly residents had forged for themselves; how active they were and how different their lives were from the common perception that these homes are merely ‘end of life waiting rooms.’

‘The Thursday Murder Club‘ is a gentle, crime novel. The characters are all quickly defined, and I felt I’d got to know them well, early on in the story. They all come across as instantly likable, with an obvious exception, and the plot unfolds at a leisurely pace, with plenty other character interaction as an interesting aside.

This is a nice, light read – surprisingly so considering the topic, the story-line sprinkled with plenty quaint and gentle humorous conversation.

I’m not going to say much else on the story for fear of revealing anything, but it was difficult to predict the ending – I definitely got it wrong. I would add though, I felt a tad irritated by one aspect of the final outcome that I didn’t feel most of the characters would have been happy to accept themselves. (Fear not …. ‘mum’s the word.) 😉

I like how the author cleverly uses the diary notes written by one of the characters as a means of updating the story-line and explaining little pieces of the backstory.

What I didn’t like though, is the main part being written in the present tense. I know that’s a ‘thing’ these days and there may well be a very good reason for it – like the reader being involved ‘in the moment.’

It does my head in though! I’m old school. I think this must be the first book I’ve read that’s written this way and I sure don’t like it. What was a bit confusing too is that the character diary notes I referred to earlier, are all written, as certainly would be the case, in the past tense. Reflective. And then we jump back to the main plot / story and it’s all back in the present.

Maybe I’m too old. Maybe I should be in the Retirement Home.

However, being so easily confused and irritable, it’s unlikely I’d be invited to join ‘The Thursday Murder Club.’

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