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Some sequels/series you continue reading simply because you want to keep spending time with the characters, and Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series is definitely one of those. These wily, feisty octogenarians meet weekly to work on cold cases but end up in the middle of current murder investigations. Members of this group have very different backgrounds and skill sets, all of which come in handy at some point in their inquiries.
The local police detectives no longer even try to keep these four old folks out of the loop. They are even past being “resigned” to sharing information with them; they respect them and their lives have become intertwined.
In this story, the longtime local news anchor in their area is hoping to solve the disappearance (likely murder) of a younger colleague from a decade before. The gang starts making inquiries and using their connections. Then another murder occurs, and things get dangerous. Of course. Does it deter the club? No indeed.
All the main players — the four members of the TMC, their two police detectives, and side characters early on who got pulled into their orbit permanently — get more fleshed out and have more going on. Romances begin and get more established. Friendships solidify. We learn a bit more about each person’s background and personality.
I still got plenty of chuckles while reading, and I knew that even as some situations seemed pretty precarious, our amateur detectives would handle them nimbly (and in unexpected ways). And while the established younger characters know what the club members are capable of, despite their appearances, there are plenty more unsuspecting bad guys whose assumptions about the octogenarians prove their undoing.
The mystery in this third book is well paced and the fun just keeps on coming. So I’ll look forward to more entries in this clean murder mystery series!
Rated: Mild. There are a handful of uses of moderate language, a few uses of mild language, and about a dozen instances of the name of Deity taken in vain. Violence occurs but it’s not frequent and details are minimal. Sexual content is minimal; it’s understood that several couples are together and having sex but there is no detail. In one instance, a couple wake up in bed together.
