Ahead of the release of a new book in the Thursday Murder Club series, I thought I’d better catch up on book three. I wasn’t entirely sure after the first book but found that Richard and I had really got into the swing of things by the time I came to this one. The writing is confident, and we race along with each sentence. Of each of the three books so far, I found this to be the closest to unputdownable. As with any series of fiction books, it is the resident characters that draw us in and back to their previous stories. We get to know them better and, although there are welcome reminders of previous encounters, we can move forward with confidence, confident that we understand where they’re coming from and that they are, inevitably, in control of us as much as the other characters they encounter as each plot unravels. Having said that, I did feel that they had become a little one-dimensional in The Bullet that Missed – almost caricatures of themselves. I also wasn’t sure about relationships breaking out everywhere. It seemed too sudden; too all-encompassing somehow. The plot is as lunatic as ever, with a journalist having seemingly been murdered while investigating a VAT fraud and a ‘Viking’ and ex-KGB officer being introduced over a cryptocurrency dispute which, very surprisingly, Joyce has also embraced. I felt that the plotting and pacing were better than in the previous two books, and it felt good to escape even as I was caught up in the intrigue. Joyce is, as ever, the character who makes us laugh out loud by saying things that are clearly absurd but endearingly so, with elements of truth in all that we do and say and think in real life. I love the sagacity of Bogdan who is like an omnipresent protector of the four dotty detectives. ‘Everyone wants to feel special, but nobody wants to feel different,’ is just pure genius. There are some moments of real poignancy – especially where Stephen is concerned – which I believe is what you want from a good comedy to make it work: a healthy dose of (prospective) tragedy to level things up. Those scenes have actually stayed with me the longest. I enjoyed how everything played out towards multiple reveals and, pleasingly, I had suspected completely the wrong character as the murderer! Loose ends were tied up like nooses and the conclusion felt very satisfactory. It was very enjoyable to be back in the company of these amateur sleuths. I will almost certainly join them again soon, although I fear that our cosy crime club might be about to face some stark truths.
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AuthorI am a fiction writer, currently living in Worcestershire, enjoying mystery dramas, thrillers, poetry, comedy and history. I read a wide range of fiction, also writing book reviews here and sharing on amazon, goodreads and Waterstones sites. Archives
October 2024
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