The Thursday Club: "We may be retired, but we're not dead yet."


I read a lot of cozy mysteries. (Or cosy mysteries given that many of the books take place in the UK.) It's not surprising, I suppose, since I tend to gravitate toward the same kinds of TV shows. These mysteries aren't too stressful, they offer likeable characters, and because they come in series, it's easy to "make friends" with the characters as I spend so much time with them.

Most of the time I rate them a 4 or maybe a 3. They're good, I enjoyed them, but this isn't GREAT writing. It's good. (Which is good.)

The first installment of The Thursday Murder Club was great.

I picked it up quite a while back, and I just couldn't quite get into it. The point of view switched frequently. When we get Joyce's point of view, she is using first person. We see an omniscient narrator when we see Elizabeth, Donna, or Chris's point of view. (We also see the POV of a couple of criminals and some side characters.)

I set the book aside thinking I would come back to it when I had a better attention span. I picked it up again a couple of days ago, thinking this back and forth between POV would put me to sleep, but this time I was riveted.

Four retirees in a retirement home examining cold cases, committed to living their best lives because, well, they can no longer pretend like life is forever. This is the Thursday Murder Club. And then someone really dies. Well, really a few more people die, and the Murder Club decides they are going to do some investigation and help out the police. One of them is a former spy . . . or something . . . it's not really clear. After all, the Official Secrets Act prohibits her from ever sharing what she actually did.

Each voice is unique. I was engaged. Curious. Surprised.
Apparently there are three more in the series, and if they are all this good, I have a great week ahead of me.

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