the thursday murder club

the thursday murder club by richard osman

I saw this series pop up on the honorable mentions of Jason Snell’s favorite things of 2025 article, and it seemed like it would be a fun read.

I enjoyed the use of quick intercut chapters - sometimes just a single page, popping from perspective to perspective and advancing the story. I’m not an exhaustive reader of the genre, but I’ve read most of the Sherlock Holmes stories, a fair number of the Agatha Christie books and the odd murder mystery here and there, so I had some sense of the shape of this type of genre fiction.

This was fun! Breezy. I’m a little suspicious of the twee-ness of the titular club members, but it wasn’t too bad. More of a character piece than a whodunnit, but I found all the characters pretty well sketched out, and almost universally charming. I wonder what the series looks like - it definitely felt like a totally standalone story, with big stakes that wrapped up over the course of the novel. This same group solving another murder would almost have to feel like an anticlimax after the personal milestones reached in this book, no? Anyway, I’ll probably dip into the next one, this was a great light read. I picked up a physical copy, rather than reading it digitally, which I think also helped me to feel relaxed while paging through. I’ll probably try to keep going with more physical books (although it’s so tough to beat just having the book always with me on my phone).