The Thursday Murder Club by Richard OsmanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Part One
A charming book. The Thursday Murder Club comprises seniors residing in a retirement village (Coopers Chase). Ron Ritchie (prominent in the Union in his day) and his son, a famous boxer, have a connection to the deceased victim. Joyce a former nurse, (has a thing for Bernard. Sadly Bernard appears to be devoted to his dead wife's memory. Joyce also has a daughter who does accounting.) Elizabeth seems to have been M16 in another life and has friends she can call on for favors when she can't scheme her way to the desired result. Unfortunately her husband Stephen suffers from dementia. Ibrahim a former therapist seems to take a back seat to the other three but does seem to be very precise when he has information to deliver. And former member Penny (a former inspector in the Kent police) who Joyce visits and gives updates to even though she is in a coma. Penny's husband John is glued to Penny's bedside.
The book begins when PC Donna De Freitas delivers a speech to the Thursday Murder Club and winds up being quizzed by them. Ian Ventham the developer of Coopers Chase wants to move a graveyard in order to build more units he also wants to replace his contractor Tony Curran with Bogdan in order to save money. Ian is worried about Tony's reaction so he confronts him at Coopers Chase where the members of the Thursday Murder Club witness the row. Shortly afterward Tony is bludgeoned to death in his kitchen and Ian is the prime suspect. Determined to move ahead with the project Ian tries to have the graves dug up at the crack of dawn but the seniors thwart him by blocking the path. While the seniors are confronting Ian, Bogdan goes to the graveyard and starts to dig up the newer graves where he stumbles upon something odd a skeleton outside the casket, as well as the one inside the casket. Fearing the project will be delayed he reburies both skeletons until he can talk to Ian. Before Bogdan has a chance to tell Ian what he discovered, Ian gets into a confrontation with Father Mackie and a slight scuffle ensues shortly afterward Ian dies of an apparent stroke or heart attack. So now we have two dead men Tony Curran and his partner Ian Ventham.
It turns out that Ian was injected with fentanyl, which caused his death. Bernard commits suicide due to his guilt over burying his late wife's ashes under the park bench he is always sitting on instead of allowing their daughters to spread her ashes in the Ganges River as she wanted. The police are led to believe that Turkish Gianni killed Tony Curran, but later Bogdan confesses to Stephen and explains that Tony Curran ordered Turkish Gianni to kill the taxi driver (Bogdan's friend) that drove Gianni and the dead drug dealer Tony shot out of town to bury. Enraged over his friend's death Bogdan killed Turkish Gianni and made it look like he fled town before the police could arrest him. Then years later when he had the opportunity he killed Tony. For some reason even though The Thursday Murder Club suspect Bogdan of the murders they choose not to pursue his guilt.
On the other hand, The Thursday Murder Club confronts John but allows him to assist in Penny's death before taking his own life. He killed Ian to keep the cemetery from being dug up as Penny had hidden the body of the young man she killed there. The man had killed his girlfriend and gotten away with it.
Father Mackie had impregnated one of the nuns at the convent and she hung herself when her pregnancy was discovered. In order for her to be buried in the hollowed ground of the cemetery he agreed to leave the priesthood quietly.
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