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THE BULLET THAT MISSED

From the Thursday Murder Club series , Vol. 3

Your next must-read mystery series.

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The Thursday Murder Club gets into another spot of bother, this time involving some British television celebrities, a Russian former spy, and an international money launderer—among others.

This is the third book in real-life British TV celebrity Osman's delightful series of mysteries set at Coopers Chase, a bucolic English retirement community. The first two have been bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic, and Steven Spielberg has bought the movie rights; if you haven't read the earlier books, The Thursday Murder Club (2020) and The Man Who Died Twice (2021), it would be a good idea to go back and start at the beginning. As this installment opens, the four septuagenarian members of the club—former MI6 agent Elizabeth Best, retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft, psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif, and longtime union organizer Ron Ritchie—are investigating another murder from their cold-case files. It seems that Bethany Waites, a local TV journalist, was about to crack a huge tax avoidance scheme when her car went over a cliff 10 years ago. Who was she going to meet late at night? Why wasn't her car caught on more surveillance cameras between her home and the cliff? Of course, the friends aren't content to do their research online; they inveigle their way into a variety of situations that enable them to question Bethany's friends and colleagues, the chief constable in charge of the case, the drug dealer they put in jail in the last volume (who's determined to kill Ron as soon as she gets out), and many other more or less savory characters. And that's not even to mention the mysterious Viking who's threatening to kill Joyce if Elizabeth doesn't kill Viktor Illyich, a competitor-turned-friend who, when he worked for the KGB, was known as the Bullet. All of this enables Osman to engineer scenes such as "three old men...the gangster, the KGB colonel and the trades union official" playing snooker, drinking whiskey, and thinking maybe this is all they really need in life. The mysteries are complex, the characters vivid, and the whole thing is laced with warm humor and—remarkably, considering the body count—good feeling.

Your next must-read mystery series.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-59-329939-5

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking

Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022

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THE MAN WHO DIED SEVEN TIMES

A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.

A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.

Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”

A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.

Pub Date: July 29, 2025

ISBN: 9781805335436

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025

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THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

From the Thursday Murder Club series , Vol. 1

A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.

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Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.

The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.

A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.

Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking

Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020

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