Review: THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE, Richard Osman

• 
  This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DJ1TQH16
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin, Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 25, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 409 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1405975629 
• Book 5 of 5: Thursday Murder Club Mysteries  

Synopsis (Amazon)

Who's got time to think about murder when there's a wedding to plan?

It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.

But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who fears for their life, the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into their most explosive investigation yet, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?

My Take:

 Joyce's daughter Joanna is getting married and Elizabeth is still not really herself. And then at the wedding itself comes an action which brings the Thursday Murder Club a task, after almost a year of inaction. And the old team prove that they've still got it, despite the failings that come with their advancing years. 

There were times when I found this latest incursion into geezer lit both challenging and exasperating.  I struggled at times to remember the background to each character, but thank goodness it all came together at the end. 

My Rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  - #1

4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE - #2

4.6, THE BULLET THAT MISSED - #3

4.8, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE - #4

4.5, WE SOLVE MURDERS

Review: WE SOLVE MURDERS, Richard Osman

• 
   this edition published by Penguin Viking 2024
  
• ISBN 978-0-241-60837-1
• 444 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

Combining the heart and humour of The Thursday Murder Club with a puzzling international mystery, welcome to the blockbusting new series from the biggest new fiction author of the decade, Richard Osman.

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job . . .

Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy? 

My Take

I wasn't prepared for the complexity of this plot. There is a lot to get your head around, and a lot of new characters to become familiar with. There are glimmerings of humour but not too many outright belly laughs, although some develop by the end. The quirkiness that was a feature of the previous series is there - scenarios that you feel could only come from Richard Osman's brain.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  
• 4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE 
• 4.6, THE BULLET THAT MISSED
• 4.8, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE

Review: THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE, Richard Osman

• 
  This edition published by Viking 2023
• ISBN 978-0-241-51245-6
• 417 pages
  

Synopsis (publisher)

The fourth book in the record-breaking Thursday Murder Club series from British national treasure Richard Osman

Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club.

An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?

My Take

At their Boxing Day lunch the Thursday Murder Club learns of an online scam affecting new resident Mervyn. And then on December 27th, their friend in the antiques business, Kuldesh Sharma, is killed. These two incidents form the basis of most of the investigations the Club becomes involved in: convincing Mervyn that he has been "taken for a ride", and finding out who killed Kuldesh. The Kuldesh scenario leads them once more into close contact with local police Chris and Donna. Puzzlingly Chris and Donna are taken off the case by Jill Regan of the National Crime Agency.

I love the way these books are written, and the empathetic way these geriatic investigators are dealt with, with snippets of humour, and realistic scenarios. 

The book contains a tribute to those people, and their families, living with dementia. It is rare for reading a book to bring tears to my eyes, but, as Elizabeth and Stephen arrive at a solution, this one did. 

The author finally assures readers that there will be more in this series.

My rating: 4.8

I've already read

• 4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  
• 4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE 
• 4.6, THE BULLET THAT MISSED
  

Review: THE BULLET THAT MISSED, Richard Osman

• 
  This edition Large Print from Penguin Random House published 2022
  
• ISBN 978-0-593-63266-6
• 447 pages
• #3 Thursday Murder Club series
• read an extract
  

Synopsis (publisher)

It is an ordinary Thursday and things should finally be returning to normal.

Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club is concerned. A decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.

Then, a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill . . . or be killed.

As the cold case turns white hot, Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), while Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

My Take

Local television compere Mike Waghorn has come to interview members of the Thursday Murder Club at Cooper's Chase for South East Tonight. It was all Joyce's idea. Mike intends his focus to be on retirement communities, he doesn't know he is meeting the Thursday Murder Club. They hope to pump him for information about a former colleague whose body has never been found. Fate seems to have stepped in when Mike himself suggests her name for their attention.

There are a number of continuing characters in this series, so it really does help to have read the earlier books.

One of the aspects that I enjoy about these geezer lit stories is the underlying gentle humour.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

• 4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  
• 4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE
  

Review: THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE, Richard Osman

• 
  this edition published by Viking 2021
• #2 Thursday Murder Club
  
• ISBN 978-0-241-42543-5
• 420 pages

Synopsis  (publisher)

The second novel in the number one Sunday Times bestselling Thursday Murder Club series featuring the old (but far from past-it) team as they pursue a brand new mystery.

It's the following Thursday, and Elizabeth has just had a visit from a man she thought was dead. It's (one of) her ex-husbands, and he's being hunted. His story involves some diamonds, some spies, and a very angry mobster.

Elizabeth puts it down to his normal grandstanding, but then the bodies start piling up. So she enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for the killer. If they find the diamonds - well, that's just a bonus...

But this time the murderer isn't some small-time criminal, and it soon becomes terrifying clear that they wouldn't bat an eyelid at killing four septuagenarians. Can our team find the killer before the killer finds them?

My Take

The Thursday Murder Club usually spend their time solving cold cases, so when a real case comes up, they jump at the chance, especially when it involves one of their small group. First of all their undisputed leader Elizabeth, ex-MI5, gets a letter from someone whom she believes is dead. And then Ibrahim is attacked by some young ones, his mobile phone snatched, and he is kicked in the head.

And then, local detectives Chris and Donna are trying to nail their local drug dealer Connie. Without success. And Chris falls in love.

As the novel develops various subplots emerge, the story becomes a mixture of the serious and black comedy, and Joyce keeps us all up to date, as she did in the first book in the series, through her daily diary.

Entertaining geezer lit.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read 4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

Review: THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, Richard Osman

• 
  this edition made available in my local library through Libby
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (September 3, 2020)
• 382 pages| 
• ISBN 9781984880987 
• Questions for discussion available

Synopsis (Random House)

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to…
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

Every Thursday, four unlikely friends meet in the Jigsaw Room at the luxurious Coopers Chase Retirement Village to solve cold cases that have been languishing on the books for years. There’s Red Ron, the infamous former socialist firebrand, still causing trouble wherever he can; gentle Joyce, widowed, pining for another resident, but surely not as innocent as she seems; Ibrahim, a former therapist who understands the darker side of human nature; and Elizabeth? Well, no one is quite sure who she really is, but she’s definitely not a woman to underestimate. Though they may be in their seventies, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Joyce, and Ron still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

When a local property developer winds up dead, The Thursday Murder Club finds themselves in the middle of their first live case — can the four catch the killer before it’s too late? 

My Take

Though the book follows the four friends—Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, and Ron—solving the murder, the only first-person POV is Joyce’s via her diary. We meet Joyce right at the beginning and she introduces us to the others and keeps us up to speed with events.

Elizabeth and her friend Penny, a former police inspector who now lies comatose in hospital, founded the Thursday Murder Club, to investigate some cold cases that Penny never managed to solve. After Penny had a stroke, Elizabeth invited other residents to join her on Thursdays in the Jigsaw Room to continue with the "work" that she and Penny had started. Elizabeth visits Penny, who is on life support, regularly to report progress.

Meanwhile PC Donna De Freitas, recently transferred to the country from London, arrives at the Coopers Chase Retirement Village to give a talk on home security and so meets the members of the club. This meeting is important for her career.

The Coopers Chase Retirement Village, billed, when it was first built on land bought from a convent, as "Britain's First Luxury Retirement Village", has 300 residents, and a local property developer is aiming to add to it by demolishing an old cemetery. Ian Ventham, the property developer, decides to get rid of his builder partner. A few days later Ventham himself drops dead after a struggle with people at the cemetery and the Thursday Murder Club are all witnesses.

Each member of the Thursday Murder Club brings different strengths to the club, all useful in tracking down suspects, and following leads. 

This is a delightful read, full of humour, but also rapidly moving. The plot turns out to be quite complex, and there is more than one death.

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Richard Osman is an author, producer, and television presenter. His first novel, The Thursday Murder Club, was a #1 million-copy international bestseller. Critics have already described The Man Who Died Twice as “his second novel.” He lives in London.