Another absolutely delightful visit with the Thursday Murder Club. This is my favorite thus far. We know the characters so well at this point that it feels like Osman is free to let them loose to be themselves with all their clever and charming quirks. Every novel has been full of heart, but friendship is overtly the theme of the latest adventure. At the end of the day, and especially toward the end of a life, even seasoned criminals want genuine camaraderie. There’s sweet romance, deft twists, and plenty of laugh out loud moments. It’s another gem of a book.

Cute, cosey, lots of laughs but is it in the same league as the first two in the series-no. This one reads more like a sophomoric attempt which is disappointing. It’s almost as though the writer is tired of his characters. Did I laugh-yes; lots of red herrings/yes; enjoyable-yes but forced in some places.   High expectations based on the first two in the series. Still enjoyable.

Elizabeth faces a new nemesis as the Thursday Murder Club is back together to solve a decade old murder with no body with  help from friends both old and new.

I continue to love this series, and am impressed as it evolves and starts to carry plotlines and supporting characters forward.

As always, we have the core "club" of four elderly people (Joyce, Ron, Ibraham, and ex-spy Elizabeth), this time looking into a cold case of a missing reporter and embezzled funds. But along with the current case, the past cases provide an antagonist (and potential ally) in prison, and Elizabeth's own past adds a potential new killer to the mix.

Osman's nicely fleshing out both Ron and Ibraham (who always seemed to take second fiddle to Joyce and Elizabeth in the early books), but not at the cost of other characters. The story is as witty and fun as always, with just enough real violence as well as pathos around Elizabeth's husband (slowly being claimed by Alzheimer's) to ensure no one reads this as just a light cozy.

Highly recommended, though I can't suggest starting here instead of with the first book.

This series continues to entertain with book 3. As always the book blends a page-turning mystery with humor without ever putting the humor at the expense of the murder club.

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

Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club are concerned. A local news legend is on the hunt for a sensational headline, and soon the gang are hot on the trail of two murders, ten years apart.

To make matters worse, a new nemesis pays Elizabeth a visit, presenting her with a deadly mission: kill or be killed...

While Elizabeth grapples with her conscience (and a gun), the gang and their unlikely new friends (including TV stars, money launderers and ex-KGB colonels) unravel a new mystery. But can they catch the culprit and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again? (Goodreads synopsis)

I absolutely adore this series! The characters are fantastic, and the reader feels as if they are just one of the gang. Joyce’s diary entries assist that feeling, as if we are a confidante. 

There is a lot of activity in this third installment. Blackmail, money laundering, murder, secret dating, and tv personalities. However, everything flows so smoothly and combines so well, that if one thing was missing then nothing would make sense.

The emotions are also high in this particular novel. I have been in Elizabeth’s shoes and it is extremely hard. I wanted to hold on to Stephen as Bogdan and Elizabeth did, and pray for him to stay with us a little while longer. Make sure you read from book 1 and then in order. Otherwise, you might not fully understand the relationships.

Overall I rate this novel 5 out of 5 stars.

After a trying day, or month, or even year, there are books you reach for like a cocktail while kicking off your shoes and curling up in a favorite reading nook.  These books effortlessly nudge the outside world and it’s stresses away.  The first two books in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series are on this Reading Rx shelf, and now there is a third, The Bullet That Missed. 

The world being what it is today, I was quite eager to dive into this novel and it once again accomplished the job.  This time former spy Elizabeth Best (and of course she is the best) and a member of the quartet of Thursday Murder Club retirees, is kidnapped and threatened by a large menacing bearded man they refer to as The Swede.  She is released, but the conditions of her release are that she murder a former Soviet spy/friend or the Swede will exact his deathly revenge on a person near and dear to her.  But this is only one tentacle of the plot, which sprawls out to encompass some characters from previous books, including the riveting crime boss reprobate Connie Johnson who is serving a prison sentence but serving it with lattes made to order, suede prison garb and special food deliveries.  It also sweeps in some new characters and old murders, some cliff-hanging moments (literally), and many of the unpredictable turns and discoveries and delights we’ve come to rely on in the Thursday Murder Club.  One slight caveat though, Richard Osman is a hopeful romantic and it can cause him to make a few too many love connections between all his characters.  Less is perhaps more?  Still, one of the big payoffs to me as a reader, was the big surprise of the who did it in the whodunit -I love when that happens. 

Confession: my favorite book in the series is still the second, The Man Who Died Twice, for its character development, its spiraling plot twists, its humor, and for the sensitive and insightful portrayal of trauma recovery. This set the bar for the following book quite high. And even if The Bullet That Missed doesn’t quite pole vault to that height, it is still incredibly entertaining, with characters that beg to be asked for a return engagement.  I will be waiting.  My gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of the book.

Osman's third installment of The Thursday Murder Club series is another winner.  The senior citizen sleuths have another murder to solve and this time it is a cold case.  Journalist Bethany Waite's car plunged over the a cliff and her body was never found-was it suicide or murder??   Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron have a case to solve!!!  Great dialogue, lots of laughs and many twists and turns to the story.  I love the character Joyce.  Her character get better and more developed in each book.  I think the BBC and Masterpiece Theater could do a bang up job turning The Thursday Murder Club  into a mystery series for TV, 

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Osman's third installment of The Thursday Murder Club series does not fail to disappoint, in fact it delights! Osman is more than reliably entertaining and his twisty mysteries solved by his band of senior citizen sleuths will not fail to engage both fans and first time readers.. We return to the now familiar retirement enclave, Cooper's Chase, where the club--Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron--have taken on a long cold ten-year old case involving the supposed death (the body was never found) of journalist Bethany Waite. Some contend Bethany committed suicide when her car plunged over a cliff, but could something more sinister been afoot?

I loved THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, and I missed THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE, so I can't speak to that novel. However, THE BULLET THAT MISSED seems less a Thursday Murder Club book than a Thursday Murder Free for All.
So many new characters are added, and the mystery is not compelling and eventually goes off the rails, and I no longer found the club members charming. For the most part, they annoyed me.
I am disappointed; I had hoped for a better book. Maybe I'll see how #2 is and hope for a better #4.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Each book in the Thursday Murder Club series gets better and better. I absolutely love these books, and I love recommending them to mystery readers because they are a hit with everyone.

In The Bullet That Missed our protagonist are working on their next cold case, one involving the murder of a TV journalist, though the body has never been found. Poking around in the past quickly turns into present day murders, and the gang finds themselves wrapped up in a dangerous case. They also meet a whole cast of new, delightful characters in their efforts to solve the mysteries, both past and present.

While the plot is fast-paced and surprising, it is really the characters who manage to steal the show each time. The group of friends become people we feel we know and want to spend more time with. Even the side characters become familiar faces we look forward to seeing in the next (highly anticipated) installment.

This the third installment of the highly entertaining Thursday Murder Club series. This time they tackle the murder of a television reporter ten years before. The four are comfortable with each other now and each plays a critical role in the investigation but it is complicated by an anonymous threat that if Elizabeth does not kill an old frenemy she and Joyce would themselves be killed. Characters from the previous adventures appear, and all characters are becoming more complex and defined. This is an easy and rewarding read. I can't wait until the next installment.

The Thursday Murder Club is back and better than ever! This time, the quartet tackles a cold case involving money laundering, murder, and possible mayhem. It's a smartly paced installment with a twisty plot, a red herring or two, lots of snappy dialogue, and Osman's trademark quirky characters, old and new who, baddies aside (and sometimes, included) are as endearing as they are improbable. But we don't care one bit about improbabilities;  we're too busy relishing the idiosyncrasies that make these characters so much fun, and these books such a great escape. 

Grateful and thrilled to have the opportunity to read this one-- I am looking forward to the next!

The Thursday Murder Club is back in another fun romp.  While the group investigates another cold case, the death of a TV journalist pursuing a tax fraud story, Elizabeth's MI-5 past attracts a Swedish giant of a villain with a challenging proposition, kill (an ex-KGB agent) or be killed.  While Ron, Joyce, and Ibrahim pursue clues related to the missing journalist, Elizabeth fires the bullet that missed and works to identify the mysterious Swede before he can make good on his threat 

Many secondary characters from the earlier books are back and several new ones are added making me wonder if the group isn't on the way to becoming too unwieldy..  Anyone attempting to read this as a straightforward mystery will be very disappointed but anyone looking forward to an evening of light entertainment is in for a rollicking time.

I am always filled with trepidation when a favorite (dare I say beloved??) series has books coming out once a year, as this Thursday Murder Club series does. Will they wane in their charm? Become boring or trite?

Friends, I am so happy to report that, in this case, the latest installment of the series, The Bullet the Missed, is as delightful as the two that came before it.

Let's take a collective sigh of relief, shall we?

We get in this novel everything we've come to love about our Fearsome yet Frail Foursome: we get the charming setting, the cracking, zippy dialogue, the hilarious interactions of our four main characters. It's all there in spades. I was giggling all the way through.

We also get not one, but two smart mysteries, woven together as only Osman can. He manages to keep things complex enough to give us something to chew on, but not complicated enough to be confusing. That's tough to do!

And we get to both see our main characters deepen their bonds with each other, while also taking in some new friends and loved ones. Each of these ancillary characters is written well and we love to see them as a part of the witty repartee.

The resolution is, as always, satisfying, but also makes me so look forward to the next time I can be in their company.

As to that, by the way, word on the street is that Osman is going to continue to write the TMC series, but he's also going to begin another new series. He says he doesn't want to let TMC get stale and for that, we say thank you.

I for one will read anything Richard Osman writes and I was so delighted by this latest, which comes out September 20, 2022.

Fan fav Osman has done it again! His group of geriatric murder solvers has another romp and we all love it! These books are well written and FUN.

How does this series keep getting better??? The gang is back, complete with their quirks, foibles, and questionable pasts. Is it terrible that I'm already craving the next?

How do I put into words the magic that is the Thursday Murder Club series except to say that Richard Osman has done it again. To quote the ending of the book, "it's the people, in the end, isn't it?" That summarizes what makes this mystery so special. Not only is the actual mystery fantastic and funny, but the characters are relatable, three dimensional, heart-warming, and gut-wrenchingly wonderful at the same time from the main characters--ex-MI6 Elizabeth, sweet Joyce, know-it-all Ibrahim, and blue collar Ron--but the side characters are just as good. This book made me laugh out loud and almost cry at parts, and the mystery is so good as well from beginning to end. I thought I had it figured out, but it definitely kept me guessing. Start with book one, just keep reading, and then beg Richard Osman for more.

The 3rd installment of this popular cozy mystery series does not disappoint as the entire gang (Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron & Ibrahim) are back as they try and solve a 10-year old death of a TV news reporter whose car went over a cliff into the sea. No body was ever found but this does not discourage the group, who is now aided by a Polish construction worker, a TV news presenter, a TV makeup artist, the former head of the Leningrad KGB, a cryptocurrency money launder, and members of the police department, and even a criminal who they put behind bars in Book 2. Whew! But each brings different strengths to the investigation. And, as with most of these books, one murder leads to more murders and attempted murders, as the plot thickens and the gang gets closer to finding out the truth. Fast paced, action packed (especially since the Thursday Murder Club members are all in their 80's), and is a very good addition to this series. Negatives: I thought the author got so caught up in the ending of the book that he left some loose ends to a few of the plot lines. Other than that, this is a wonderful read and perfectly sets up the next book in the series.

The Thursday Murder Club is back on the case! This time they are looking into the death, presumed murder, of Bethany Waites, a local journalist. Ten years ago, she had been on the trail of a VAT fraud case when her car and bloody clothes were found at the base of a cliff, but never a body. A nice cold case for the group to solve, except that Elizabeth has a complication. An unknown man kidnaps her and Stephan and lets her know that she needs to kill Viktor Illych or Joyce dies. So now there as two mysteries to solve. Will Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim along with their growing gang manage to solve both cases without anyone dying? Read and find out!

Thanks Netgalley for the fun of reading this tale!