BINGO – Bodies (as in, dead ones)
The Thursday Murder Club is a group of amateur-detective pensioners who all live at Cooper’s Chase retirement community. The Club consists of Ibrahim, Ron, Elizabeth, and newcomer Joyce. Their usually sleepy community is suddenly rocketed to the forefront of police attention when a handful of individuals connected to the community are murdered. The Thursday Murder Club is also on the case. They are using a lifetime of experience and ample time to dig up clues, identify suspects, and get to the bottom of who this killer could be.
The narration switches focuses regularly between the four Thursday Murder Club members as well as some other key players in the story. Enough time is spent with each character, their thoughts, and their motivations that this isn’t disorienting. Additionally, we get some nice insight into how each character thinks and what suspicions they have of others. It’s a nice way to try and ramp up the tension.
Unfortunately, this is a DNF at about 55%. It’s just not for me. I was very particular about my word choice in the paragraph above. “Try and ramp up tension.” There just isn’t any. This book easily could have covered the Cozy BINGO Square as well. The characters are great. There’s a ton of humor that works throughout the book. If a cozy little British mystery is your cup of tea, you will really love this book. I just found it all a little too slow. I’m certain that the many scenes in which nothing seemed to happen will pay off later when things all get tied together, but I need at least a little bit of pay-off along the way to the conclusion.
