After reading Thursday Murder Club last year, I was immediately craving more. Based in the English countryside, the Thursday Murder Club centers around a group of elderly residents in a senior living community. Each week the members of the club meet to discuss old, unsolved crimes. In the first novel, they become entwined with a real (and current) murder investigation making friends with the police and several unsavory characters along the way.
In the second novel in the series, The Man Who Died Twice, the team returns to solve yet another mystery that’s frighteningly close to home. One of the club members, Elizabeth, has a shady past and is assumed by her friends to have been a spy. Her ex-husband, another operative, arrives at the retirement village with a tale to tell. He, along with other MI6 operatives, were in the process of planting surveillance equipment in the home of a notorious criminal when millions of dollars go missing from the house.
Within days of his arrival, Elizabeth’s ex husband and his handler are dead and the diamonds are in the wind. Of course, the Thursday Murder Club is on the job to learn the identity of the killer AND recover the missing jewels. They find themselves in one scrape after another, leading to the grand finale.
Although the Thursday Murder Club books are a little predictable, Osman manages to keep you entertained throughout. Regular mystery readers won’t have any trouble figuring out what really happened, but just like on Law & Order half the fun is watching it all unfold. Recommended for anyone looking for a quick mystery novel that won’t lead to too many bad dreams.