OMG these amazing people again. Of course there’s a new murder to solve. The gang decides to look into the disappearance and presumed murder of a local journalist. Although the case is intriguing, Elizabeth thinks Joyce wants to investigate it to meet famous people. She’s only half wrong. They get to meet another local journalist who was very close with the missing woman. He was devastated when she went missing and has been looking for her ever since.
There’s also a subplot where a baddie wants Elizabeth to kill an old KGB buddy. He (they dub him The Viking) kidnaps Elizabeth and Stephen (who has a jolly old time) and threatens to kill Joyce if Elizabeth doesn’t kill Victor (the aforementioned KGB buddy) within two weeks. Of course Elizabeth doesn’t tell Joyce, but she brings her along to fake murder Victor.
You can’t help but fall in love with these characters. Even Victor is lovable. The murder suspects are fun, and this whole book is just a joy to read (or listen to).
Funny story – my sister was apparently listening to this book at the same time as me on her Audible account. I mostly listen in my car, and my car does this fun thing where I turn it off, but if I don’t hit pause on the story, it’ll just keep running. This happened to me a few times, and I had to rewind the story back to where I was. Then I made sure I hit pause before turning off my car. Somehow it was still happening and I was losing my mind. Then about two days ago my sister says “I finished book 3”, and I was like “of what?”, and she said the Thursday Murder Club. And I was like “OMG we’re dumbasses and were listening to the same book at the same time!” She was wondering why the timing kept getting messed up for her too. At any rate, we figured it out.
Like I said in earlier reviews, these people are the best. I kept texting myself funny quotes or stories so I would remember to include them in my review. Here are some:
-Joyce after Googling something and coming up with nothing “I got so desperate I even used Bing.” That just cracked me up because Bing is so sad.
-Elizabeth trying to figure out who Bogdon is dating, “Spies are like dogs, they cannot stand a locked door.”
-Joyce talking about falling in love with Gerry, “There was no falling. I walked into the room and it was like we were always in love.”
-Joyce talking about Alan “so much has happened this year, and my favorite just bounded into the room”
Just some things that made me giggle, or tear up, or get scared:
-Ron’s hilarious thoughts at the spa
-The little ways Bogdon is sweet to his friends
-The quiet loneliness of getting older – the men don’t have anyone to play snooker with
-The Viking almost killing Alan (Joyce’s dog)
-Joyce interrogating The Viking (she’s gotten so tough!)
The narrator changed for this third book to Fiona Shaw. I love her voice so much. She has this whole whispery thing going for this book that at times made it a little hard to hear (I just turned it up) but went really well with the whole tone of the book. I cannot recommend these books more fervently to you all!
