It might just be coincidence that I picked up The Last Devil to Die just as the tv cast was being announced, but I just need to ask how the heck is Pierce Brosnan Ron? Ron’s a grumpy rough around the edges old dude who does the right thing for his friends and fam, not James Bond. I can see Helen Mirren as Elizabeth though. Ok, I’m done now.
Obviously, the story is a murder mystery, this time the Coopers Chase Thursday Murder Club has to solve the murder of a buddy of theirs who makes a brief appearance previously in the series, Kuldesh. It really feels like the mystery is a lot more complicated this time around, as in the case gets way bigger than the others have. There’s also a missing bag of cocaine, some personal changes, and for some reason, a fox the Stephen has named Snowy. I don’t quit see the point of Snowy unless it’s one of those dumb animal foreshadows human tropes. There’s also a handful more murders which may or may not be related. There’s also the question of why do Donna and Chris get kicked of their case by what seems to be the police version of special forces, is Connie actually using or helping Ibrahim (and that question works in reverse as well), are the romantic attachments going to keep going or not, is Ibrahim finally opening up to Computer Bob (some backstory time), how is Elizabeth going to deal with Stephen’s decline (which ahs been going on a while), how is Joyce going to do as leader while Elizabeth is (rightly) distracted by other things going on, why do we keep getting bad criminals who might actually be quasi-decent people (some live, some don’t), how does the murder gang live with continuously letting the real killer go in some cases but not others, what’s the point of the Afghan guys that are kind of suggested the whole time but only actually seen near the end, is Joyce ever going to get the boyfriend or wedding (someone else’s, she’s got a list of couples), and probably a few other smaller things including the Tatiana catfishing side plot.
The story is still pretty entertaining, the residents at the retirement community are their usually funny but sometimes serious selves (turns out Ron can play convincing elderly bystander relatively well, and Ibrahim has some backstory), and there is some genuine feelings in places. I have to admit, I’m kind of with Joyce. A wedding murder mystery would be fun, and Ron and Pauline, or better yet, Donna and Bogden, would be fun to cheer for finally getting down the aisle. We’ll see. Osman promises another installment but not until after he’s gotten into a new project first, so it might be a while.
