The Last Devil To Die: The Thursday Murder Club 4

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There's always something just out of reach. . . . Everyone chasing the thing they don't have. Going mad until they get it." OMG! I want to get on the waitlist for an Apartment at Cooper’s Chase and join the Thursday Murder Club! Richard Osman’s books are a slyly sophisticated bunch, boasting emotional development equal to the memorable mysteries. . .Thursday Murder Club mystery stands up well on its own, but given the richness of character and relationships, as a set, they’re bloody brilliant.” Osman concocts a satisfyingly complex whodunit full of neat twists and wrong turns. But unlike most crime novelists, he ensures his book’s strength and momentum stem not from its plot or its thrills but rather its perfectly formed characters. Once again, the quartet of friends makes for delightful company… Heartwarming and enthralling. ‘They carried a kind of magic, the four of them,’ a policeman muses. That magic is still there in abundance.”

What is truly special in the books are the characters, whose age allows for a beautiful kind of interaction… For all the fizz of jokes and romance, the books carry with them a sense of grief and sadness which becomes much stronger in The Last Devil to Die…The kindness is his books comes out of something greater for Osman. It’s how he wants the world to be and it’s how he thinks the world is, if only we could realize it.” The 4th edition of the Thursday Murder Club series is filled with crimes, philosophy and a short goodbye.

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Joyce plays a more major role in The Last Devil to Die and almost becomes more Elizabeth than Elizabeth herself. Ibrahim makes a quiet revelation to Computer Bob and I wonder whether he will ever make this revelation to the other members of the Thursday Murder Club.

Her retort is perfectly fitting and definitely a sign that there will be more Thursday Murder Mystery Club meetings in readers futures… This is an emotional and heartbreaking read. Osman handles a delicate situation with care. He balances the hardship with love and support. He also weaves in a lot of fun and humor. This is one of the few series that makes me laugh out loud. This was an entertaining mystery, with more chaos and mayhem (hehe) than you'd expect old people to get themselves into. We see Joyce really come into her own here, stepping in for Elizabeth who is otherwise indisposed. I feel like all the side characters were particularly charming, and I even started to like Connie if you can believe it. We also have a little side mystery going on to catch an online scammer, just to add a bit of extra zing to the whole thing. Fall is in the air and I was finally able to pull out all my coziest clothes again, so what better audiobook to match the mood of the season? The Last Devil to Die, book number four in the cozy crime series The Thursday Murder Club. While others celebrated autumn’s return of pumpkin spice in all its disturbingly copious forms … I enjoyed my annual visit to Coopers Chase Retirement Village and its clever septuagenarian sleuths: Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibraham, Ron. It was great to see Joyce come into her own, channeling her inner Elizabeth. I also loved the Murder Club's chutzpah as they dropped in to have tea with various criminals and then casually arranged for a luncheon summit including two drug lords and two art forgers.

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It's Boxing Day lunch at Cooper's Chase, a retirement village in South East England, where resident septuagenarians Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce learn about the murder of antiques dealer, Kuldesh Sharma, who also happens to be a friend of Stephen, Elizabeth's husband. Osman doesn’t disappoint… Everything is here that fans of the series have come to expect: humour, warmth, the confounding of expectations as these pensioners investigate… Along with the laughs, there is grief, and an ending that is handled sensitively (I was weeping)… We all need a regular injection of the Thursday Murder Club to keep our spirits up.” While author Richard Osman will be moving on to write a second series, he assured me (and the many other readers who are similarly invested) that he’ll return to the funny, sweet stories of my favorite retirement home sleuths. The Last Devil to Die is a beautiful send-off that will get us through the wait.”

When an emotional door opens up for one topic, it segues into another topic that sheds light on a key character in this series. Book #4 feels like an unanticipated shift in the Thursday Murder Club. It's evolving and surprising the reader yet keeping the core of the series fresh and ever-changing.The cast was a bit smaller this time but still had diverse and fascinating characters including an art forger, her comically psychotic Canadian husband, some drug runners, a couple museum experts, a victim of romance fraud, a brief return of Stephen’s friend, antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma, imprisoned drug maven Connie, and of course, the eminently lovable Bogdan, along with detectives Donna, Chris and others. Narrator Fiona Shaw did a stellar job once again of voicing them all. The Last Devil to Die is a Cozy Mystery I devoured in two big gulps. It's full of eye-opening perspectives into the antiques business, drug-smuggling, fine-art fraud, and on-line romance fraud. But who am I kidding? I'm here for the four main characters in this series, their comradery and banter, along with Joyce's journal entries that keep me listening time and time again. I did crave a bit more of Joyce's loyal pooch Alan, but that's just the dog-lover in me chiming in. Delivers the same kind of clever dialogue, colorful characters and corkscrew plotting that made the other books so much fun… As you reach the last chapters of this book, you’ll think you’ve figured out the mystery. You’ll think so several times. ButOsmanand the Thursday Murder Club will keep the surprises coming.” I will say that while this entry was every bit as charming and full of life as its predecessors, it also had more emotional heft due to a loss that impacts all of the characters. As a reader of the series, it wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but the amount of tears I shed was! My apologies to the drivers in the cars next to me who surely thought I was having a breakdown of some sort. Kudos to Richard Osman for handling the potentially controversial topic sensitively, with room for opposing views.