A few days after Christmas, after everyone had left or had gone back to work, I started reading this book. It was the perfect antidote for the after holiday blues! Between cleaning up the wapping paper and putting away the presents and doing endless amounts of laundry, I would read another chapter (or two or three…LOL!) as a reward! The antics of The Thursday Murder Club composed of crime sleuths who live in a retirement community are just irresistible!

To say that Elizabeth, a retired spy chief, is surprised when her ex husband suddenly appears at her retirement village, is a bit of an understatement. But Elizabeth, cool, calm and collected, never showed even a twitch of surprise. Instead she listened carefully, as Douglas explained that he was being accused of stealing diamonds worth millions from some seriously bad people and needed a place to hide. What better place to do that than in a retirement village in the countryside? It seems like a great idea, but then the bodies start accumulating, and the Thursday Murder Club, composed of Elizabeth,  Joyce (retired nurse), Ibrahim (retired psychiatrist) and Ron (ex-trade union boss) with some help from the local police and Bogdan, a man with a mysterious past, must find the murderer and in the process the diamonds, as well.

Fun, quirky, with some laugh out-loud lines (“Stop repeating what I said last, Elizabeth. It’s a terrible habit of yours. That and adultery,”) this book grabs your attention and then sustains it with a complicated plot and some unexpected twists along the way. I can only hope that I will be as sharp, creative and witty as these septuagenarian sleuths when I am their age!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren.

Book Study Worthy? Sure, maybe your book club will become crime fighters, too!

Read in e-book format.