The Thursday Murder Club #3

Even though this is the third in the series, there will be no spoilers for any of the books. They are all stand alone mysteries. If you want to read my reviews for books one and two, just click here and here.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

Publication Date: September 20, 2022

Summary from NetGalley:

It is an ordinary Thursday, and things should finally be returning to normal.

Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club are concerned. A decade-old cold case—their favorite kind–leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.

Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill or be killed. Suddenly the cold case has become red hot.

While Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim chase down the clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

From an upmarket spa to a prison cell complete with espresso machine to a luxury penthouse high in the sky, this third adventure of the Thursday Murder Club is full of the cleverness, intrigue, and irresistible charm that readers have come to expect from Richard Osman’s bestselling series.

ARC provided by Penguin Group via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This was such a fun and fast read and I think it is my favorite so far. I just love the camaraderie and the friendships and yes, even romances in this series of books. Even though this book clocks in at 400 pages I could have easily read it in one day. When I did have to put it down, I was constantly thinking about it and itching to get back to it.

All of the gang is back and having an interesting time finding out who murdered Bethany Waites. Everyone had a role to play, even Stephen had a time to shine, and there are some interesting additions to the group that will hopefully stick around. Both Ron and Donna have new love interests and their perspectives on love and dating were very humorous and in Ron’s case endearing. Elizabeth and Joyce spend lots of time together getting themselves into trouble and foiling the villain’s plans. I did feel a bit sorry for Ibrahim in this one, as he seemed to be the odd man out, but he does have a very important part to play in this story.

Of all the new characters that join the group in this story, I think I liked Viktor Illyich the most. He is an old spy friend/advisory/lover of Elizabeth, and I just thought he was great and fit in with the group so well. I certainly hope he will stick around and be in future books.

The plot was very compelling and full of the twists and turns that I have come to expect in this series. I must say that I thought I had the whole thing figured out about half way through, but I was way off and didn’t even consider the person who ended up being the mastermind behind the whole mystery. It is also a fast moving story and I loved that the chapters were short. Each chapter was told from one character’s perspective which made the whole story easier to follow. There were some cliffhanger chapters that were then delayed one or two chapters as we saw other parts of the story, which was a bit frustrating, but well done on the whole.

If you enjoyed the first two books in this series, you will definitely want to pick this one up. It has a delightful set of characters that will keep you smiling at their antics as they try to solve both old and new murders and crimes.