I’ve had so much to share since early December, what with my latest release – book #4 of my Five Kingdoms series, THE PRINCE’S HEIR – results from my BookBub featured deal for book #1, THE PRINCE’S MAN, and my building project, I haven’t posted a book review in a couple of months.

This does not mean I haven’t been reading! In fact, I read more than usual over Christmas, courtesy of the fact we had no Internet for 3 weeks (old house, needed re-wiring, very bad timing when it packed up completely on Christmas Eve), so social media and websites only available on the phone, and no Netflix!

My usual routine over Christmas is to pick a series on Netflix, Disney +, or Amazon Prime, and binge watch it, but this year is was binge reading instead!

I still have a couple of reviews to write up from that period, but it’s about time to start sharing them.

I went down a different avenue to my usual, and started by reading a couple of mainstream books that have garnered a lot of hype: here’s what I thought of them.

THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A luxury retirement complex near the UK south coast. A small group of affluent pensioners of varied backgrounds with time on their hands. A former police detective with a file of documents of cold cases, and a retired – well, what exactly was Elizabeth? A spy, no doubt, but despite the many hints and the scope of her contacts in all walks of life, we never quite discover who she worked for. But no matter. The Thursday Murder Club keeps the group’s minds occupied and active, staving off the inevitable decline so in evidence in an environment such as theirs.
And then a real murder on their doorstep plunges them into a live investigation, and nothing the police say can keep their involvement from escalating as conflicting evidence sends the official, and unofficial, investigators in different directions.
This is a charming, often hilarious story, told partially through the diary of one of the club members: Joyce, a retired nurse, who had been drafted in to fill a club spot left open by the ill-health of a founder member. Her observations and mental divergencies are reminiscent of many older minds I’ve encountered, and where I fear mine is likely to go in time!
The 4, rather than 5, stars is because I struggled to get into this book at the beginning. I’ve never been a fan of present tense, and the somewhat rambling opening did not immediately grab me. However, by a couple of chapters in, I was hooked, and the rest just flowed and became more and more enjoyable as the characters grew more real to me. I am very much looking forward to reading the next one.


View all my reviews

The blurbs from a rake of famous big name authors are most impressive, and this book, now #1 in a series, holds a very high position in the bestseller ranks, and yet when I read the low star reviews it has alongside the 5 stars, I can totally understand the points of view expressed.

Have you read this book? What did you think?