When a first novel becomes such an overnight sensation as Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club has been, you can’t help but fear that the follow-up will let you down. IT DOESN’T! The Man Who Died Twice is as good as, perhaps even better than, its predecessor, and that’s saying a lot!
Elisabeth, Joyce, Ron, Ibraham and the rest are back and in flying form. I love the quirky humour, surprising plot twists and the all-round lovableness of the characters.
Osman is a very good, very funny writer. But he also seems to have hit on something that the public were crying out for.
And that is, good books for older readers who are not the typical ‘old folks’ so often portrayed in novels. I’m not in my seventies (yet) but some of my best friends are. The over-60s today are not the doddery old ladies and tottering old men they used to be. We have solid careers (quite recently) behind us, we are often tech savvy, and (most of the time) we have all our wits about us. How deeply satisfying to finally find an author who is writing – and writing well – for this demographic.
Not to say that there aren’t others; of course there are (MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin books spring to mind, but these are rather too pastiche…). And none that I can think of are as much fun, as entertaining as Osman.
There are few authors that have me practically crying with laughter as I did several times reading this. Maybe it’s lacking the gravitas that makes the best murder mysteries so good. But these books are not trying to be great murder mysteries. They are really, really good comic novels about older people. The murders are just part of the entertainment.
My thanks to Netgalley for giving me a free copy of this book. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.
See also:
The Thursday Murder Club | Richard Osman
Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murder
Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons | David Stafford
