The Thursday Murder Club
2020 crime novel by Richard Osman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Thursday Murder Club is a 2020 murder mystery novel, the debut novel by British television presenter Richard Osman. It is the first installment in his Thursday Murder Club series. It was published on 3 September 2020 by Viking Press, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, and also released in 2020 as an audiobook, read by Lesley Manville.[1]
First edition | |
| Author | Richard Osman |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Thursday Murder Club |
| Genre | Crime |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
Publication date | 3 September 2020 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Pages | 400 |
| ISBN | 978-0241425442 |
| Followed by | The Man Who Died Twice |
Plot
A group of pensioners (Elizabeth Best, Ron Ritchie, Joyce Meadowcroft and Ibrahim Arif)[2] set about solving the mystery of the murder of a property developer[3] in the luxurious Cooper's Chase retirement village near the fictitious seaside village of Fairhaven in Kent.[2]
Background and publication
Osman's inspiration for the book came from a visit he made to an upmarket retirement village.[2] The premise and title bear clear similarities to Agatha Christie’s The Tuesday Club Murders, which also features a protagonist called Joyce.[4]
Osman wrote the book over 18 months in secret.[3] At 400 pages, the text is structured as 115 short chapters.
After a 10-way publishing auction,[2] Penguin Random House acquired the rights to The Thursday Murder Club and its sequel The Man Who Died Twice for a seven-figure sum[5] in 2019.[6] The book was published on 3 September 2020. It sold 45,000 copies in its first three days on sale[6] and became a Sunday Times number one bestseller.[7] As of 8 September, it had been sold in 16 countries.[6] In the week leading up to 19 December, it sold 134,514 copies, making it the first debut novel ever to be Christmas number one in the UK.[8]
Reception and sequels
In The Times, Christina Hardyment said the book has an "ingenious plot".[9] The Guardian described it as the "fastest selling adult crime debut" in recorded history.[2] The audiobook, one of 10 nominees, received the Sounds of Crime Award at Crimefest in 2021.[10]
The sequels, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die, were published in the Septembers of 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively.[6] A fifth book in the series, The Impossible Fortune, was released in 2025.[11][12]
Adaptations
An abridged version of the book was read by Haydn Gwynne and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in early 2021. The reading took two hours and twenty minutes.[13][14]
A film adaptation of the same name was released in 2025. It was directed by Chris Columbus, from a screenplay by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, and it stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie.