The Thursday Murder Club

About The Thursday Murder Club

Four residents of a Kent retirement village — a former spy, a retired psychiatrist, a one-time trade union firebrand, and a retired nurse — meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room under the pretext of reviewing cold case files, until real murders start landing in their laps and they turn out to be far better at solving them than the police. Richard Osman, best known as a British TV quiz-show host, built the series around the pleasure of being underestimated: Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron are pensioners, and every detective, journalist, and criminal they encounter makes the mistake of assuming that makes them harmless.

The appeal is warmth as much as puzzle-plotting — genuine, unsentimental portraits of old age, friendship, and grief sit alongside twisty, fair-play mysteries and a very English sense of humour. Joyce's diary entries, which open most chapters, are often cited as the emotional heart of the books. This is the series for readers who loved the cosy-village charm of Agatha Christie but want it updated with modern references, a genuinely funny voice, and detectives who'd rather solve a murder than take up watercolours. It became one of the fastest-selling adult fiction debuts in UK publishing history and was adapted into a 2025 Netflix film starring Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan.

How to read this series

Read in publication order, starting with The Thursday Murder Club (2020). The series is heavily serialised — relationships, running gags, and each member's personal arc (especially Elizabeth's past and Joyce's evolving confidence) build book to book, so this isn't one to sample out of order. There are no companion novellas or side material to worry about; just the five main novels published roughly once a year each September. Richard Osman also writes a separate, unconnected series, We Solve Murders, featuring a different cast — you don't need to read one to follow the other.