Review: "The Impossible Fortune," Richard Osman

 

How wonderful to have the Thursday Murder Club back! Their latest adventure opens with what should be a straightforward, happy event: Joyce’s brilliant and accomplished daughter Joanna is getting married. Joyce is over the moon at the prospect of becoming a mother-in-law. Of course, she and Joanna spar over the planning—until they realize that they actually agree on how big the wedding should be. 

But it turns out that’s the least of their worries. At the reception, Nick, the groom’s best friend, calls club leader Elizabeth aside. He needs her help. A bomb has been attached to his car. His life is in danger.

Elizabeth is still recovering from the events of the previous books in the series. She knows she’s not at her fighting best. Yet she still can’t resist a challenge and wants to help Nick. But she finds no bomb on his car—and she can’t find him either.

The gang gets on the case and begins to unravel the threads of Nick’s life. He, with another friend, Holly, ran a “cold storage” unit for sensitive data—a top-secret underground facility in a remote area. The numbers for a Bitcoin account worth millions may be locked inside. A retired drug dealer with a penchant for violence and a down-on-his-luck lord are on the trail of the Bitcoin. Holly says she has no idea where Nick is, but does she? And Paul, Joanna’s new husband, seems to be hiding a few secrets of his own.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahaim are aided by the wily perp Connie Johnson and her new protégé, Tia; Ron’s son and grandson; and of course, Bogdan, Chris, and Donna. Joyce’s journal entries continue to be a prime demonstration of hilarious passive-aggressive behavior. 

“In fact,” she writes, “all around the world there are long queues of people doing things that Joanna tells me nobody does anymore. Having honeymoons, drinking normal milk, watching television. I once told her that more people live the way I do than live the way she does, and she just pointed at my sandwich toaster and said, 'I don’t think so.'”

Joyce, however, takes a more active role in “The Impossible Fortune,” including taking Jasper, a lonely ex-spy, under her wing. Ron, meanwhile, is showing moments of fragility, but he rises magnificently when it counts.

I was puzzled by the ending and had to go back and read it a second time. Then it not only made sense logically, but emotionally.

The mystery in this latest installment of a spectacular series might be less than dazzling, but it doesn’t matter. 

Osman’s humor—ranging from dry, smirk-inducing asides to genuine laugh-out-loud moments—and his wonderful characters are what keep readers returning.

For many of us, I suspect the Thursday Murder Club is not so much about the puzzle, but about spending time in the company of old friends.

Review: "We Solve Murders," Richard Osman

I love the “Thursday Murder Club” series featuring the intrepid and quirky residents of a senior living complex—Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce.

So when I heard that author Richard Osman was starting another series, my reaction was “Oh, no!”

I didn’t want him taking any time away from my septuagenarian friends.

But fellow “Murder Club” fans can rest assured. Osman’s winning combination of comedy and compassion, wild capers and rapid-fire one liners is on full display in this new series—along with a fun cast of characters.

Steve Wheeler, retired policeman, appreciates his quiet life in a village on the edge of the New Forest, where wild ponies sometimes wander down the high street and munch on the floral displays. He enjoys trivia night at the pub, and spending time with his cat, Trouble. But all is not well. Steve lost his wife in a tragic accident, and carries around a Dictaphone in which he records his “conversations” with her.

Luckily, he has daughter-in-law Amy to keep tabs on him. Amy has demons of her own—a traumatic childhood—and likes to literally keep herself on her toes. She works in private security, which takes her around the world on sometimes dangerous assignments. Amy always has time for a chat with Steve, though, and calls him in to help when her current placement, guarding famous actress Rosie D’Antonio in South Carolina, goes sideways.

Big time. Amy’s on a perilous tightrope and doesn’t know whom to trust. She’s being framed in the murders of three clients of Maximum Impact, her company. Clearly someone in the business is involved. But who?

Steve reluctantly joins Amy and Rosie, and the three flee to St. Lucia. Their adventure takes them from there to Dubai and Dublin, meeting a variety of good folks and thugs along the way. Steve puts his professional skills to good use, but he’s also adept at reading people and disarming them; for example, he makes an ally of a burly TSA agent through a shared love of Van Halen.

In true Osman fashion, friends and lovers are made, bonds are forged and the bad guys get what’s coming to them.

This was a fun romp and I’m looking forward to the next installment.

But first, another "Thursday Murder Club" book is in the works, and (drum roll) a Netflix movie featuring Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie and Pierce Brosnan as the wily quartet I hold so dear to my heart.