Four septuagenarians in a retirement village get together to solve cold case crimes for fun.  Elizabeth is the leader and she has police connections. Joyce acts as scribe, Ibrahim is a retired psychologist and Ron is politically oriented.  Now a body has turned up on the village’s property and it looks like it was murder. The victim turns out to be one of the construction contractors.  Well what do the club members do? They start sleuthing with the help of a couple cooperative detectives from local law enforcement.  

The Thursday Murder Club
By Richard Osman
Read by Lesley Manville12h and 24m
Rating: 6 / crime

There are lots of characters who talk about old loves and memories in addition to crime-solving.  The writing was very good so the digressions were okay, but listening was difficult because the narrator did not seem to distinguish between male and female voices. And what with few references to names or even pronouns it made keeping track difficult at times. 

And then in my real life there was the ballot count to keep me off the book, so it took me 3 or 4 days to finish what should have been a 1 or 2 day quickie.  That alone was irritating and interrupted the flow and my focus.

Still – I gave it a 6 –  why?  Because the premise was fun and interesting although it didn’t pan out as the  more fun, less realistic amateur procedural I expected.  Also, there were parts which were compelling in their own way.