Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

It’s been a long time coming, with the debut work of a new series and a movie based upon Book 1 of a previous series, but Richard Osman has struck gold again with the four senior citizens who spar, spy, solve, and celebrate justice in The Impossible Fortune Book 5 of the Thursday Murder Club mystery series.

So, there. I said it. He struck gold. Again. I loved this book as I have loved the previous four. I know there are those who don’t see the mastery of clever, sharp dialogue peppered throughout the series. It is one of the things I love most about it. It is the absence of that very thing that I found most upsetting from the movie version of Book 1.

Sorry, Chris Columbus, but it just didn’t do it for me. I felt that the GIANT superstars playing the four main characters at times seemed to be bigger than the story, bigger than the plot, and bigger than the dialogue. The movie felt dark, much darker than the brightness I felt in reading the books. Yes, the books are about murder, and the characters are living out their twilight years with the frailties of age and the loss of loved ones, but they were still very much alive.

Don’t come after me, but I didn’t really enjoy Book 1 in the new series, We Solve Murders.

In the acknowledgements of Book 5 of TMC, Osman announces (warns, lol) us that his next book will be from the WSM series.

I guess he can’t just write TMC books forever and ever and keep so many of us happy. Of course, I’ll read anything that Osman writes from now on out, but it is the gang of Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Ron, and Joyce that I live for.

I remember many years ago now when I first discovered author Kate Messner. She wrote a trilogy called the Silver Jaguar Society Mysteries, and it was about three children whose parents belong to the adult version of the Society. They follow in their parents’ footsteps and embark on junior versions of mystery-solving escapades.

After I had read all three, and loved them enough to assign the first one as summer reading for my rising 6th graders, I naively asked the author at a book signing (where I was star-struck and could only babble out a short question) whether there would be another book forthcoming in the series. She so very nicely pointed out to me that there were three children and they had each had their own story in which to shine. Duh.

And so it goes with the TMC.

Book 1, titled simply The Thursday Murder Club, introduces the four, but it also focuses on Elizabeth, the former MI6 spy, who takes the lead.

Book 2, The Man Who Died Twice, shares more of Elizabeth’s past but also brings Joyce into the picture.

Book 3, The Bullet That Missed, continues developing Joyce, but also gives us more of Ron.

Book 4, The Last Devil to Die, is where Ibrahim takes the stage so to speak, having his own personal story revealed. I personally felt that Joyce had more influence on Book 4 than the others as it relates to the solving of the mystery.

I was curious to see who would take the lead in Book 5, The Impossible Fortune. But, Osman managed to let all four of them shine in Book 5, which some reviews have noted makes the book feel like it is “all over the place.” Maybe I am just too big of a fan to see that clearly, but I didn’t feel that way. Yes, there are several subplots, and yes, there are perhaps more characters to keep track of in this book, but I didn’t feel weighed down by that at all.

If I had to pin Book 5 down with a theme or angle, I would say that it is about family, as the book begins with the wedding of Joanna, Joyce’s daughter, bringing Joyce a much yearned for son-in-law. In earlier books in the series, I was not a fan of Joanna, but I fell in love with her character in Book 5, in how she has matured into someone I can respect (and feel slightly jealous of her skills in investment banking). I adored how her mother-daughter relationship with Joyce developed into one of acceptance, admiration, and respect.

The book shows Elizabeth rising from the ashes of her grief (see Book 4) to take her rightful place as the leader of her mystery-solving gang. She isn’t yet back at the top of her form, but she realizes, perhaps just in time, that they are a team, and she must accept that she is part of that team, not always the alpha that she has always been. She discovers that she is not alone, and here we get what I believe to be the main angle for Book 5: Found Family.

Ron’s family is at danger in Book 5, and he must rely on found family to help him out of it, chiefly the help of an archenemy from a previous storyline.

Ibrahim also feels his singleness profoundly in Book 5, and he too realizes he can find love, comfort, and reliance on found family. It is through a new character, whom I suspect will return in Book 6, that perhaps Ibrahim will fully find relief from his loneliness.

And, so, I wait patiently for more Richard Osman, for more of TMC, for more of the crime-fighting, mystery-solving, justice-seeking team called The Thursday Murder Club.

Book 5 of this delightful series is worth 5 stars from me!