The Man Who Died Twice: (The Thursday Murder Club 2)

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I fell in love with the characters, the retirement community setting and the compelling mystery that played out. This time round the group is dragged into an investigation when Elizabeth receives a letter from her ex husband, who has apparently stolen twenty million dollars worth of diamonds and thus aggravated several prominent crime bosses and maybe MI5 as well. Elizabeth feels obliged to help and calls in all her troops to assist.

Not a bad book, certainly. As my mother notes, "I felt it jumped around a lot," and jump around it certainly does. Largely limited third person, it jumps around in all the major players' heads--and I do mean all: Elizabeth, former M15 agent, DCI Chris Hudson; Ibrahim the psychiatrist; Connie Johnson, drug dealer; Martin Lomax, broker; PC Donna; Douglas Middlemiss, M15 agent; Ron, professional gadfly; Bogdan Jankowski, Polish builder and man of many abilities; Patrice, teacher and girlfriend; Stephen, Elizabeth's husband; and probably a few others I'm skipping. In between we have Joyce's first person diary entries. It's all terribly amusing and Oscar Wilde-ish, lots of banter and disarming openness that conceals all sorts of shenanigans. Thanks to my local library and the Libby app for both the Kindle copy and audiobook, which I enjoyed together.

It’s an unalloyed pleasure to spend time with Osman’s sparkling, well-observed characters who are also wittily perceptive about our foibles and the quirks of modern life.” It is important to stop sometimes and just have a drink and gossip with friends, even as corpses start to pile up around you.”

In my review for The Thursday Murder Club, I wrote, “One word for this book, along with the four main characters: Charming.” That stands true here as well.Richard Osman is a popular TV personality in the UK, and has now released the second book in what is becoming a best-selling series. The Thursday Murder Club was established by four fascinating characters, all seniors, but determined to use their career skills and experience to help solve murder cases. They all live in the Cooper’s Chase retirement community and have formed this special friendship where they value each other as close friends and part of their crime club. Joyce is considering getting a rescue dog, and Ron is offering advice. The dog’s name is Alan, (who calls a dog, Alan?) but she won’t be pressured into keeping that name despite being told that dogs do NOT adjust well to suddenly being called something new! I am learning that it is important to stop sometimes and just have a drink and a gossip with friends, even as corpses start to pile up around you. Which they have been doing a lot recently."