The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman

In this latest installment of the Thursday Murder Club series, retirement home residents Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim (who we’ve previously met in The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice) are solving a cold case from several years ago while dealing with a series of present threats connected both to their previous cases and to Elizabeth’s past career in intelligence work. I always enjoy Osman’s books, but I’ve come to the conclusion that what I love most is not the mysteries themselves — I don’t even know if they’re very good mysteries; I think I’m not a very good mystery reader — but the characters, not just the main four but the rich cast of secondary characters, and the relationships among them, and the gentle humour that pervades these stories.