Jill answers “I have not read this book yet, but the...”

Dee asked this question about The Thursday Murder Club:

I have not read this book yet, but the synopsis sounds very, very similar to James Pattersons "Womens Murder Club" series or "The Sisterhood" series by Fern Michaels. Both are phenomenal series' and i would recommend them both if you like books about serving justice to the criminal mind. But is this book "The Thursday Murder Club" worth the read?

Jill I read most of it then gave up in disgust. Osman stole several characters from Kim M. Watt - from her lovely Beaufort Scales series. For example his E…moreI read most of it then gave up in disgust. Osman stole several characters from Kim M. Watt - from her lovely Beaufort Scales series. For example his Elizabeth character is a cut-rate version of Kim's Alice Martin; his annoying Joyce character is an insipid dumbed-down version of Kim's wonderful Rose, and his young black woman police officer "Donna" is a mere shadow of Kim's young black woman police officer, the formidable D.I.Adams. He stole other characters as well. This is straight-out plagiarism. To add insult to injury, the writing is appalling. There is far too much of it, for starters, it needs a damn good edit, but even the best editing in the world can't redeem writing that is indifferent at best. It reads like a fifth form (year 9?) school writing project. The plotting wanders all over the place but in the end I just couldn't care enough about the characters to persevere with it. Osman's one point of difference is the backstories he inserts around some of his characters, all to do with the challenges and tragedies faced by an ageing population. One character has a husband with dementia and a best friend dying a slow and unresponsive death in a nursing home. Another character struggles to come to terms not only with his own loss of status and vigour, but also his son's. One elderly woman still attempts to "pursue" men, even though the object of her attentions isn't interested. Yet another character has had his wife's death hijacked by a family member, who spirits the wife's ashes away a mere two days after the funeral, leaving him stuck in his grief with no time or support to process it. In the context of this book, a pastiche of plagiarized bits and poorly written narrative, I am persuaded to take the less generous view that these often poignant
interludes are merely cynical ploys, calculated to appeal to that fast growing demographic of the elderly, who want to see themselves reflected back at them when they sit down to read. Who can blame them? We all want to feel *seen*. Osman knowingly manipulates this burgeoning demographic though, all for the sake of increasing sales. I used to enjoy the quiz shows that Osman had a hand in creating, and simply accepted the hype around Richard Osman, that the man's a genius, so creative, such a great guy, but here's the thing: it's all lies. He is not that smart, he's not even a good writer, he's unethical and he's unscrupulous. I'd recommend giving this writer a wide berth. Life's too short to read bad books!(less)

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The Thursday Murder Club

by Richard Osman

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