The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman Review: A Poignant, Funny Series High Point

The fourth Thursday Murder Club mystery opens with the killing of Kuldesh Sharma, an antiques dealer who had been a friend of Elizabeth's husband Stephen and who had helped the group on a previous case. Kuldesh was protecting a dangerous package that has now gone missing, and the club's investigation pulls them deep into the antiques trade — a milieu where, as the publisher's synopsis puts it, "the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves." Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim find themselves navigating drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters, unsure at every turn whom to trust. Complicating the external case is heartache much closer to home: Elizabeth is consumed by Stephen's declining health, leaving Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim to carry more of the investigative load than in previous installments.

Few British crime series of the past decade have matched the cultural footprint of the Thursday Murder Club. The Last Devil to Die debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list and, according to Wikipedia's reception summary, became the fastest-selling hardback title by a British author to that date in its first week of sale. The series has since been adapted for Netflix, further expanding an already vast readership. For readers arriving at this fourth book, it sits in a well-established fictional world with recurring characters and an accumulated emotional history — the novel stands as part of a larger arc, and those relationships carry significant weight here.

Critical response to the novel singles out precisely the combination that defines the series at its best. The critics described it as "the best Murder Club book yet… a poignant complement to both the fair-play mystery plot and the characters' lively humor." NPR, as quoted on the publisher's page, praised Osman's books as "a slyly sophisticated bunch, boasting emotional development equal to the memorable mysteries," adding that the series, taken as a whole, is "bloody brilliant." The publisher's page also carries a Shelf Awareness note that Osman "doesn't disappoint," drawing comparisons to beloved genre figures. What reviewers consistently identify as setting this installment apart from its predecessors is, per the publisher's compilation of blurbs, the deftness and humor with which Osman addresses dementia — a subject with no easy comic angle — without abandoning the warmth and wit that define the quartet.

The subplot involving Stephen's declining health is not incidental to the mystery — it is, by critical consensus, what elevates this installment. Elle, as quoted on the publisher's page, called it "a beautiful send-off that will get us through the wait," signalling that the emotional stakes are felt as keenly as the whodunit mechanics. The series has always used its retirement-community setting to engage honestly with aging, but this book pushes that engagement further, with Elizabeth's grief and anxiety running as a persistent undercurrent beneath the caper plot. Readers who have followed Stephen and Elizabeth across the previous books will find this thread particularly resonant; those arriving fresh at book four may find some of its weight harder to access without that prior investment.

The Thursday Murder Club novels are cozy in tone but not lightweight in ambition, and The Last Devil to Die is a clear expression of that balance. Readers who enjoy mystery series that reward long-term character investment — the kind NPR compares to Alexander McCall Smith's work — will find this the richest entry yet. First-time readers can follow the central plot, but the emotional payoffs tied to Stephen's storyline and the group's shared history are built on foundations laid across the earlier books. The novel's setting in the murky world of antiques fraud gives the procedural element a fresh and specific texture, while the core quartet's dynamic remains the engine that drives the series' distinctive appeal.