In This Article
- What was announced and when
- Who and what is involved
- Context and significance
- What to watch next
Richard Osman has confirmed that his next Thursday Murder Club novel, titled We Chase Shadows, will be released in September 2026. Radio Times reported the announcement alongside a tease from Osman himself that the book will deliver "lots of thrills, lots of laughs, and lots of murders." Independent bookseller Dead Good Books has pinned the specific date as 10 September 2026.
What was announced and when
The confirmation resolves a period of uncertainty: an earlier Radio Times report had noted that no confirmed date for a sixth Thursday Murder Club novel existed at that point, while also acknowledging that "Osman's track record and recent updates suggest the story is far from over." The announcement of We Chase Shadows puts that speculation to rest, giving readers a firm target and a title for the first time.
Who and what is involved
Richard Osman is a British television presenter turned novelist, best known before his fiction career as the co-host of the BBC quiz show Pointless. His Thursday Murder Club series — centred on four retired sleuths, Elizabeth Best, Ron Ritchie, Joyce Meadowcroft, and Ibrahim Arif, who investigate cold cases from their Kent retirement village of Cooper's Chase — is published by Viking Press, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House. The debut novel in the series was acquired, along with its first sequel, by Penguin Random House after a ten-way publishing auction in 2019, with the deal reported as a seven-figure sum, according to Wikipedia's record of the series.
We Chase Shadows will be the sixth book in that series. Barnes & Noble lists the existing five instalments as The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, The Last Devil to Die, and The Impossible Fortune, the fifth entry, which was released in 2025.
Context and significance
The series has established a notable commercial record. According to Wikipedia, the original The Thursday Murder Club sold 45,000 copies in its first three days on sale after publication on 3 September 2020, became a Sunday Times number one bestseller, and by the week ending 19 December 2020 had sold 134,514 copies — making it the first debut novel ever to reach Christmas number one in the UK. The Guardian described it at the time as the "fastest selling adult crime debut" in recorded history. The book also picked up the Sounds of Crime Award at Crimefest 2021 for its audiobook edition, read by Lesley Manville.
The series has also expanded beyond the page: a film adaptation is in production, according to Wikipedia's entry on the first novel. Osman has maintained a consistent publishing rhythm, with the second through fourth books appearing in the Septembers of 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively, before The Impossible Fortune arrived in 2025. We Chase Shadows continues that broadly annual September pattern.
For a full critical assessment of the five-book series to date, see our review of the Thursday Murder Club 5-Book Box Set.
What to watch next
No further plot details beyond Osman's own tease have been released at this stage. The 10 September 2026 date confirmed by Dead Good Books gives publishers and booksellers a clear window to work toward, and pre-order listings are expected to follow from major retailers as the date approaches. Whether Penguin Random House will pursue a simultaneous audiobook release — as it did with the original novel — has not been confirmed in available sources.