Reading order
Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series: 5 books + 1 announced. We've reviewed 3 of them.
Read them in the order they were published
At Coopers Chase, a luxury retirement village near the Kent coast, four elderly residents meet weekly to pore over cold cases. Former spy Elizabeth, ex-union man Ron, retired nurse Joyce, and psychiatrist Ibrahim have long studied unsolved crimes together. When a local property developer is killed, the group puts their hobby to the test and begins investigating a real murder.
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are still riding high after their last real-life case and hope for peace at Coopers Chase, their Kent retirement village. But an unexpected visitor—an old friend of Elizabeth's—arrives, desperate for help. He has been accused of stealing millions in diamonds and is on the run. Soon the first body appears.
SpoilersElizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are still riding high after solving their first real murder and hope for peace at Coopers Chase. But an unexpected visitor—an old friend of Elizabeth's—arrives, desperate for help. He has been accused of stealing millions in diamonds and is on the run. Soon the first body appears.
The Thursday Murder Club—retirees Joyce, Ron, Ibrahim, and Elizabeth—meet weekly at Coopers Chase to pore over cold cases. When a decade-old murder with no body leads them to a former TV news presenter, Elizabeth faces a new foe who forces her into a deadly dilemma. The group races to solve the case before the killer strikes again.
The Thursday Murder Club learns that a friend who dealt in antiques has been murdered. A valuable package he guarded has vanished. The four retirees pursue the case through a world of forged art, internet scams, and narcotics trafficking, while private sorrows also demand their attention.
A quiet year ends for the Thursday Murder Club when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest in trouble. Kidnap and death follow, and a villain will stop at nothing to obtain an uncrackable code. The friends must solve the puzzle and a murder before it is too late.
Announced. The publisher hasn't shared a description yet; we'll add one when they do.
Run a fan site, wiki or blog? Embed this reading order →
About the series
The Thursday Murder Club is Richard Osman's murder-mystery series about four residents of Coopers Chase, a luxury retirement village near the Kent coast: former spy Elizabeth, ex-union man Ron, retired nurse Joyce and psychiatrist Ibrahim. They meet every Thursday to pore over cold cases, until a killing on their doorstep hands them a live one.
There are five novels so far: The Thursday Murder Club (2020), The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022), The Last Devil to Die (2023) and The Impossible Fortune (2025), published by Viking, part of Penguin Random House. The first became the first debut novel ever to reach Christmas number one in the UK. A sixth book has been announced, with its title still to come.
A film of the first book, directed by Chris Columbus, came to Netflix on 28 August 2025, with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan as Ron, Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim and Celia Imrie as Joyce.
Sources: Wikipedia (The Thursday Murder Club) · Wikipedia (The Thursday Murder Club film) · Mushens Entertainment (book 6 announcement) · Penguin Random House (Coopers Chase)
Our take
Book by book, from our reviews. Ratings are Amazon readers' for the edition we link, so counts vary by printing.
Book 1
4.3 · 184,830 Amazon ratings (this edition)
Worth reading if you want a warmly entertaining, ingeniously plotted crime debut that balances dry humour with genuine investigative logic — and don't mind a light tonal register over psychological darkness.
Skip it if you gravitate toward hard-edged procedural crime fiction, demand deep psychological interiority from your characters, or have grown weary of the amateur-sleuth cozy formula.
Book 2
4.6 · 112,208 Amazon ratings (this edition)
Worth reading if you loved (or are curious about) the first Thursday Murder Club and want a sequel that, by multiple critical accounts, is tighter, funnier, more poignant, and higher-stakes than its predecessor.
Skip it if you prefer your crime fiction dark, gritty, and procedural — the deliberately warm, village-set, cozy tone is the whole point of this series, not a flaw to be overlooked.
Book 3
4.6 · 93,806 Amazon ratings (this edition)
Worth reading if you are drawn to character-driven mysteries with genuine wit, a breezy pace, and a cast whose intelligence and camaraderie are the real draw — especially if you are coming to it after the first two instalments.
Skip it if you prefer hard-edged procedurals, psychological darkness, or high-tension crime fiction — the series' warm, light register will feel too slight for that appetite.
About the author
Richard Thomas Osman is an English television presenter, producer, and novelist. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show Pointless. He has presented the BBC Two quiz shows Two Tribes and Richard Osman's House of Games, and been a team captain on the comedy panel shows Insert Name Here and The Fake News Show.
Author Richard Osman discusses his visual impairment, nystagmus, and how it informs his approach to character development and writing.
Uploaded by BBC News, 2026 · Watch on YouTube
Osman explains that because of his visual impairment, navigating unfamiliar places and airports is difficult and stressful, so he only sets his books in locations he has personally visited.
“I don't love travelling, so I always set it in places I have already been.”
Osman describes nystagmus as causing constant eye movement, resulting in his brain seeing a blurred, haloed version of the world comparable to driving in thick fog.
“The world is just blurred to me.”
Osman recalls never admitting in school that he couldn't see the blackboard to avoid drawing attention, instead training himself to listen closely and develop independent methods to keep up.
“I never, ever said, 'I can't see the board.'”
Osman shares that editors often note he never describes characters' physical appearances, because his blurred vision makes him perceive people through tone, manner, and overall vibe rather than visuals.
“I get a vibe of the person, which is how I experience people.”
Osman does not use diagrams, spreadsheets, or detailed plot outlines when writing, preferring to let characters speak to one another and allow the story to reveal itself organically as he writes.
“I don't write my plots in advance.”
Osman argues that growing up with a disability forces individuals to spend thousands of hours thinking outside the box, building unique problem-solving skills that AI and conventional thinkers cannot replicate.
“You've got 10,000 hours of experience of thinking in a way that other people haven't.”
Introduction
What's the new book about?
Why Richard doesn't like airports
What is nystagmus?
How he dealt with it growing up
How nystagmus affects his writing
How disability gives you an advantage in the world of AI
If you like this series
Picked in our review of The Thursday Murder Club: what to read next.
Magpie Murders
Anthony Horowitz
A cleverly constructed puzzle-mystery with a dry wit, where an editor investigates whether her star author's death mirrors his final manuscript.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Alan Bradley
An eleven-year-old amateur chemist solves a murder in a 1950s English village, delivering the same charm-meets-corpse balance from a much younger sleuth.
Questions
There are five Thursday Murder Club books so far, with Untitled Book 6 announced.
Start with The Thursday Murder Club and read them in publication order: The Thursday Murder Club (2020), The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022), The Last Devil to Die (2023), The Impossible Fortune (2025).
The Thursday Murder Club, published in 2020. At Coopers Chase, a luxury retirement village near the Kent coast, four elderly residents meet weekly to pore over cold cases. Former spy Elizabeth, ex-union man Ron, retired nurse Joyce, and psychiatrist Ibrahim have long studied unsolved crimes together. When a local property developer is killed, the group puts their hobby to the test and begins investigating a real murder.
The latest is The Impossible Fortune (2025). Next is Untitled Book 6.
Yes, three of the five: The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed. On Amazon, readers rate The Man Who Died Twice highest: 4.6 out of 5 from 112,208 ratings.
Share
Free to use on fan sites, wikis, forums and blogs. Embeds stay up to date as new books come out.
Looking for Richard Osman's other books? See every series and standalone.
