Date: 23 April 2023
Location: John & Marion
For the second month in a row, the bookers read and discussed a book by Richard Osman.
The Man Who Died Twice is Osman’s second book in the delightful Thursday Murder Club series.
Since we all enjoyed the first book so much, we decided to continue with this one. Once again we had a good turnout of bookers with 17 of us present, 10 of whom actually read the book.
This book features the same cast of characters as the first book, headed by Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibraham – four friends and residents of a senior living community. A couple of local police officers also play prominent roles in their dealings with the retirees and in their personal relationships. And then there is Brogdan – who doesn’t worry too much about the law and who can be depended on to ‘save the day’.
The friends get involved in some serious activities which include devising retribution on a punk who assaulted Ibraham and tracking down the culprits in a violent murder case. For what seems to be a fairly humorous, cozy murder mystery, the book does offer some serious mayhem and bloodshed. And, of course, the complicated plot really kept us guessing, and none of us actually figured out in advance who the ‘bad guy’ was.
While ex-MI5 agent Elizabeth is the brains and driving force behind the intrepid sleuths, we all agree that Joyce really makes the book. Her relationship with her daughter and especially her comments in her diary add so much humor and warmth to the book. She seems so gentle, charming and easy-going and is almost always underestimated, but she is actually pretty savvy and makes a contribution to the group’s investigative successes. All the Bookers really liked Joyce.
With the principals residing in a retirement home, the characters were often dealing with inter-generational relationships and with the onset of illnesses and infirmities. Naturally, this led to many of us discussing our latest ailments and afflictions. Osman’s treatments were well done and empathetic; but, even so, we all agreed that getting old is not for sissies.
And of course we finished our meeting with a wonderful meal thanks to our hosts, Marion and John.
It was a super meeting!
—Bob