The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
What's It About?
An old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters— and the Thursday Murder Club has no idea whom to trust. With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out?“There’s nothing that makes you feel more alive than the certainty of death.”
For those new to the Thursday Murder Club, welcome (Joyce would be thrilled with my manners). This gang of pensioners are the founders of the Thursday Murder Club at Coopers Chase retirement home, which meets each Thursday to discuss a cold case murder. The fourth installment of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, The Last Devil to Die, is really “just another Thursday” for Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim.
This time, they bring along a few new faces as they delve into the dark side of dealing antiques. When one of their dear friends is murdered and a package he was protecting goes missing, these four will stop at nothing to avenge their friend and solve this mystery. And the same question lingers throughout the book: Who will be the last devil to die?
Laying Out the Mystery
Time is a strange concept, it is fleeting yet can feel like it’s dragging. For the Thursday Murder Club, time is the theme of this adventure. Kuldesh has been murdered in cold blood and all over $100k worth of heroin. While that is certainly a lot of money to an average person, there are a lot of cooks in the proverbial kitchen. People are dying left and right and nobody can quite figure out why there is all of this attention on this case. Especially when Donna and Chris (copy by profession, Thursday Murder Club members by accident) get booted off of the case by the National Crime Investigation’s SIO Jill Regan. Very suspicious.
Enter Joyce. This is a strong departure from the normal roles we see the gang play, as Elizabeth and Stephen are dealing with some personal matters. In Elizabeth’s absence, Joyce takes charge of trying to determine what happened to their friend and how he got caught up in this mess. Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim work their hardest to feed information back to Donna and Chris who are still working the case under the radar while filling the gaps where Elizabeth usually would take charge. Can they manage to pull it off as the body count continues to increase? And what is the DEAL with the heroin, where is it? Fear not, the Thursday Murder Club is on the case.
Characters Grow As Series Continues
As I have now read this fourth book and constantly recommend this series to everyone, I can’t help but reflect on the series so far. This book marks intense character growth across the four main characters. We see Joyce come into her own, Ibrahim opens up about his personal life, Ron takes the blame and puts his relationship first. And Elizabeth has the hardest hurdle to jump, how to care for her ailing husband Stephen. He is everyone’s friend and is deteriorating quickly and heartbreak is something everyone will experience in this book.
But the team does open up, they meet new people and enlist a fellow pensioner to help them in their cause. They look out for Mervyn who is clearly being scammed by a fake woman on the internet who just wants his money. They are looking out for the greater good and it really shows across the Coopers Chase Community.
I can only hope that later in my life and that of my friends and family, there is a version of Coopers Chase and the Thursday Murder Club for me.
Related Posts:
A Bullet Misses at the Third Meeting of Thursday Murder Club
About Richard Osman:
Richard Osman is an author, producer, and television presenter. Each of his novels, The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, and The Bullet That Missed were number one, million-copy international bestsellers as well as New York Times bestsellers. He lives in London with his wife Ingrid and Liesl the cat. (Photo Credit: Conor O’Leary)
