The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
The gang from Coopers Chase retirement home is back! The spunky octogenarians who comprise Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club return with their fourth witty and charming installment in The Impossible Fortune.
This time, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are all a-titter as Joyce’s workaholic, 40-something daughter Joanna is finally getting married to Paul, a college professor. At the wedding reception, Elizabeth, an ex-spy who insists there is no such thing as a former spy, is grieving the loss of her husband, Stephen, when the best man, Nick Silver, approaches her for help.
He’s aware of her intelligence background, and he informs Elizabeth that someone has placed a bomb underneath his car, making him terrified that someone is trying to kill him. They arrange to meet the next morning, but Nick never arrives for the meeting. He has vanished without a trace.
One Thrilling Retirement Gang
Nick’s disappearance sparks the group to investigate the vanishing, and they soon discover that he was in the “cold storage” security business. He and his partner, Holly Lewis, are the keepers of secrets and the co-owners of Bitcoin worth 350 million pounds.
Nick and Holly each possess one-half of the code accessing these funds, and should either die, the survivor gets it all. The problem is that Nick and Holly were considering cashing in on their fortune, and they confided this fact in two questionable individuals: a destitute English lord and a drug dealer.
Elizabeth, Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim must try to locate Nick before it is too late, and their quest examines who stands to gain the most from Nick’s mysterious disappearance — and how to locate Nick’s portion of the code before someone else nabs it.
The suspects abound, including Nick himself, and Joanna’s husband, Paul, who is an investor in Nick and Holly’s business. No one is above suspicion to The Thursday Murder Club, and they will not rest until the mystery is solved.
Perfect Follow-Up to Netflix Adaptation
The casting of the recent Netflix The Thursday Murder Club movie was spot on, and readers can now easily picture the kooky characters in Osman’s series. Helen Mirren is perfect as Elizabeth, the former MI5 agent, as is Celia Imrie as the mild-mannered nurse Joyce. Ben Kingsley shines as psychiatrist and voice of reason Ibrahim, and Pierce Brosnan plays counterpoint to his James Bond image as the aging former union negotiator, Ron.
As in the film, each character contributes a unique set of skills and sense of humor to the missing person investigation in The Impossible Fortune.
After four books, readers will feel like they are visiting “old” friends, who never fail to surprise them. They are the type of people you would love to invite over for tea. The Murder Club’s relationship with DCI Chris Hudson and Donna de Freitas, the two local cops who patrol Cooper Chase, proves the gang’s age is just a number and that these seniors not only contribute to society but often teach the younger folks a lesson or two.
Like in Osman’s prior Murder Club novels, there is never a dull moment at Coopers Chase. Riddled with subplots of domestic drama, dealing with the loss of a spouse, and the physical problems of aging, this mystery will keep readers chuckling and guessing from page one.
Let us hope Netflix brings this latest mystery, along with the previous two, to the screen as soon as possible. Further, that Osman never retires his witty characters from the page.
About Richard Osman:
Richard Osman is an author and television presenter. His novels, The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, The Last Devil to Die and We Solve Murders were number one international bestsellers as well as New York Times bestsellers. He lives in London with his wife, Ingrid, and their cats Liesl and Lottie. The movie adaptation for The Thursday Murder Club released in 2025, produced by Amblin Entertainment.
