If You Like “The Thursday Murder Club”…
Readers of the blog will already know that I love mystery novels (see posts for grown-up books and middle-grade ones). One of my favorite recent series is The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Osman’s books take place at a retirement village in England where its residents gather to work on cold cases, until the mysteries and murders start coming to their doorstep. The characters are smart, clever, and honest. The suspense is enticing but not overwhelming.
If you’ve liked the series, here are four great other mysteries to check out.
The Bangalore Detectives Club series by Harini Nagendra (started 2022)
Kaveri is a newlywed in 1920s Bangalore. She secretly continues her studies in mathematics and tries to improve her cooking through lessons from a friendly and nosey neighbor. But life is a little dull until a murder upsets a dinner party at the club. Though expected to keep her mind on domestic affairs, Kaveri is determined to solve the mystery. With the help of unexpected companions and a friendly policeman, she gets to the bottom of the case. The beginning of a series!
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (2022)
Four women have long worked as assassins for a clandestine organization, but now they are ready to retire. Their company sends them on a cruise to launch their lives of leisure. While at sea, they realize that someone is trying to kill them all. Raybourn has created a suspenseful and often funny thriller that also takes on the topic of aging.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (2023)
Vera is a tea-shop owner with an adult son. When she discovers a dead body in the shop one morning, she decides that she should solve the murder herself. Believing that the culprit always returns to the scene of the crime, she interrogates, and then adopts, the four people who show up at the shop who all have a connection to the deceased. Vera’s clear that they are her prime suspects, but she also helps them sort out their lives — as all four are a bit lost.
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin (2024)
When Frances is a teenager in the 1960s, a fortune teller predicts that she will be murdered. That murder doesn’t happen until she is in her 70s, but she’s spent her whole life looking for clues and sussing out suspects, leaving file cabinets full of research behind. She makes it a stipulation of receiving her inheritance that her heirs solve her murder. Her grand-niece Annie, having never met Frances until she comes across her dead body, dedicates herself to solving the crime and piecing together the past.