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The Thursday Murder Club

Richard Osman

2020 · 382 pages · Mystery

cosy moodmoderate pacelight and escapist toneresolved and happy ending

How it reads

The Thursday Murder Club is mystery (cozy mystery, specifically), and its dominant mood is cosy. Low stakes, warm company: the kind of book you read under a blanket. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a small town setting, in the present day, told in the first person by several narrators. Its central concerns are friendship, justice and loss and grief. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.

It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. At 382 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.

Pick it up if…

  • you're in the mood for something cosy
  • you want an escape
  • you want to be sure it ends well

Maybe not if…

  • you need something dark, tense or eerie

All 15 dimensions

Genre
mystery
Author gender
male
Author experience
debut
Setting: place
small town
Setting: time
contemporary
Mood / feeling
cosy
Pace
moderate
Tone / weight
light and escapist
Length
medium
Narrative style
first person, several narrators
Publication era
recent
Popularity
mega-bestseller
Series vs standalone
first in a series
Themes
friendship, justice, loss and grief
Ending style
resolved and happy

What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.

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