This is the third novel in the Thursday Murder Club series and follows The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice. The usual gang is here (with the addition of Joyce's dog, Alan) but now the dangers need to be ramped up. So Elizabeth has to be abducted and threatened with death while both Bogdan, Ron and Joyce are also in danger. The police officers Donna and Chris are relegated to an even more minor role than before. But why should our amateur sleuths need them? Ron can elucidate details simply by chatting to a man he has never met before. This is lazy sleuthing. But we don't need plot. We have (superficial) characters and we have a lot of short sentences and some wit. Maybe the whiff of unreality has become a smog. Maybe disbelief is now too heavy to be suspended. This is the third in a record-breaking series and it will sell at least as well as the others simply on the author's name. But I don't think I'll be reading any more.
Selected quotes:
- "What was he thinking? That was the one question she knew not to ask a man. They were almost always thinking nothing at all, so were thrown by the question, and felt compelled to make something up." (Ch 4)
- "Everyone wants to feel special but nobody wants to feel different." (Ch 4)
- "He eats so much broccoli he can spell it without looking it up." (Ch 7)
- "Very few things are so important you would risk your life for them, but all sorts of things are important enough to risk somebody else's life." (Ch 12)
- "How often do you walk down a new road with an old lover?" (Ch 14)
- "Spies are like dogs. They cannot stand a closed door." (Ch 31)
- "Ron prays for his torture to end. Are the gentle sounds of the rainforest ever going to stop?" (Ch 40)
- "He doesn't say much, but sometimes that can be a relief, can't it? With some men you spend most of your time just nodding in agreement." (Ch 88)
Light comedy, little suspense. January 2023; 408 pages
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