The key thing to know about this book is that if you liked The Thursday Murder Club, then you will love this!
The gang is all back – Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim, as well as Donna and Chris from the local police station, and the man of mystery that is Bogdan. This time around, things take an interesting turn when Elizabeth’s ex-husband shows up at Coopers Chase retirement village, with a secret services handler in tow.
During an operation, a criminal believes that an operative stole some diamonds that he was looking after on behalf of a mafia group. Now those diamonds are needed back, and things are starting to get messy.
Into this world of spies, and career criminals comes our band of quietly confident pensioners who have the wherewithal to bend people to their way of doing things and find a way through it all.
To say much more would give away too much about the plot, but suffice to say that all kinds of things are going on, and it’s great fun seeing how things play out.
Osman hit the ground running with The Thursday Murder Club which has been a sensational hit, and he’s even better this time out. You completely believe in each of the characters and their own individual quirks and foibles. The book is of course littered with little jokes and digs at modern society, and everything moves along very pleasingly.
Yes, this is “cozy crime,” although in fact, some quite nasty things happen, and the impact of some of those things is not underplayed – quite deliberately. This is 21st century Britain, and not some idyllic English village in the 1950s.
Thoroughly recommended.
The Man Who Died Twice is out in hardback, ebook and audiobook on 16 September 2021. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.