The Last Devil to Die

A friend of Stephen’s has been killed, and the Thursday Murder Club is in hot pursuit. In what would become a long and merry chase, the fearless four will leave in their wake surprised criminals and dead bodies. Actually, the bodies are not their fault: when you kill for money and drugs, you should expect that the odds of you being a victim at some point are really pretty good. The first murder is personal for the group, being that the deceased was a friend. Elizabeth is in the midst of her own personal grief. Stephen, her husband, is becoming increasing affected with the end stages of dementia. Her friends are rallying around them both, offering support as best they can. Meanwhile, they all are working to sort out the clues in this show more most intriguing and complex mystery. A large amount of heroin has gone missing, and people are being killed for the want of it. This series just keeps getting better, as this latest installment illustrates. The author has interwoven into this thriller the pathos of a wife whose husband is slowly dying. A bit more of the backstory of another character is disclosed. The author deals with the emotional issues in the story with sensitivity and caring. Everything comes together in a cohesive and spellbinding tale. The saying that there is no fool like an old fool certainly doesn’t apply to this Thursday Murder Club. A more intelligent group of oldsters doesn’t exist. May they live forever, and may the next installment come quickly! (Even though Mr. Osman is going to make us wait a bit for it while he begins a new series.) show less

These are so much fun...and yet poignant and sad as well. This time the Thursday Murder Club delves into the world of drug smuggling and art forgery when an antique dealer of their acquaintance turns up dead, execution style. Lovely to see Joyce taking the reins at times, when Elizabeth is pre-occupied. I understand there will be a pause in the action as Osman turns his talent to a new set of characters for his next book, but he promises the Club will be back, and he's left us some tantalizing loose threads in the personal relationship department.

The four members of the Thursday Murder Club—Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron—and their many friends and loved ones are back in the murder game in this fourth mystery devoted to their sleuthing, this time confronting the killing of someone they know. Kuldesh Sharma, the antiques dealer who aided them in a previous case, and a long-time friend of Elizabeth and her husband Stephen, is murdered in a country lane, and it looks like a professional job. Is it simply a case of Kuldesh getting dragged into the heroine business, as at first seems apparent, or is there more going on beneath the surface? While the gang works to figure everything out, Elizabeth confronts a heartbreaking situation with Stephen, whose dementia has grown ever show more worse...

Engaging, well-written, and very entertaining, The Last Devil to Die is a worthy follow up to its predecessors, once again pairing an engrossing mystery with a character-driven story of four elderly people and their sometimes complicated lives. As mentioned in my reviews of some of the previous books in the series, I think one of Richard Osman's real strengths is his ability to create a cast of characters who feel like real people, and whom the reader comes to love. This has certainly been the case for me, and part of my enjoyment of the series has been the chance to "visit" with the gang, as well as some of the secondary characters (I really want to know more about Bogdan!). Of course, this strength means that when tragedy strikes, it is terribly sad. As someone who cares for a relative with dementia, I found the storyline concerning Elizabeth and Stephen almost unbearably painful, and I lay awake all night after completing the book, staring at the ceiling and contemplating my own relationship with my dementia-stricken loved one. As it happens, although I completed the book shortly after Christmas, I am only now posting my review, after a partial reread. I think this delay is owing to my strong feelings about this part of the book.

In any case, this is certainly one I would recommend, although I think it is better to read the preceding books in the series first. For my part, I look forward to more of Osman's work, both in the new series he is apparently poised to start, and, when he returns to the world of Cooper's Chase, to the Thursday Murder Club. show less

IN A NUTSHELL
A return to form for The Thursday Murder Club series. This was an excellent read. What I loved most about it was the empathy Richard Osman generates for the small details of our lives that do so much to define us, and his understanding of the different ways in which we feel and show love for each other. The mystery worked well, but the focus was on the relationships. Stephen's battle with dementia and Elizabeth's grief at seeing him slipping from her were deeply affecting. Joyce, as ever, was a delight.

I was delighted to find that the fourth book in The Thursday Murder Club series was as good as the first. I liked that the focus went back to the lives and loves of The Thursday Murder Club members rather than reaching for show more ever more complicated plots.

The mystery was solid without being extravagant, and The Thursday Murder Club’s involvement didn’t depend on something from Elizabeth’s past catching up with her. Everything, including the mystery, was about friendship, trust, and death.

Like the first book, this one was enlivened by accurate, insightful details of how our day-to-day lives work, highlighting our small vanities and self-deceptions in a way that promoted empathy rather than sarcasm.

I liked that the central cast keeps expanding, adding more perspectives on life and broadening the world the four core members of The Thursday Murder Club live in.

I admire Richard Osman's ability to enrich his story by adding more points of view while keeping the narrative cohesive and the plotting tight. I enjoyed seeing the impact that coming into contact with the four members of The Thursday Murder Club has on other residents of the retirement village.

The two police officers co-opted into the Thursday Murder Club made the plot more plausible, added a lot of humour, and avoided the tiresome how-will-they-get around-the-cops-this-time? dynamic that I think mars the Marlow Murder Club mysteries.

Part of what makes the book work so well is that the relationship between the four main characters continues to evolve as the characters grow and change. In this book, Elizabeth is often so preoccupied with Stephen that she isn't available to lead the group, so Joyce, in her own inimitable style, takes on the task. Ron and Ibrahim each have important roles in the plot, and each of them has changes in personal circumstances to adjust to.

I particularly enjoyed getting to see Ibrahim working as a prison psychologist, counselling a dangerous woman that The Thursday Murder Club helped send to jail in a previous book. Ibrahim's precision, relentless research and passion for structure have been a source of humour in the books. When I saw him practicing his profession, his pecadillos became essential skills. It was also interesting to see that his membership of The Thursday Murder Club has made him more willing to be flexible in his professional ethics, stepping beyond the normal boundaries of counselling in order to get information to solve a case.

Joyce’s journal entries were wonderful. Each entry was a little masterpiece of storytelling and character building. She is at once deeply credible and endlessly complex. Her journal creates an intimate connection with the reader.

The storyline around Stephen’s battle with dementia was heartbreaking. It wasn’t sentimental, nor was it brutal. It was honest and realistic, which made the sadness harder to bear but easier to accept. I think this part of the story will have reduced many readers to tears.

I thought Fiona Shaw’s narration was first-rate. It was a performance, not a reading. It was controlled and focused, getting the most from the text. It was a great example of what an audiobook can be. Click on the YouTube link to hear a sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h37RKqzu8JI show less

The Thursday Murder Club would like to have a less murder-y year, they really would, but then Kuldesh Sharma is killed, and of course, they're on the case. Elizabeth, though, is also facing her husband Stephen's decline from dementia, and the two of them are making decisions and plans together. Ibrahim visits cocaine dealer Connie Johnson weekly in prison, and Chris and Donna pursue the case in their official capacity, though Jill Regan swoops in to take over. Who killed Kuldesh? What happened to the heroin in the terra cotta box in his shop? The questions are linked, of course, but not the same.

Clever, witty, and twisty as the others, but with an extra note of melancholy.

Quotes

The real secret was when they looked at each other, they show more each thought they had the better deal.
But, however much life teaches you that nothing lasts, it is still a shock when it disappears. When the man you love with every fiber starts returning to the stars, an atom at a time. (Elizabeth and Stephen, 127)

It's always tempting to interfere when you know someone is making a mistake, isn't it? (Joyce, 139)

No one ever died from doing too much research. (Garth, 162)

"We think time travels forward, marches on in a straight line, and so we hurry alongside it to keep up....But it doesn't, you see. Time just swirls around us. Everything is always present. The things we've done, the people we've loved, the people we've hurt, they're all still here." (Stephen, 242)

There comes a point when you look at your photograph albums more often than you watch the news. (265) show less

This is the fourth entry in the “Thursday Murder Club” series, cozy mysteries set in a luxury retirement community that are quick-paced and witty with any number of laugh-out-loud moments.

Elizabeth Best, a onetime spy; Joyce Meadowcroft, a retired nurse; Ibrahim Arif, a former psychiatrist; and Ron Ritchie, who was a well-known union organizer, reside in Coopers Chase Retirement Village. They meet every Thursday for a “Murder Club” to look at old police files of cold cases and try to solve the them.

As the series has gone on, the original four have been joined by a number of others who have become friends and collaborators. Most notable is Bogdan Jankowski, who plays chess with Elizabeth’s husband Stephen as well as helping show more the group with situations that require youth and muscle. They also get assistance (albeit reluctantly), from DCI Chris Hudson and PC Donna De Freitas in the local police. A couple of less “respectable” sorts have joined their group as well: there is Viktor Illyich, former head of the Leningrad KGB, and an old friend of Elizabeth’s from her MI5 days, and the drug dealer Connie Johnson. The Murder Club helped get her installed in Darwell Prison in a previous book, but there were no hard feelings; Ibrahim now acts as her therapist once a week. A couple of new neighbors in Coopers Chase are added to the cast in this book: Mervyn Collins, who falls for every elder scam out there, and Bob Whittaker, a.k.a. “Computer Bob,” on whom the group increasingly relies for technical assistance.

The story begins with the murder of one of their acquaintances, and the Murder Club is determined to find justice for him. They soon get enmeshed in the nefarious schemes of local heroin dealers, and as in the past, manage to accomplish a great deal of what the police have been unable to do (in part because they do not feel restricted by “legalities”).

There are the usual humorous moments that show us criminals are also human beings just like the rest of us. One of the heroin dealers, for example, Mitch Maxwell, was thinking about his father-in-law, who had expressed a desire to kill Mitch after a fistfight over a television show: “[The father-in-law] once bought Mitch a police-issue Taser as a Christmas present. So you had to be careful with him. But doesn’t everyone have to be careful with their in-laws?”

Or there is Joyce wondering how someone could solicit a sex act on Christmas: “You’d think people would be too full.”

At one point Ron’s son Jason complains to his dad: “Jesus, Dad. You and your mates are starting drug wars now. I used to prefer it when you wrote letters to the council complaining about the bins.” Ron replies: “It should be once a week, Jase. I pay my council tax.”

But in addition to the humor there is much more pathos in this book than in the previous ones, as the subjects of aging and death hit closer to home for them. Joyce, whose diary entries dot the books, observes: “We won’t all be here this time next year, that’s just the facts of the matter. . . . As Ibrahim always says, ‘The numbers don’t look good.’”

Or the reflections about the nature of dementia, how you lose a someone “a paragraph at a time, but the chapter is done. And the book is close to its end.” It is then a person “starts returning to the stars, an atom at a time.”

At this stage in life, for the elderly, “There comes a point when you look at your photograph albums more often than you watch the news. . . . You simply stop dancing to the beat of the drum.”

Very tragic to read - especially if those issues are part of the reader’s life as well….

Evaluation: While this book doesn’t knock it out of the park as did the previous ones, that doesn’t mean it isn’t utterly delightful and very entertaining. In an Afterword, the author says he is taking a break from the series to write something different, and I look forward both to the new and a return to the old, when he is ready. show less

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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... it might be nice for the Thursday Murder Club to have a new project that moved at a gentler pace than usual. Something a bit less murdery would be quite a novelty.

WHAT'S THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE ABOUT?
What a nice thought—and for a minute, it looked possible.* But no reader expected it to continue, and it doesn't. In fact, the murder strikes pretty close to home—a character the reader had met recently, but who had strong ties to Stephen and Elizabeth. Which, of course, is how the Thursday Murder Club gets involved. Since the reader does know him, though, we're invested from the get-go.

* And I'd absolutely read that.

The Club encounters art forgery, a different group of drug show more smugglers, and some people who make others they've faced down seem downright cuddly. (not all of them, obviously, these retirees have faced off with some scary people) The path they have to follow to find the killer—and the object their friend died over—is probably the twistiest they've gone down yet.

Yes, there is the "less murdery" case as well—a fellow resident of Coopers Chase is getting fleeced by an online romantic interest, but he can't see it. So the Club takes it upon themselves to expose the fraud to protect him before he's totally broke (and maybe get a little of the money back).

LOSS, GRIEF, AND DEATH

Life continues, whatever you do. It’s a bulldozer like that.

This series has always featured death—not just murder. Given the age and health of the protagonists—and the community they live in—it's a constant presence. But not just death, going on, grieving, learning to cope with the absence of a loved one—and maybe not learning.

We've watched Joyce, for example, grieving for her husband from Day 1. Everyone since that time has lost people that were important to them, talked about losing others, and so on. It's one of the dominant themes of this series.

In The Last Devil to Die, dominant seems to be an understatement. Osman doesn't let you get away from it—not in a mawkish, maudlin, or over-the-top manner. It's just there, it's what the characters are facing and dealing with in a variety of ways (even some of the bad guys!). It doesn't leave you (too?) despondent, however. There's hope, there's life, there's a tomorrow for the living. It is a bulldozer.

I've always been impressed with the way that Osman treats these subjects, he's at his best in this installment.

So, all in all, I ’ve had a lovely Boxing Day, and am going to fall asleep in front of a Judi Dench film. All that’s missing is Gerry working his way through a tin of Quality Street and leaving the wrappers in the tin. Irritating at the time, but I'd give everything I own to have him back. Gerry liked the Strawberry Delights and Orange Crémes, and I liked the Toffee Pennies, and if you want to know the recipe for a happy marriage it is that.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE?

That's the thing about Coopers Chase. You’d imagine it was quiet and sedate, like a village pond on a summer’s day. But in truth it never stops moving, it’s always in motion. And that motion Is aging, and death, and love, and grief, and final snatched moments and opportunities grasped. The urgency of old age. There’s nothing that makes you feel more alive than the certainty of death.

This summer, when I did the Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag, I said that while no book had made me cry this year, I figured something would by the end of the year. I didn't think it would be a cozy mystery that did it. Almost twice.

But I was laughing—or at least chuckling—within a couple of pages both times. And it didn't feel like emotional whiplash or like he was undercutting the seriousness of what elicited the tears or almost tears. Osman was just honestly portraying these characters in all their aspects which brings laughter and tears.

I've talked a lot about this book's "downer" parts. Let me assure you that the comedy is great—watching Ron try to understand his son making Cameos, for example. Other things with Ron, too, actually. I'm having trouble coming up with examples—well, Joyce is a reliable source of humor, obviously. Everyone is, as you know if you've read one of these books (and if you haven't, but are reading this post...there's your homework, go pick up the first one and thank me later). I'm having trouble coming up with other specific examples that I can use in this post, sadly. But they're there, I assure you.

As always, the characters are Osman's strong suit. Our regulars are in fine form, as are the some returning characters (including some I was pleasantly surprised to see), and the new characters are great additions to the cast (however temporary some of them might be). They all practically jump off the page fully formed and it's hard to ask for more.

The online fraud story goes pretty much like you expect it to—this isn't a Mrs. Plansky's Revenge kind of thing. But it was very satisfying. The murder mystery, which is theoretically why people pick this book up, on the other hand...I have mixed feelings about it. But I can't explain that reaction. Osman knows how to construct a mystery, the red herrings are perfect, the suspects are wonderfully designed, and the reveals and wrap-up were done almost perfectly. I can't think of a single problem with it. But the entire time I was reading it, something just didn't click.

I want to stress that this is my only issue with the book—sadly, it's the A story. Maybe it's the fact that it didn't feel like it always. Maybe it's because everything else in the novel was so good and so emotionally strong, that the mystery couldn't compete. Maybe the book was just too crowded with storylines and this one didn't have as much time to develop as it needed? It's also (very likely) just me. I also thought it was pretty easy to guess the killer's identity—but the motive and the reveal were so well done that I didn't care. Also, the herrings were red enough that I doubted my guess more than once.

That ineffable quibble aside, this is the best book in the series thus far. I couldn't put it down—from the "are you kidding me?" beginning through the emotional body-blows over the course of the book, up to the strong conclusion, and all points in between, Osman kept me guessing, kept me invested, and kept me wondering how he could be so good at this.

I don't need to tell fans to get this (they've probably all read it by now), but I can encourage new readers to catch up. show less