![]() First edition | |
Author | Richard Osman |
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Language | English |
Series | Thursday Murder Club |
Genre | Crime |
Publisher | Viking Press |
Publication date | 3 September 2020 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 400 |
ISBN | 978-0241425442 |
Followed by | The Man Who Died Twice |
The Thursday Murder Club is a 2020 murder mystery novel, the debut novel by British television presenter Richard Osman. It is the first installment in his Thursday Murder Club series. It was published on 3 September 2020 by Viking Press, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, and also released in 2020 as an audiobook, read by Lesley Manville. [1]
A group of pensioners (Elizabeth Best, Ron Ritchie, Joyce Meadowcroft and Ibrahim Arif) [2] set about solving the mystery of the murder of a property developer [3] in the luxurious Cooper's Chase retirement village near the fictitious seaside village of Fairhaven in Kent. [2]
Osman's inspiration for the book came from a visit he made to an upmarket retirement village. [2] He wrote the book over 18 months in secret. [3] At 400 pages, the text is structured as 115 short chapters.
After a 10-way publishing auction, [2] Penguin Random House acquired the rights to The Thursday Murder Club and its sequel The Man Who Died Twice for a seven-figure sum [4] in 2019. [5] The book was published on 3 September 2020. It sold 45,000 copies in its first three days on sale [5] and became a Sunday Times number one bestseller. [6] As of 8 September, it had been sold in 16 countries. [5] In the week leading up to 19 December, it sold 134,514 copies, making it the first debut novel ever to be Christmas number one in the UK. [7]
In The Times , Christina Hardyment said the book has an "ingenious plot". [8] The Guardian described it as the "fastest selling adult crime debut" in recorded history. [2] The audiobook, one of 10 nominees, received the Sounds of Crime Award at Crimefest in 2021. [9]
The sequels, The Man Who Died Twice , The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die, were published in the Septembers of 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively. [5] A fifth book in the series is planned for release in 2025. [10]
An abridged version of the book was read by Haydn Gwynne and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in early 2021. The reading took two hours and twenty minutes. [11] [12]
A film adaptation of the same name was released in 2025. It was directed by Chris Columbus from a screenplay by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote and stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie.
UK Top 10 bestsellers, week ending 19 December 2020 / 1. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 134,514