The Thursday Murder Club: A Whodunit Adventure

The Thursday Murder Club is a perfectly cast, funny, and modern take on the British Cozy Murder Mystery genre.

Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim love to solve cold cases, calling themselves The Thursday Murder Club. When they need some medical expertise, they invite new resident Joyce to join their club temporarily. Before they can say “whodunit,” a real murder happens when the shady businessman, who is co-owner of their mansion turned retirement home, is found murdered in his house. With the fate of Cooper’s Chase hanging in the balance, the four immediately decide they must help the police investigate.

A STELLAR CAST

Starring the greats Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie as our four intrepid septuagenarian investigators, Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce, respectively. Each brings their own distinct personality to the roles for superb results. The movie also stars David Tennant as one of the chief suspects, an oily businessman and co-owner of Cooper’s Chase who wanted to push out his business partner in favor of developing the property. Rounding out the cast is Daniel Mays as the local DCI Hudson, who fans of the genre may recognize as the bumbling Locke/Chubb from Magpie and Moonflower Murders, and Naomi Ackie as a PC that the group befriends and insists helps on the case.

REVIEW

While the movie does suffer from a condensed plot syndrome (the book by Richard Osman is 400 pages long), you still get to know most of the characters, their personalities, and what they bring to the table. Each of our four amateur sleuths got their moment to shine and use their skills. And while it was apparent that Mirren’s character did a lot more than “foreign affairs,” the way she casually reveals to PC de Freitas what she really did to the shocked younger woman is a great moment that elicited a chuckle from this viewer.

The movie also had a couple of loose ends at the close. PC de Frietas has recently transferred from the Metropolitan Police for an undisclosed reason. Still, she quickly identifies a known gangster on site, his modus operandi, and appears to be aware of Scotland Yard’s investigation into him. This left me wondering if she used to work on the case and was perhaps a detective hiding out in a quaint, country village. I was also left with the question of whether she gets promoted after helping solve the local murder, since subsequent books list her as DCI Hudson’s partner. The other loose end was that the culprit revealed the murder was an accident and the mitigating circumstances surrounding his motive. It left my mom and me wondering if the charges were reduced or not, but they took him away.

IN SUMMARY

However, that being said, The Thursday Murder Club is a perfectly cast, funny, and modern take on the British Cozy Murder Mystery genre. Like the popular Marlow Murder Club string Samantha Bond (coincidentally the Money Penny to Brosnan’s Bond in the ’90s), these characters aren’t quite your usual noisy, curious neighbors or typical Miss Marple style character.

The Thursday Murder Club is perfect for fans of The Marlow Murder Club (currently airing its second season on Sunday nights on PBS), Magpie and Moonflower Murders, and even the ever-popular Midsomer Murders. I give it four stars, and here’s to hoping the rest of the book series is adapted by Netflix soon.