Bestseller Osman's diverting third Thursday Murder Club mystery (after 2021's The Man Who Lived Twice) delivers laughs along with a nicely woven plot involving fraud, murder, and life in the Kent retirement village of Coopers Chase. At the club's regular meeting in the Jigsaw Room, the four members--Elizabeth, a retired but still well-connected British spy; Ibrahim, a well-meaning psychiatrist; Ron, a still-feisty activist for workers' rights; and the unexpectedly shrewd Joyce, whose diary entries enliven the narrative--decide to tackle the cold case of Bethany Waites, a journalist for the local TV station whose wrecked car was found at the bottom of a cliff 10 years earlier. The police declared it a murder, surmising that Bethany's body had been washed out to sea. The group's investigation stirs up a hornet's nest and leads to another death, a kidnapping, and blackmail. The pace is breezy, the characters are intelligent and varied in their interests and backgrounds, and the humor is often pitched to readers who understand the vagaries of getting older. Osman reliably entertains. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Sept.)

British TV personality Osman has hit the bullseye with his best-selling Thursday Murder Club series, which is set in an upscale English retirement community. The four septuagenarian members of the club--former MI6 agent Elizabeth, chatty Joyce, psychiatrist Ibrahim, and everyman Ron--try to defrost cold cases that have confounded police. Their third adventure, which centers on the long-ago disappearance of a television journalist who was investigating a money-laundering scheme, comes with a bit of glamour and some well-known media personalities, who impact the investigation. But old dangers also resurface, as Viktor, Elizabeth's onetime KGB adversary who still dabbles in money laundering, becomes a suspect, and a new kid on the crime block, known only as the Viking, attempts to blackmail Elizabeth into shooting Viktor to get the Russian off his turf. Osman writes with a very light touch. There's almost a madcap feel to the action at times, yet he doesn't shy away from issues affecting the elderly: diminishing mental and physical capabilities, loss of image, and the feeling of time running out. Plenty of layers, but plenty of laughs, too.

The Thursday Murder Club gets into another spot of bother, this time involving some British television celebrities, a Russian former spy, and an international money launderer--among others. This is the third book in real-life British TV celebrity Osman's delightful series of mysteries set at Coopers Chase, a bucolic English retirement community. The first two have been bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic, and Steven Spielberg has bought the movie rights; if you haven't read the earlier books, The Thursday Murder Club (2020) and The Man Who Died Twice (2021), it would be a good idea to go back and start at the beginning. As this installment opens, the four septuagenarian members of the club--former MI6 agent Elizabeth Best, retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft, psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif, and longtime union organizer Ron Ritchie--are investigating another murder from their cold-case files. It seems that Bethany Waites, a local TV journalist, was about to crack a huge tax avoidance scheme when her car went over a cliff 10 years ago. Who was she going to meet late at night? Why wasn't her car caught on more surveillance cameras between her home and the cliff? Of course, the friends aren't content to do their research online; they inveigle their way into a variety of situations that enable them to question Bethany's friends and colleagues, the chief constable in charge of the case, the drug dealer they put in jail in the last volume (who's determined to kill Ron as soon as she gets out), and many other more or less savory characters. And that's not even to mention the mysterious Viking who's threatening to kill Joyce if Elizabeth doesn't kill Viktor Illyich, a competitor-turned-friend who, when he worked for the KGB, was known as the Bullet. All of this enables Osman to engineer scenes such as "three old men...the gangster, the KGB colonel and the trades union official" playing snooker, drinking whiskey, and thinking maybe this is all they really need in life. The mysteries are complex, the characters vivid, and the whole thing is laced with warm humor and--remarkably, considering the body count--good feeling. Your next must-read mystery series. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The four retirees of the Thursday Murder Club--Ron, Joyce, Elizabeth, and Ibrahim--are back to investigate the cold case of a TV reporter, Bethany Waites, who disappeared 10 years earlier. Bethany had been reporting on a big fraud case the night her car went over a cliff; her body has never been found. Heather Garbutt went to prison for the fraud Bethany was investigating, but she refuses to confess to murder. As the Thursday Murder Club digs into the case, former MI6 spy Elizabeth harbors private worries about text messages she's been receiving, that order her to kill an aging KGB agent to save Joyce's life. Osman's novel is a convoluted story with investigations into fraud, murder, and threats in a case that takes the group into prisons, TV studios, and danger; romance, humor, and a clever trap to catch a villain fill out the plot. VERDICT Although the third in Osman's series (after The Man Who Died Twice) is confusing at times, it's a character-rich mystery that will be eagerly received by fans of the Thursday Murder Club.--Lesa Holstine