A Thursday Murder Club Mystery 4 Books Set By Richard Osman - The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, The Last Devil to Die

Why it's worth it

Four warm, funny, properly plotted mysteries about retirees who solve cold cases, bought in one go so you don't stall between books. It's the friendliest crime fiction here, and the one most likely to please a reader whose taste you don't know.

This is the easiest series to hand to almost anyone. The Thursday Murder Club books follow four residents of a retirement village who investigate cold cases for fun and then keep stumbling into live ones. The tone is warm and very funny, but the plots are properly built. Osman doesn't cheat. You get real clues, real misdirection, and endings that hold up if you go back and check the setup.

The set matters more than it sounds like it should. This series compounds — people you meet in the first book pay off three books later, and the running jokes only land in order. Owners who bought the collection describe going through all four in a couple of weeks. Buy them one at a time and you'll be waiting on a delivery exactly when you least want to stop reading.

From our review of 10 thriller and mystery novels, by Genevieve Dubois, Home & Living Expert

What we like

• +This is the easiest series to hand to almost anyone
• +The set matters more than it sounds like it should
• +It's also the strongest series here in audio
• +The floor is high across all four

What to know

• –The most common complaint isn't about the writing
• –Cozy isn't a synonym for weak, but it is a ceiling
• –And if you already own the first two novels, the set is mostly redundant