The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman

The Man Who Died Twice is the second book in the Thursday Murder Club series (there's soon to be a third!) and in my opinion, even better than the first! The novel again follows pensioners Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, living in Coopers Chase retirement village, and this time there's a new mystery for them to stick their noses into.

Twenty million pounds worth of diamonds have been stolen from a mafia boss, and Elizabeth's ex-husband Douglas has managed to get himself embroiled in the robbery - he is looking for a safe house and turns to ex-MI5 Elizabeth for help. She finds herself torn between her loyalty to Douglas and duty to do the right thing - but as we've learned by now about Elizabeth, she never plays by the rules. Meanwhile, the local police are trying to catch a gang of youths who mugged and attacked poor Ibrahim, leaving him in the gutter. This leads to a second case involving a prolific local drug dealer who always seems to outsmart the authorities. That is, until four savvy pensioners come along.

As in the previous novel, Osman manages to expertly blend a complex storyline with lots of twists and turns with some proper British humour and sarcasm. The elderly characters are so loveable and the element of social commentary had me laughing out loud at times. Although the novel is written in the third person, chapters of Joyce's diary are interspersed throughout with her own quirky ramblings, which have to be my favourite part of these books.

Once again, I was fooled and could not work out who the culprit was until right at the last minute, which shows such skill from the author. There are so many whodunnits on the market nowadays it can often be easy to figure out the ending - but Osman weaves such a good mystery with subtle hints peppered throughout. He got me!