HQ The Marlow Murder Club

Thorogood writes much as he plays Fives: with elegance, panache, cheery optimism and a delightful sense of having no idea what might happen next (very useful for a mystery novelist).This comes highly recommended and I'm looking forward to the next one already. There are even a couple of underdeveloped minor characters crying out for their own spin off series!

Full of inconsistencies...but it was fun reading on to find more (much more fun than the actual story). The characters are dreadful, they're neither believable or particularly likeable, and the plot is...well, just pretty bad. To be honest, it appears to have been written by someone who doesn't really know what they're talking about. I would not reccommend this to anyone looking for a fun, light hearted, and exciting crime story, as it's neither fun or exciting...and being badly written (or possibly badly edited?) makes it worse, but if you're gifted a copy or you find it in a charity shop for 50p then it will keep you occupied for a few hours, and like I say, it's fun spotting all the inconsistencies.But if you're buying a book for yourself, do yourself a favour and buy The Thursday Murder Club instead, it's light hearted, funny, well written and the characters are extremely likeable...and you've probably met people like most of them, I know I have. It made me laugh out loud a few times, whereas this book just made me sigh and wonder why I was bothering. I honestly think that the three stars I've awarded is quite generous!

On reading the bio of Robert Thorogood, i discovered he read Agatha Christie's 'Peril at End House' at the age of 10 and fell in love with the genre. This is a nicely balanced novel with shades of Christie, a smattering of Death in Paradise, all finished off with an ingenious murder and a great lead character.I found Judith brilliant, like Elizabeth in the Thursday Murder Club, she is a lady with a set of skills and a slightly dodgy past. I was desperate to visit her fictional home as she is surrounded by masses of interesting objects that one would just want to gaze at. Interestingly, though my lovely mother in law felt a little lukewarm towards her and found her over-bearing.Judith is joined by vicar's wife, Becks, who appears to have lost her way slightly in life. More devoted to the idea of being the perfect housewife because she does not work; and dog-walker Suzie. All 3 are great! The scene where they attempted to break into the solicitor's office had me hooting with laughter.My well-read father in law and lovely mother in law worked out the solution to the murder, but both me and my husband had no idea how the murder was committed.And so, having awarded Malibu Rising a 5 ⭐️ in my previous review, I am delighted to award another one straight after. I loved it! It's great fun with an ingenious murder, interesting characters and is perfect for fans of Mr Osman's book. The follow up is yet to receive a title and the publication date is listed as December 2022 so far. Keep your eyes peeled folks!

Could not help but draw some comparisons with Richard Osman's (inferior) tale, The Thursday Murder Club. Here we have, again, an elderly 'spunky' female character throwing herself into a local murder case, dealing with the local resentful police force, showing them up, then winning them over, solving the case dodging life threatening danger all with the aid of an assorted stereotypical bunch of pals.As said, this is much better than Osman's effort. It zips along quicker, is better structured and a far easier read and more engaging, with a little reveal at the end which might have been guessed at. Having said that, its no Miss Marple blueprint either. Agatha Christie gave her character much more depth, believability and insight and the writing was generally better too.I did think the denouement borrowed from a certain superior Patricia Highsmith novel and perhaps pushed that idea to its absolute limit before it become really silly and overly complicated. This idea seems to be a bit in vogue at the moment too as I've just read a very entertaining novel by Peter Swanson that referenced Highsmith's novel quite strongly in it's storyline.The Marlow Murder Club would make a good Sunday night TV mini series. Well Death in Paradise was!

This book was exactly what I expectedIt's cute it's fun, it's warm and cosy.I liked our 3 main characters (4 if we include the copper) and seeing their friendship grow. Their investigation was believable and interesting.I did work our the who/how and why of the crime. So not the most genius crime but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride!I will be reading more of his work.