MI5 spooks, Sue Reardon and Lance James, have the job of protecting Douglas as they and the TMC try to locate the missing diamonds.

The new book wastes no time allowing time to pass, which is sensible, yet we feel that things have moved on. Ibrahim is a former psychiatrist with a unique and treasured ability to read people and their body language. The twinkle that could make you walk down the aisle with a man almost ten years your junior and regret it within months.

The main mystery kicks off when someone Elizabeth used to know, who still works for MI5, contacts her asking for her help involving 20M in stolen diamonds. While he is laid up, another member of Cooper’s Chase, Bogdan, steps up to help with driving, playing chess with Elizabeth’s home bound husband and using his considerable body build and talent for “taking care of problem people”. All of our favourite characters are back with their smart investigative skills, their humour and their camaraderie.

Osman follows The Thursday Murder Club (2020), his supremely entertaining debut, with an even better second installment. The personal story of Ibrahim is quite touching and, unfortunately, a horrific reminder that assaults like this do happen to our seniors.Douglas is the one broke into the house and stuffed the gills with diamonds but he made a mistake by taking off his ski mask in front of surveillance cameras.

I thought the mystery was pretty entertaining, but it seems like the killer could’ve prevented being found out pretty easily by just getting rid of the letter (from Douglas to Elizabeth) that was found in the dead-letter drop as soon as she knew about it. Elizabeth agrees to help in exchange for information on Ryan Baird, and Poppy soon gives her the file on him.I’m with you, Theresa McTiernan, I was racking my brain trying to remember who Sylvia and Dennis were. It could have easily been a bit of a celeb book that just did what it did in week one, but the quality speaks for itself and it kept going and has just been absolutely massive. I loved this one from start to finish, and adored the humorous and thoughtful author acknowledgements section. I was still entertained overall by the story, it just didn’t stand out to me the way the first book did.