While author Richard Osman will be moving on to write a second series, he assured me (and the many other readers who are similarly invested) that he’ll return to the funny, sweet stories of my favorite retirement home sleuths. The Last Devil to Die is a beautiful send-off that will get us through the wait.” A new mystery is afoot in the fourth book in theThursday Murder Clubseries from million-copy bestselling author Richard Osman

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

There may be other aged detectives in print and on television,but for wit, intelligence and humanity, the Thursday Murder Club outranks them all.” The main four though are brilliant characters; ex-spy Elizabeth, Union firebrand Ron, thoughtful Ibrahim and Joyce, who is probably the heart of the group. The dynamic between the four completely work and it was wonderful to learn more about gentle Ibrahim's past. I take my hat off to you sir and can say, for what it's worth you have joined my list of the 6 people - past or present - that I would most like to meet.

And yet, just as visits to ­Coopers Chase are becoming an annual tradition, Osman has announced that he is to ­abandon the Club for a while to write a new series “about a father-in-law/daughter-in-law detective duo”. Thank goodness that in an afterword to this book, he promises to reassemble Joyce and co soon. It will take a lot more of the ­painful reality of old age to intrude on Coopers Chase before it stops being, for hundreds of thousands of readers, an essential refuge from the cares of real life. Three minutes into a Zoom call with Richard Osman, I receive excellent news. I had prepared myself for a bittersweet task: to speak with Osman about the Thursday Murder Club, my favorite book series, on the eve of the publication of The Last Devil to Die, which I believe to be the final book. But Osman corrects me: while he’ll be moving on from the Thursday Murder Club series to write a new series, it’s a pause, not a stop, with future books to follow. “By the end of this book, hopefully readers would agree that the characters deserve a year off,” he jokes.Osman follows The Bullet That Missed with a bittersweet mystery about the problems facing many older people: dementia, computer fraud, death. Humor does, however, alleviate the poignancy in this strongest, most emotional book in the best-selling series.” Real threats and real consequences, and a real understanding that while the motivations of thieves and murderers may be complex, the real villain of the piece is unstoppable illness and hard choices for those who may be left behind. A new mystery is afoot in the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series from million-copy bestselling author Richard Osman Delivers the same kind of clever dialogue, colorful characters and corkscrew plotting that made the other books so much fun… As you reach the last chapters of this book, you’ll think you’ve figured out the mystery. You’ll think so several times. ButOsmanand the Thursday Murder Club will keep the surprises coming.”

Kuldesh doesn’t have the box with him but he’s sure he can explain that away. He hopes to be “ on his way before the snow turns to ice .” Sadly, that’s not to be. In many ways, it would actually have been more of a surprise if the books weren’t a hit. As Osman says, readers love crime fiction and they really love warm depictions of England. But what is truly special in the books are the characters, whose age allows for a beautiful kind of interaction. “Everyone in Britain is obsessed with class, of course. In your career it’s very easy to stay in the middle class, to stay in the working class. At school and towards the end of your life, suddenly you’re thrown in with people again,” he says, noting that the book’s core group includes two middle class characters and two that are working class. “My mom lives in a retirement community and honestly, it just reminds me of a university campus, but where no one has to do any essays so they can get up and pretty much do what they want all the time. They take different pills, but they drink just as much.”Osman concocts a satisfyingly complex whodunit full of neat twists and wrong turns. But unlike most crime novelists, he ensures his book’s strength and momentum stem not from its plot or its thrills but rather its perfectly formed characters. Once again, the quartet of friends makes for delightful company… Heartwarming and enthralling. ‘They carried a kind of magic, the four of them,’ a policeman muses. That magic is still there in abundance.”