The Best Books Club: A mystery to solve

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo via Unsplash

I owe my love for mystery books to my older sister and Osterloh’s Book Store in Cape Girardeau. When I was in second grade, I borrowed a Nancy Drew book from her bookshelf when she was at a sleepover. I was hooked, and every time I saved enough of my allowance, I walked downtown to Main Street with my grandmother and bought the next book in the series. I’ve loved mysteries ever since.

I’m not alone. In 2020, mystery book sales totaled more than $725 million in the U.S. alone. More specifically, “The Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman sold more than 1 million copies in the the first 12 months after it was published and topped fiction bestsellers lists for 45 weeks!

So, what makes mystery books so popular? Answers vary, of course, depending on who you ask, but I think there are several reasons.

Readers enjoy intelligent, even crafty, characters. In mystery books, the antagonist must be intelligent to evade detection for several hundred pages, and the protagonist must be intelligent enough to solve the mystery in the end. “The Thursday Murder Club” provides the reader with several smart antagonists and four very crafty and entertaining protagonists.

Humans are, by nature, problem and puzzle-solvers. What career path is the right one? Where should I go to college? Which car or house should we buy? These puzzles have personal, often significant, consequences, and often cause stress. Mysteries, however, allow us to solve problems that have no personal consequence and are, as a result, stress-free.

“The Thursday Murder Club” offers several major puzzles. Who killed Tony Curran, and what’s the importance of the photograph left by his body? Who killed Ian Ventham? Whose corpse was secretly buried, and who killed him or her? There are minor mysteries, as well. Where are Bobby Tanner and Turkish Johnny? Why does Bernard hold vigil on the bench in the cemetery? For what agency did Elizabeth work?

The puzzles found in a mystery appeal to the competitor in many of us. The reader is aligned with the protagonist in the search for answers, and many readers get great pleasure from solving the crime before it’s provided by the author.

Sometimes, there are no solutions to life’s puzzles. On the other hand, at the end of a mystery, the puzzles are all solved. “The Thursday Murder Club” is no exception. (No spoilers here!) That appeals to our sense of orderliness and our desire to be left with no loose ends.

Even more important is the type of solution. All too often, solutions to life’s puzzles and problems are unsatisfactory. The promotion isn’t given to the most-deserving candidate; instead, the owner’s lazy nephew gets the coveted position. Dishonest individuals drive fancy cars, live in mansions and are adored by the media, while honest, hard-working folks live more modest lives and are rarely, if ever, recognized for their efforts.

In a mystery, however, the bad guy is identified and faces the consequences. When all is said and done, and the last word read, good has triumphed over evil, and all is right in the world again. And that’s the case with “The Thursday Murder Club.”

If, like me, you enjoyed “The Thursday Murder Club,” you might be interested in seeing what Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are up to in its sequel, “The Man Who Died Twice” (2021). The third book in the series, “The Bullet That Missed,” will be released in September 2022.

Want to join in on the conversation?

I’ll see you on The Best Years Facebook Page, in The Best Books Club Facebook group, Tuesday, June 7, at 4:30 p.m. to discuss “The Thursday Murder Club.” I hope to see you there!

A few of the ideas we’ll be discussing:

·With the opening line, we are off to the races. Reflecting back upon all of the revelations in the closing chapter, is it at all clear which character was speaking in the first sentence?

·Tony Curran’s murder set the action in motion. But his wasn’t the only murder, and there were certainly plenty of other crimes and tragedies committed throughout the storyline of the book. What surprised, interested or confused you the most about the various murders and crimes?

·A tricky relationship develops between the Murder Club and police team of Donna and Chris. At times, Elizabeth manipulates both police officers, but at other times, there is friendly give-and-take. Did those relationships work for you? Why or why not?

·In the book, we meet four amateur detectives. Elizabeth (operative and ringleader), Ibrahim (psychiatrist and Zumba class aficionado), Ron (labor organizer who secretly prefers wine to beer) and Joyce (the nurse who cooks). Which did you identify with the most? If you joined the Murder Club, which role might you play in the group dynamic?

·Society often writes off the abilities of the elderly, assuming both the body and the mind are deteriorating. Of course, at the heart of “The Thursday Murder Club” is the lesson to never underestimate this population. Who most misjudges the four amateur detectives? What are the consequences of underestimating them?

The Best Books Club selection for July comes to us from Sweden. In “A Man Called Ove” (Fredrik Backman, 2014), you’ll meet Ove, a curmudgeon whose gruff exterior is penetrated when new neighbors back a trailer over his flower bed and along the side of his house.

“A Man Called Ove” was turned into an Academy Award-winning film. Join us for a free viewing of the film — details to be shared on The Best Books Facebook Group.