I enjoyed The Man Who Died Twice enormously. I’m surprised to find myself giving five stars to a book by a celebrity, but it deserves it.
We meet the remaining members of the Thursday Murder Club again (with their pals from the police and the redoubtable Bogdan), and this time it is Elizabeth’s colourful past in Intelligence which provides a present-day mystery. It’s a convoluted but somehow plausible plot involving international money-laundering, stolen diamonds and some very unpleasant and violent characters.
It is, of course, a load of hooey really, but it’s hugely enjoyable hooey, populated by a group of well-drawn characters and told with wit, clever structuring and an engaging, even gripping, style. We still get Joyce’s delightful journal entries (some of which are laugh-out-loud funny), some truly gruesome moments, some very sweet romance and some genuinely thoughtful reflections on life.
The Thursday Murder Club did very well at least partly because Richard Osman is (rightly, in my view) a very well-loved celebrity, but it was a good book in its own right. I think this is even better; Osman is clearly a talented writer and a witty, humane man. I can recommend this very warmly and I’m looking forward to the next.
(My thanks to Penguin/Viking for an ARC via NetGalley.)
No comments:
Post a Comment