About Richard Osman

Richard Osman is a British television producer and presenter best known as co-host of the quiz show Pointless on the BBC. He is also, as of 2020, one of the bestselling crime fiction writers in Britain. The Thursday Murder Club, his debut novel, sold more than a million copies in the UK within its first year — an extraordinary number for a debut — and was followed by four sequels, all of which have been number-one bestsellers. A film adaptation starring Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, and Celia Imrie was released by Netflix in 2024.

The conceit is wonderful: four elderly residents of a luxury retirement community in Kent meet every Thursday to look at unsolved cold cases. When a real murder lands on their doorstep, they investigate it themselves, assisted variously by a confused local police force, a sympathetic detective, and the particular advantages of being old enough that nobody takes you seriously. The books are genuinely funny, the characters are drawn with warmth and real psychological depth, and the mysteries are properly constructed. Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, and Ron are four of the most entertaining fictional characters created this decade. If you haven't read them yet, you're in for a treat.