“Who’s got time to think about murder when there’s a wedding to plan?

It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.

But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who fears for their life, the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into their most explosive investigation yet, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman. The Impossible Fortune is published by Viking Books today (that’s Thursday, 25th September 2025) and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow. I chose to read a free ARC of The Impossible Fortune but that has in no way influenced my review. My grateful thanks to Yazmeen at Viking Books for sending me a proof copy.

The Thursday Murder Club are back! And I, for one, am DELIGHTED. The Impossible Fortune is the fifth outing for our octogenarian crime fighters from Cooper’s Chase, and it is as charming, as mysterious and as utterly captivating as its predecessors. Small confession: I had fallen behind in reading this series so when I was offered an early read of this latest instalment, I hit the library hard and caught up with the gang’s adventures. Yes, you can probably read this book without having read the first four. But why would you do that? You will miss out on so much wonderful character development and so many laugh-out-loud scrapes that the gang seem to find themselves in so often. Plus, I’m actually very glad I read the fourth book before The Impossible Fortune as something significant happens in The Last Devil to Die which deeply affects the group. The repercussions of that, I think, will be part of all future Thursday Murder Club adventures.

Elizabeth doesn’t really feel like celebrating. But she’s agreed to attend the wedding, so that’s exactly what she does. If more for Joyce than herself. Doing her best to keep herself away from the merriment, she is surprised when the Best Man approaches her for a quiet word. The Best Man, Nick Silver, tells Elizabeth that someone is trying to kill him. How does he know this? The bomb that was placed under his car a few hours earlier kind of gave it away! They arrange to meet the following day, but on arrival at the agreed rendezvous spot, with a very hungover Joyce in tow, they discover Nick Silver is nowhere to be seen. And his office has been trashed. Digging deeper, Elizabeth discovers that Nick and his business partner, Holly, hold a substantial amount of bitcoin in cold storage. Accessible with two unique codes that only Nick and Holly know. With a murder on their doorstep, a missing Best Man, and perhaps their most taxing mystery of all to solve, the Thursday Murder Club makes a triumphant return!

I LOVE this book. I LOVE these characters. I love the charm and the humour. I love how quintessentially British it all is. How utterly charming, heartwarming and completely engaging from the very first word to the very last. I saw one review that said, ‘Richard Osman writes it, I read it’, and I think I’m the same. The characters are glorious, and their development over the five books is a beautiful thing. For example, the reader gets a lot more of Joanna, Joyce’s daughter, in this latest instalment. Joyce is quite possibly my favourite character (alongside Ibrahim, Ron, Elizabeth, Bogdan, Kendrick, Donna, Chris, Connie… 😉), but her relationship with her daughter shows a slightly different side to her. Mother/daughter relationships can be complicated, and theirs does seem a little *tricky* at times. Ron has family troubles of his own. Which provides a gripping subplot as his gangster son-in-law swears revenge on the entire Ritchie family. I loved how Ron was brought more into the spotlight thanks to this storyline. He’s always felt a little more ‘background’ than the other three main characters, so to see him in a starring role was wonderful. Ibrahim is still seeing drug-lord Connie Johnson on a regular basis for counselling sessions. I adore the interactions between these two characters. And Elizabeth is doing her best to get through every day. This new case though provides a spark that was very much missing…

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Impossible Fortune (along with We Solve Murders) will definitely be featuring on my favourite books of the year list come December. I can’t tell you how much I love this series. The characters are divine, the mystery aspect provides a strong base for all of the other madcap goings-on to happen, the plot moves at a compelling pace with something always happening, and once again, Cooper’s Chase is brought to vivid life on the page. Chris and Donna don’t play as big a part as usual in this one, and a new detective is brought in to head up the murder investigation. I did miss Chris and Donna’s somewhat reluctant input. Had the same happened to Bogdan, who I think is the true star of these books, then I would be having words with Mr Osman 😂. My favourite part of the entire book is where Bogdan and Elizabeth are interviewing someone, and I think Bogdan asks if they’re doing ‘good cop/bad cop’ and Elizabeth suggests he does the opposite to her. So if she is being ‘good cop’, he needs to be ‘bad cop’, and vice versa. I was laughing so hard I was crying! Absolutely gorgeous. Hilariously funny, utterly heartwarming, and so beautifully written. All in all, I loved every single second I spent with The Impossible Fortune. It was as perfect as the first four books in the series. I’m devastated I’ve finished it as now I have to wait until book six is published, and that’s an unknown quantity at the time of writing. Glorious, lovable characters who feel real to the reader, great pace with plenty of twists and turns and a strong mystery aspect. Characters you really connect with. It feels like meeting up with friends after you haven’t seen each other for a few months. I am well and truly smitten. Highly recommended.

I chose to read and review a free ARC of The Impossible Fortune. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman was published in the UK by Viking Books on 25th September 2025 and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter. The Thursday Murder Club is his first novel. He is well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. As the creative director of Endemol UK, Richard has worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.