“It is an ordinary Thursday and things should finally be returning to normal.

Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club is concerned. A decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.

Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill…or be killed.

As the cold case turns white hot, Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), while Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman. The Bullet That Missed was published by Penguin Books on 11th May 2023 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats.

The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman is a real treat for the reader. At the start of the year, I had read only the first book. I’d fallen behind in the series (like I have with many of my favourite crime fiction series). But in July, I was offered an early copy of book five, The Impossible Fortune. How could I refuse? I couldn’t. But there were three books in the middle I hadn’t read: The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet that Missed and The Last Devil to Die. So I made it my mission to have them read and reviewed before publication day in September. I half completed my mission. I read them all in order (my grateful thanks to the local library service). I haven’t managed to review them on the blog in order though. So please forgive the higgledy-piggledy-ness of my Thursday Murder Club reviews (book one, followed by book five, then book two, and now book three!). If you’ve been a visitor to the blog for a while, my unorganised approach to blogging won’t come as a big surprise. After all, I’m currently (in mid-December) in the process of sharing my remaining #20BooksofSummer2025 reviews! Nuff said really…

Oh, this series is such a joy! I don’t think Osman can put a foot wrong with these characters (he’s already publicly said he won’t be killing off any of the four main characters! I hope he includes Bogdan in that too). They are an absolute delight. And if I were suddenly dropped into any crime fiction book, I would want it to be a Thursday Murder Club novel. How much fun would that be? Ignoring all the death and destruction that follows our favourite group of septuagenarians around!

In The Bullet that Missed the gang investigates the disappearance of Bethany Waites, a television presenter and investigative journalist whose car went off the edge of a cliff but whose body was never found. A new case brings a plethora of new characters into the Thursday Murder Club’s orbit. With television presenter Mike Waghorn, make-up artist Pauline and more bad guys and gals than you can shake a stick at. They’re alongside the returning characters – our main four – but this time around, some of the more background characters come to the fore. This is especially the case with Elizabeth’s husband, lovely Stephen, whom I grew to adore over the course of the book. Other regular characters make a return including my favourites, Bogdan and Connie. All of the characters are highly believable. They all play their parts beautifully, and I cannot get enough of this small community and the devilishly dark things that go on around them! So good.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Bullet that Missed is a magnificent addition to what is proving to be one of the best crime series out there. Cards on the table, I’m not really a fan of cosy crime, but there’s something about these characters, something about the scrapes they get themselves into, along with a wonderfully dark undertone throughout that makes these books irresistible to me. They’re laugh-out-loud funny, charming, and with a real warmth to them. Entertaining throughout, engaging and such a delight to immerse yourself in. The mysteries are always well-plotted, clever and intriguing. The characters are top-notch; no one writes characters as well as Osman does. The books are perfectly paced and superbly written. I am smitten. I absolutely love this series and hope there are many, many more books to come in the future. Highly recommended.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman was published in the UK by Penguin Books on 11th May 2023 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats (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.