Literacy 2024: Book 7: The Bullet That Missed

Book
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

Series
Book 3 in the Thursday Murder Club series

Synopsis
The gang of retiree cold-case investigators is asked by a local news caster to investigate the death 16 years ago of his good friend, a woman who worked at the station. Meanwhile, an elusive money-laundering tech wizard known only as The Viking has threatened to kill one of the club unless they help him take out a rival.

Pros

Charming as ever

The book is much better at managing the tone, pulling back right at the point things are about to become too twee or silly

The poignant moments baked into the premise still have impact after three books, instead of feeling like iterations on the same idea

Does a remarkably good job of maintaining an ever-growing cast of characters, without losing any of them for too long

Cons

The ever-growing cast of characters means that the mystery itself has less weight

The resolution of the storyline with the Viking was too cutesy for me

The relationship at the center of the mystery never felt meaningful; we were told how much the victim meant to this character, but she never felt like a real person

Verdict
It’s impressive that even as these books turn into more of a “catch up and gossip with friends” running series instead of solid mystery stories, they’re getting better at being more grounded and less twee. It’s still often silly to the point of being absurd, but they’re charming in exactly the way you want a cozy murder mystery to be.

Note
Only 7 books read in 2024, which is low even by my standards. I think I’m actually going to skip the Goodreads challenge this year (instead of saying I’m going to skip it and then doing it anyway), since having a target number makes it feel more like a chore than a hobby.