In the interval between finishing the first draft of the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, and starting the second draft, I have read The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I read his The Man Who Died Twice two or three years ago. I absolutely loved it, and it didn’t matter that I read the second book in the series before the first.
The first book is every bit as good as the second, and vice versa. He made me laugh, he made me cry, and he certainly made me puzzle over who the murderer, or murderers were. Fear not, he made me laugh far more than he made me cry. The cultural references will date the books. The day will come when readers will resort to the internet, or whatever has replaced it, to discover what a Costa is, but that’s always true of literature set in the present. He will age as Agatha Christie has aged.
In The Thursday Murder Club I discovered an error. On page 215, the first page of chapter 67 (I’ll come back to that) there is a line which reads “Some of the rough edges have been really been knocked off Fairhaven over the years, some of the darker corners have gone.” I think there is a surplus “been” in there. It isn’t dialogue, so, yes, a typo I believe. I am not raising this to be critical, I simply want to shout out to all fellow writers. The occasional error will always creep under the wire, however many times you’ve checked your work, however many editors and proofreaders you have on your team. It happens to the very best, and Richard Osman is certainly in that league. So don’t beat yourself up about it. It happens!
Ah yes, I said I’d come back to chapter 67. The chapters are really short in The Thursday Murder Club. It’s a book that you don’t want to put down, but if you need to because the kettle’s boiling or an urgent call of nature, you are never more than a minute or two from a convenient point.
I had intended to read something more of my genre during this lull between drafts. Now I think I will. I shall read A Woman of Noble Wit by Rosemary Griggs. Claire and I met Rosemary at the Dartmouth Book Festival. Claire has started reading it, but as she has now picked up The Thursday Murder Club to re-read it, I guess I’m safe to start on the Griggs, as long as I don’t lose Claire’s place.