Let's just address the obvious. It sounds a lot like Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club. Similar title, it even sounds like the same kind of theme. The book covers follow the same colour scheme, being red, blue, and green in the same order as the Thursday Murder Club series. This book was published about a year after Richard Osman's first book, so it does seem a bit like copying the idea and jumping on the bandwagon. BUT, this series is written by the writer for Death in Paradise. So he was in the murder mystery game long before Richard Osman was and he wrote four books relating to the Death in Paradise series already.
There are similarities. A name that is alike. Some characters who are similar.
The setting is different though. How the Murder Club forms in different, as they didn't get together on a regular basis with the idea of solving cold cases, none of them have previous experience and they didn't give themselves the title of a murder club. Judith never really set out to solve murders, but after she is a witness and feels the police aren't taking her seriously, she tries to prove the murder herself. Then I think she just gets a bit too deep in to let it go. Also, I think she's just stubborn and maybe a bit bored and enjoying playing detective. Suzie, I think, also gets carried away in her determination to see justice done, whilst Becks wants a bit more excitement in her life. And they all enjoy each others company.
The setting is a quiet village where nothing ever really seems to happen and no one expects anything to happen. Until it does.
All the characters have their struggles. The murders are all a bit baffling as there's no clear link and all the suspects have alibi's. The police are a bit stumped, partly because none of them really have experience in solving murders. Somehow, it is three civilians with no experience of solving crimes who manage to get further along with solving the case than anyone in the police force.
There's plenty of humour. There are good characters. It isn't all serious stuff, trying to solve horrific murders.
Although the murder club, officially, consists of three people, Judith, Suzie and Becks, there's a fourth character who deserves mention as playing her part. Tanika is the officer in charge of solving the case. She is presented, at first, as someone who is very strict and will probably be a hindrance. But quite early on, she's presented as a working mother who is trying to juggle her very difficult and demanding job with her family. She changes quickly throughout the investigation. Judith exasperates her, but Tanika soon realises that she needs to start listening.
There's an adaptation, which I have watched. Robert Thorogood was also the writer for the adaptation. There are some clear differences to the characters, their backgrounds and the case. Names are changed. Judith now has a past career as an Archaeologist and a different story with her husband. Suzie has one daughter who is younger than either of her daughters in the book and the general story around that is different. Becks is much less awkward and the past she describes to her and her husbands past life has altered details from the book. It does mostly follow the plot of course, with how they met, how and why they got into solving the case and how it all progressed and ended. It never surprises me anymore when things are changed for adaptations, because we're looking and two different forms of storytelling, and it's good to alter things sometimes. You can fix things that maybe didn't work before, make it more interesting, bring new things to the plot. It's good to keep ideas fresh. But I am glad nothing too drastic was changed because it was, really, a very story that didn't need changing.
I am already reading the second book. The second was actually a birthday present, although the person gifting it didn't realise it was actually a sequel, not the first book. So I had to get the first before reading the second. It's going well, so far, except I feel like someone didn't read over and edit the book properly. The phrase, "can I ask" was used at least four times, in as many pages, in a single conversation.
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