The Man Who Died Twice: (The Thursday Murder Club 2)

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Combining Elizabeth’s sharp mind,Joyce’s flirting, Ibrahim’s impressive observational skills and Ron’s use of disguise and underhand tactics you can be sure that retrieving the stolen diamonds is on the cards. The Man Who Died Twice is the second book of the series and dare I say, I enjoyed it even more than the first, which I loved. Joyce is there of course, making her diary comments, keeping an eye on Elizabeth's wellbeing, and selling badly knitted friendship bracelets for charity.

Formerly unlucky in love DCI Chris is now on a strict diet thanks to his blossoming relationship with Patrice, who just happens to be Donna’s mum; Joyce appears to have swapped baking cakes for making sequin embellished friendship bracelets; Bogdan is happily keeping Stephen company challenging him to countless chess games whilst Elizabeth is outmanoeuvring criminal masterminds and Donna still hasn’t found a suitable boyfriend. It's all terribly amusing and Oscar Wilde-ish, lots of banter and disarming openness that conceals all sorts of shenanigans.Elizabeth is contacted by a former colleague, ex-husband, and ladies’ man, Douglas, after stealing twenty million pounds worth of diamonds from the Mafia. One bit of advice: I strongly recommend you read The Thursday Murder Club first, if you haven’t, before reading this. The Man Who Died Twice was followed by The Bullet That Missed, the third book in the Thursday Murder Club series. I have to say, I enjoyed this book more than I did the first one, maybe because I was now used to Osman's style of writing and more familiar with the characters.

One of their own, Ibrahim, is brutally attacked while walking in a small town close to Cooper’s Chase, their retirement home complex. Oh, and on an unrelated but practical note, I also learned that if you're ever attacked and you have a knife to defend yourself with, you should hold it with an overhand grip instead of an underhand one, as that allows for greater force. Or when my kids get all upset and ask me why I sent them the sarcastic smiley face emoji when all I was trying to do was send a smiley face because forfuckssake how can you tell the difference between smiley face emojis they all look the same! This series has much more depth than is perhaps suggested from the synopsis and has occasionally found itself labeled as a cozy- (I think I even categorized the first book as such) Though this book does meet the ‘cozy’ criteria of ‘no graphic violence’, the mystery and the dialogue are whip smart, with an equal balance of intelligence to match the humor and the occasionally seriousness.And of course, they involve their favorite local gendarmes, Donna and Chris, as well as the former thug but all-around-nice-guy, Bogdan. While he is laid up, another member of Cooper’s Chase, Bogdan, steps up to help with driving, playing chess with Elizabeth’s home bound husband and using his considerable body build and talent for “taking care of problem people”. I loved this one from start to finish, and adored the humorous and thoughtful author acknowledgements section. They have both moved into an apartment in Elizabeth's retirement complex, so easy for her to keep an eye out for him.