Five Questions with “Thursday Murder Club” Author Richard Osman

We talk about my favorite crime-fighting senior citizens

Over the summer, I had the chance to interview Richard Osman, author of the blockbuster bestselling Thursday Murder Club mystery series about a group of crime-solving senior citizens, for Parade.

Osman could not have been kinder or more generous with his time and when I wrote up the Q&A for Parade, I was disappointed by how much I had to cut to fit in the page design. So, I’m sharing “outtakes” from the interview here.

As an added bonus, Richard’s publisher, Viking, will give a copy of the latest book in the series, The Last Devil to Die, to a subscriber of this newsletter. (One note: Unlike many mystery series, I don’t think these books really stand alone. They work best when you read each of them in order.) To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below recommending a mystery featuring an amateur sleuth.

In addition to writing mysteries, Richard is a television producer and presenter. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How did writing The Last Devil to Die compare to writing the previous three books in the series?

I think people think there's a lot of pressure when books have sold well, people have opinions on them and come up to you in the street and ask about the books. I find it easier in a way because I know that it's going to be read. And I know that people love the characters.

So, if I take care of the story, and I take care of the characters, then then there's an audience for it. That's very motivating. The worst thing in the world is sitting down on your chair and writing the first word, the first sentence and the first paragraph. That’s awful for any author but when you know people love your characters, it gives you a huge boost. It gets you over the first few days of writing.

How has your TV career affected your writing?

With TV, whenever you’re making anything, you know people could switch over whenever they want or switch off. You know people don’t owe you a second of attention. If you want people’s attention, you have to earn it. Once you’ve earned it, you have to keep it. That’s something I’ve learned over the years in TV, the importance of keeping your audience happy.

With books, it’s about keeping people turning pages. There’s two things in that: You have to have cliffhangers and you have to have characters that people love.

One thing I love about this series is that actions have consequences. There’s not a blank slate at the start of every book. The Murder Club has solved a lot of crimes and created a lot of chaos. Why was that important to you?

It’s absolutely vital. I get that there’s humorous elements to these books, but I really wanted them to be true. Every time I write something, I think, ‘what would actually happen in the real world if they did this.

In the first book, there’s a lot of bits about Elizabeth using old contacts from her spy days to help her out with things. In lot of books that would be a funny trope ‘oh she knows forensic scientists and Russian generals from the old days.’ And I thought, ‘But in the real world, then the security service are going to do something about it.’ So that gave me the plot for book two, when the government says to Elizabeth ‘We know you’ve been using these resources, so we’ve got a new case for you.’

If you get the rewards of these four quirky, idiosyncratic characters then you have to pay the tax, which is bad stuff is going to happen to them and they can’t get away with it just because they’re older, charming and funny.

All your books are told from multiple perspectives. How do you decide who should narrate each scene?

Part of it is spreading it out a bit. I try and be even handed but there are certain scenes and certain situations where it's usually the person who's the most fish out of water, who is the most entertaining person to, to narrate.

For example, I was writing a scene that didn’t end up in a book where the characters are talking to a hit woman. They’re trying to get some information about the world of assassins.

Who is interesting to narrate that? Elizabeth? Not really because she knows about hired killers. You might do it from her perspective to share some background of what she did. Ibrahim is interested in how much it costs and what are the practicalities — how you book someone? What happens if you get double booked? Do you do discounts for people? He’s interested in the mechanics.

And Joyce is sort of worried for the hit woman because it doesn’t seem like a healthy thing psychologically. She’ll be seeing ‘Are you sure this is the right job for you, dear?’

So, every time, there’s a new situation, I think ‘who’s the funniest to deal with this? Whose truth makes this scene the funniest?’ In that scene, I did with Ibrahim because I thought it’s funny that he’s interested in the mechanics of running a business. You can cover plot and character development. 

It’s clear you love these characters and readers — including me — do too. What does that mean to you?

It’s so important to me. I love crime fiction because we sign a deal with the author at the start of book which is this is an impossible problem, but don’t panic. At the end, we’re going to sort it out. You’re allowed to have a guess at what’s going to happen, but we know the journey we’re on. But you only go on the journey if you love the characters. As a writer you have to love your own characters, I think.

I write parts of the books as sections of Joyce’s diary, which I love to do. She’s a real character in my head. It sounds like an awful thing to say but I sometimes feel like she’s writing those chapters. And I want to say to her ‘Joyce, people are really loving this. People understand the life you’ve lived and the opportunities you’ve missed and the opportunities you’re now taking.”

I'm really happy for the characters. I'm happy they found an audience. And, I'm happy they're making people laugh and making people cry.

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Thanks to Richard for speaking with me. You can purchase his books here and follow him on Twitter and Instagram. I also suggest checking out

The Crime Lady

’s profile of him for Esquire.

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