The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman

This month's book was chosen by Jen! We both loved The Thursday Murder Club so much last year that we decided to read the second book in the series. We couldn't wait to see what the group was up to this time!

The Man Who Died Twice follows our favourite four seniors as they find themselves in the middle of another mystery. This one revolves around Elizabeth's ex-husband, Douglas, and some missing diamonds. Douglas is a spy working for MI-5 and has been accused of stealing diamonds from a criminal. He askes Elizabeth for help and is staying in a safe house at Coopers Chase with Poppy, another agent protecting him. He lets Elizabeth in on most of the truth and she and the gang start looking for the diamonds.

Unfortunately, soon after Douglas arrives, an assassin comes to kill him. Luckily for him, Poppy shoots the assassin before Douglas is killed. But that means they can no longer stay at Coopers Chase. He is moved to another safe house, but his luck runs out. Now the gang is looking for both the diamonds and Douglas's killer.

There are two other stories being told in the novel as well. The first involves the police team of Donna and Chris as they try to arrest the new drug dealer in town, Connie Johnson. They have been surveilling her for weeks, but she is onto them. Without enough evidence to arrest her, they have to keep watching her, hoping she makes a mistake. Connie is smart and not afraid of threatening the police. There is also a little love story here as Chris has started dating Donna's mom.

The second story involves Ibrahim. After the first novel he has begun to come out of his shell and try new things. Unfortunately on one of his outings to town he is mugged and assaulted by youths who steal his phone. The others are determined to make his assailant pay, with Ron taking the lead on the revenge. Ibrahim spends much of the novel in his apartment after the assault, afraid to go out again, but he is still able to contribute to solving the mystery.

Just like the first one, this novel has excerpts from Joyce's diary included in between chapters. Joyce has some great commentary included in the entries. Our favourite was when she set up an Instagram account and chose the handle @GreatJoy69. She can't figure out why she keeps getting so many DM's and she also can't figure out how to read them. She is also determined to get a dog and even has one picked out at the shelter.

We finally learn more about Elizabeth's past and her time working as a spy. We also see Ron's softer side when he takes care of his grandson. As usual, Ron and Elizabeth don't always see eye to eye and it is especially funny when Ron is upset about not being called to see a dead body. A favourite quote came from Ron, "A dead body, geezer shot in the head, and what do you do? You ring Joyce. You don't ring Ron, dear me, no. Why would you ring Ron? He wouldn't want to see a corpse would he?"

I don't want to spoil the mystery for anyone, so I won't go into any details on that. But we loved this book. The characters are wonderful and really are the reason we love it so much. The mystery is great, lots of twists and turns, with neither of us able to figure it out. We highly recommend reading both books in this series!

Susan - 📘📘📘📘📘

Jen - 📘📘📘📘📘