The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club is still together in their retirement village in England and fans of the series are thrilled! The Man Who Died Twice is just as exciting, funny and full of surprises as the first installment, but with two additional add-ons. First, we learn more information about the past lives of our senior sleuths and hooray! love seems to be in the air!

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are still the best of friends and continue to enjoy their murder club. Elizabeth still exhibits her Agatha Christie like intelligence, Joyce her humorous common sense through her journal entries, Ron being Ron and Ibrahim feeling more comfortable and begins to get out of the senior community more.

But that all changes when a man from Elizabeth’s past shows up using the name of a “dead” man no less. She realizes not only has her past come back to haunt her, but the group is in for a bit of excitement.

You see he has come for help and protection from Elizabeth. He has stolen diamonds worth millions from a very important multi-millionaire fencer who wants them back and will not stop until he a) finds Elizabeth’s friend, b) kills Elizabeth’s friend and c) gets back his diamonds.

But before Elizabeth can truly find out what’s going on, even with expert secret service protecting him, he is killed. Or is he? Had he planned this ruse from the start in order to disappear with a hefty retirement fund? It’s up to the club to figure out the who, what, why and where (the diamonds) have been hidden.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim who has begun to come out of his shell and has taken to driving around alone or with Joyce is injured in a robbery gone wrong and seems to now be terrified of everything. All his friends are concerned, but he insists he is fine.

So needless to say, Elizabeth and the crew have their hands full and besides finding killers and diamonds, she calls in every favor she can to find out who hurt Ibrahim.

The Man Who Died Twice is just so smart, skillfully written and quick-witted. The readers can see the clues and try to play along in the story and to solve the mysteries. But the ending still has that I should have seen that feel, and unexpected plot twists and turns.