Bullet doesn’t miss with this book
The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman, Viking, $37
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Well what can I say, Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder club novels just get better and better. They are witty, sometimes droll and always entertaining.
Elizabeth and co have been studying a cold case. Bethany Waites, a journalist hot on the heels of people engaged in a huge VAT fraud, has gone missing. Her car had been seen going over a cliff supposedly with her inside. However Bethany’s body has never been found.
A woman named Heather Garbutt has been convicted of the VAT fraud.she was sent to prison, but it was common knowledge that she was working for a local crook, Jack Mason. He has managed to escape a prison sentence, but is not happy as the money appears to have vanished.
Also in the same prison is Connie Johnson who ran a notorious drug ring and is managing to keep it going while inside. Ibrahim, using his psychiatrist hat, manages a visit with Connie. Elizabeth is hoping that contact with Connie might lead indirectly to contact with Heather Garbutt.
However not long after Connie’s contact with Heather, Heather is murdered.
For a short time the Murder Club are flummoxed. Then Elizabeth and her husband are kidnapped and the story follows another direction.
This leads to Elizabeth becoming unwillingly involved in an assassination attempt. It involves two well known criminals known from her former work in MI5, one a former KGB operator now working freelance.
And so the twists and turns continue. Much later a satisfactory conclusion is drawn for the reader. However, it is not really satisfactory for the members of the Thursday Murder Club which makes one think perhaps there may well be another mystery to be written.
Osman has worked on countless quiz shows, both as creative director and executive producer. His popularity and tremendous knowledge of trivia has led to presenting his own quiz shows.
It is just fairly recently he has begun writing his mystery novels. He was born with a form of myopia which means he often doesn’t see very well, consequently, descriptive passages are not his forte. Who really wants descriptive passages in mystery novels? His dialogue tells it all. The Bullet That Missed is a wonderful read!
— Margaret Reilly