Is The Thursday Murder Club cozy?
The Thursday Murder Club has become very popular since the first book was released a couple of years ago. Written by well-known English television writer and presenter Richard Osman, it shot to the top of book sales charts. There are currently three books out and a fourth on the way. The books have spawned numerous imitations. You can’t look in a bookstore these days without seeing a string of similar-looking covers.
But is it cozy?
What’s The Thursday Murder Club about?
The books follow four retired people in the southeast of England, who have formed the Thursday Murder Club to investigate cold cases and see if they can see something new. When a murder happens right in their neighborhood, they naturally begin to see if they can solve it.
I have to admit I loved the book and both sequels. I can’t remember reading a mystery I’ve enjoyed more, certainly not in the last several years. The setting is interesting, the characters are great, the humor is well-done. I’m very much looking forward to the next book.
Having said all that, the question for us here is whether it’s cozy or not. I’m going to try to not let my bias show through as I run down our list of questions to help decide how cozy it is.
FYI there are no spoilers in this article, so you can freely read if you haven’t yet read the books.
How we evaluate Cozy Mysteries
In our analysis of a book, we go through three major categories. Each of them has multiple questions, and in some cases a Yes is enough to say the book is Not Cozy, while others require multiple Yes answers.
Most of the questions are subjective, which means you might get slightly different results each time, but the final result should be the same.
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Dealbreakers
Our Dealbreakers are the first section of rules. The idea is simple: if any of these questions gives a Yes answer, the book cannot be cozy.
Is the protagonist NOT actively sleuthing to solve the mystery?
- No, they are definitely trying to solve it.
Is the murder a crime of violence where we see or hear gory details?
- No, we get the barest description of the murder.
Is there profanity or foul language?
- Not that I remember, no. So not noticeable if there is any.
Are there any descriptions of sex, including anything other than a kiss?
- No, it is very chaste. Even the scenes involving sex are just allusions to what happened.
Is the protagonist a police officer on a major force?
- Two of the characters are police officers. But while they’re major characters, they’re not really part of the Thursday Murder Club? At best we might call them supporting actors. So I’d say No.
Is the protagonist a private investigator hired to solve the crime?
- Not at all.
Is the mystery solved early and the rest of the book is trying to stop or catch them?
- Definitely not.
No answers to every question, so we easily get through the Dealbreakers.
Warning Signs
How about the Warning Signs? These are questions which aren’t quite required for a cozy mystery. In this case one or maybe two Yes answers are okay, but much more means the book is not cozy.
Is the focus of the story on something other than solving a puzzle?
- Sometimes it feels a little like it, but not really. It’s about the mystery.
Is the focus on the romance between the two leads?
- Not at all. Minor romance here and there but not nearly the focus of the books.
Is the focus on family relationships?
- Family? No. Friends? A lot, yes.
Is the tone of the writing fast and/ or dark?
- Definitely not.
Is there more than one perspective in the book?
- Very much so, and this is probably the biggest stumbling block to calling it cozy. See below for a detailed discussion.
Does the reader ever know something the protagonist doesn’t know?
- Nothing vital that I recall.
Does the protagonist ever know something the reader doesn’t know?
- I remember one chapter where Elizabeth read a note, said it was important, and we didn’t know the contents. I thought hey, that’s a Dealbreaker. Then I turned the page and we found out what the note said at the start of the very next chapter. So was it hidden from us? Yes, but not really.
Is the book much shorter or longer than sixty thousand words?
- It’s a bit over 100k words, which is way out of the range of most cozies. But I must say the words fly by, and I might be a little biased to suggest this is the rare book which can exceed the limits without being a problem.
What do the Warning Signs tell us?
We have two definite Yes answers, and two maybes. Let’s deal with the big one first.
Most cozies are from the perspective of the single protagonist. In the Thursday Murder Club we see most of the story from the perspective of the four members of the club. Were I to guess, I’d say three quarters of the book is from those four club members. We get some chapters from the surrounding characters, people you might consider as de facto members (Bogdan, the two police officers), and rarely a chapter from someone else (the victim, an extra person putting a different spin on things, etc.).
The question I really ask myself is whether this counts as four different characters, or four different perspectives. Yes, they’re four people, but they act as a sort of hive mind, each figuring out different parts of the puzzle. If one of them goes to investigate something, they’re pretty quickly back to share it with the others. So I think we should treat them as a group, rather than as several individuals, and that way they pass the multiple perspective test.
The other issues are minor. Sure, the book is long for a cozy mystery, but that isn’t a big deal. The focus on friends is really part of it being a group effort. And as noted, Elizabeth hiding something from the reader lasted as long as it took to turn the page.
In all this, I think we can give the book a pass through the Warning Signs. I really do think it’s cozy.
How Cozy is The Thursday Murder Club?
Our How Cozy? questions help us decide the level to which a book is cozy. There are twenty of them and they are quite subjective. On a given day you might say Yes to a question where you’d say No tomorrow. Very mild spoiler: if you read the first book of the series you’d say No to one question, but if you read the whole series you’d say Yes.
I’m not going to enumerate the How Cozies, because you can look at them and decide for yourself by subscribing to our newsletter.
In my evaluation of the How Cozies, I’d give the Thursday Murder Club a 12 / 20. We generally accept anything more than about an eight as cozy, so this puts it strongly into cozy territory.
So is The Thursday Murder Club cozy?
The Thursday Murder Club is cozy, as I both hoped and suspected. I don’t think I’ve been biased in these answers, but I certainly could have been. If you think I have, please comment below.
I highly recommend these books as some of the best in the genre. Even if they hadn’t come through as cozy I would recommend them, so I hope you read and enjoy them too.
Do you have anything to say about this article? Agree or disagree with what we have to say? Let us know in the comments below.
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