Cozy Mystery Book Recommendation: The Last Devil to Die!

Posted On October 3, 2023

Hi Readers! It has been a while since I shared a review, hasn’t it? I was just more focused on reading and less on writing. So it’s completely my fault that I have three reviews to write now! But, here we are. Obviously, I thought it would be better to do it in the descending order, starting with the book I finished just yesterday. Everything is still fresh in my memory and because I loved the book, I am hoping the review will write itself smoothly.

The fourth book in The Thursday Murder Club is out. I think it’s only this series where I have immediately bought the book when it was published, and more importantly also read it within the same month. Pat on the back for that! Before you read the review, below are the book reviews for the first three novels!

The Thursday Murder Club (Book #1)

The Man Who Died Twice (Book #2)

The Bullet that Missed (Book #3)

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club.

An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?

~~CHARACTERS~~

As always, I cannot state my joy on being back with the beloved characters of this series. The septuagenarians, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, Ibrahim; the police officers, Donna and Chris; and lastly our supporting cast of Bogdan, Stephen, Patrice, Pauline and Alan the dog. All of them hold a special place in my heart. I know them as well as I know my own friends. Typically, in a mystery novel that’s a disadvantage because if you know the characters well enough, you are likely to predict their actions. But not in this one. Yes, I can predict their actions or even understand when they are deceiving other characters, thereby deceiving the reader. But, even with this predictability, I never know who the murderer is, so the entire curation of the plot stays as delectable as always.

I also enjoyed the new characters. The beauty of this book series is that you also start feeling bad about people who are drug and cocaine dealers, art forgerers, murderers and worse. Two pages of their perspective and you really start to see how they didn’t have another choice but to become a cocaine dealer and murder a bunch of people. Ironic, isn’t it? Well, that’s Richard Osman’s writing for you. Can’t live with it. Can’t live without it.

~~THE MYSTERY~~

The book is divided into three parts. Part One is ‘So What Are You Waiting For?’, Part Two is ‘Whatever You’re Looking for You’re Sure to Find it Here!’ and Part Three ‘There’s No Place like Home’. Part one is mostly introducing us to the characters. Part two is the major chunk where the action happens, and part three is where everything reveals itself.

The beauty of this book series is that there are too many characters, ergo too many suspects and too many motives, which makes it almost impossible to figure out who the murderer could be. There are also usually multiple murders and multiple murderers as well. So, even if you guess one killer, you might not be able to guess the second or third killer. I found this exact style a bit much in the last novel ‘The Bullet that Missed’, but it was delightful in this one. I also loved the angle of antiques which brought in something unique to the story. Whether it was the antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma, or antique experts Nina Mishra and Jonjo, or antique forgery experts Samantha and Garth. I loved how the mystery revolved around cocaine, but also that this aspect was the newness that really revived the book.

~~MORE THOUGHTS~~

Aside from the main plot of the book, there were two parallel stories, which I wanted to highlight, because I found them profound. First one was about romance fraud. People scamming old people by catfishing them into sending money. When I first read about how Mervyn was tricked, I felt so sad that something so heinous happens to old people. If you are preying on elderly lonely people, that in itself is a disgrace, and scamming them into believing that you are a young person in love with them and need money? These people ought to be put behind bars.

The second was, of course, euthanasia. Stephen, Elizabeth’s husband, who was starting to get more and more into the claws of dementia, decided to end his life when he was still in control of his decisions, rather than live a meaningless life. This is again something that is very personal to everyone. But, I liked the way it was written with care, delicacy and respect. We were presented with both perspectives. One was Stephen’s and another was Joyce’s. Again, something to think about.

Lastly, toward the end, there was a lot of talk about time in terms of life and death, which I cherished reading. It also talked about the significance of our lives in the bigger scheme of things. The entire book was wonderful to read!

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~

I think you should read this book. But, you might need to read the first three books first, so that you have the same affinity towards the characters as I did when I read this book. If you love the genre of cozy mysteries where old people solve murders, then this one is for you. It won’t disappoint. If you have read and loved the first three books, then you should read this book. I cannot seem to think of any reason why you shouldn’t read it. The only triggers this book contains are euthanasia, romance fraud, cocaine, drugs, death; most of which are prevalent in any murder mystery novel. I read in the ‘Acknowledgements’, that it will be some time until we get a fifth book in the series. It’s a bummer but it’s okay because the author is going to start a new book series with a father-in-law and daughter-in-law detective story. Can’t wait to read that too. I have rated The Last Devil to Die (The Thursday Murder Club Book #4) by Richard Osman at 4.5/5 stars!

Until next time,