Book Review: The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
I liked The Marlow Murder Club but I fell short of loving it. I think my biggest issue with it was just how similar it was to a couple of other books I’ve read.
One being Elly Griffiths’ The Postscript Murders and the other, more obvious one, Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. Apart from the similar title of the latter (I *really* would have advised against this title), the books all have older and quirky main characters solving a murder mystery.
Judith Potts, Thorogood’s lead, is maybe a bit too quirky. Judith is a 77 year-old whisky-drinking cryptic crossword compiler who lives in her cluttered mansion on the Thames where she punts and skinny dips. Her murder club mates are Becks, the local vicar’s wife with low self esteem and cleaning fanaticism, and Suzie, a dog walker who, I thought, was the funniest of the three.
The mystery plot, unfortunately, was quite easy to solve, especially if you’re familiar with a couple of other well known mysteries. I’m not saying Thorogood borrowed but, maybe, he could have given us a bit more of a twist. Actually, his twist was more his reveal of a couple of Judith’s secrets and (sigh) neither worked for me.
I sound negative but, as I said, I liked the book and I will probably read the next in the series. I’m also a little curious about Thorogood’s other notable writing credit now – the Death in Paradise TV series (despite its popularity I’ve never seen it).
3 ½ out of 5
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