The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

 

When the Thursday Murder Club turn their sights to a ten year old murder case little do they realise the extreme events that will ensue. Journalist Bethany Waites was on the trail of a VAT fraud worth £10,000,000 when her car went off a cliff edge. Even though her body was never recovered the consensus is that she's dead. No-one was ever convicted of her murder and the £10,000,000 never recovered. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are determined to figure out exactly what happened to Bethany.

Everything that fans of The Thursday Murder Club have loved in the previous two books,  The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice, shine through in the third book in the series. Each of the main characters plays their role to perfection. Ibrahim uses his skills as a psychiatrist to uncover information. Ron, ever a trade unionist, uses his connections to gain access to people with a shady past.

The women are at the forefront of the investigation. Joyce is as ditsy as ever, able to talk herself into any place or situation. Elizabeth really has to put her spy craft to full use in the investigation, particularly when things take an unexpected turn and her past with MI5 (or is it MI6) rears it's head.

There are a host of lesser characters supporting our intrepid investigators. Donna, Chris and Bogdan as usual are at the beck and call of the Thursday Murder Club. The villain from the second book in the series, Connie Johnson, agrees to help discover information. New characters add another dimension to the story. Pauline, a make-up artist, offers romance for Ron. We begin to see a softer side of Ron but we also have sympathy for Ibrahim as he is slowly losing his friend. Another new character is local TV celebrity Mike Waghorn. Mike has stuck with regional TV for the whole of his career, lapping up the celebrity status it gives him locally. 

The story is threaded with humour and a little sadness. The storylines involving Elizabeth's husband, Stephen, really do highlight the devastating effect of Alzheimer's and fill you with dread.

Expanding the number of characters involved with the investigation works well, no doubt many of these characters will be called upon in subsequent books to help the team solve other cases. All that we need now is for Richard Osman to write faster.