“My memories are like emeralds, clear and bright and true, but every new day crumbles like sand, and I can’t get a hold of it at all” (Osman 292).
A welcome to both September’s blog (how is it month nine of 2026 already??) and to the fourth Thursday Murder Club series review, by Richard Osman. I found this book to be both powerfully emotional, as I will explain, and a bringing certain story strands to a close. When a series proves popular the reading audience grow to know the characters and style of the series well. In the book I found familiarity of Joyce’s narration and a sense of knowing the gang well. Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim have each got a strong back story that Osman neatly intersects throughout the series alongside the crimes that the gang solve. In The Last Devil to Die, the climax of Stephen’s dementia journey is witnessed. Stephen is Elizabeth’s husband and while not as prominent in the time given to him like the main quartet, he has become key to the overall plot build of The Thursday Murder Club series.
Osman shares that Stephen has dementia early in the series, and how Elizabeth is caring for him herself and trying to hide it from others. It is a powerful choice by Osman to sensitively reflect the advance of dementia, which is a key issue of our time, within a fictional world. Osman is honest about the challenges it poses but equally and so importantly, the way it does not stop a normal life being lived. This instalment of the series, as we would expect opens with a murder, that of Stephen’s antique dealing friend. The race to solve the murder, links to Stephen across the book, not only is it his friend but his dementia has progressed and he wants to take control while he is still able.
The quote is a beautiful way to describe the loss of memory, each one is like “emeralds” “clear and bright” but they are built on a shifting “sand”. Osman has taken careful time to present this in the most poetic yet stark way and it gives an insight into Stephen’s struggle. The issue of the right to die by choice is also portrayed here and is something that is very topical now. I felt this was a masterfully crafted piece of writing that added a high praise for the overall novel. It gives a character, who represents the reality of so many, a dignified portrayal of end of life.
It feels in this novel that the solving of the murder has a back seat, certainly because Elizabeth takes time out after Stephen’s death. It gives Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce the chance to show what effective detectives they are. Kuldesh (the murdered man) simply got caught up in something that was out of his death, he was a nearly eighty-year-old man.
One further quote I feel is recommend, is the closing note by Joyce that adds a personal reader acknowledgement in the text. Joyce says, “I know it sounds silly, but I feel less alone when I write. So thank you for keeping me company whoever you might be” (Osman 417). It is another key issue that the elderly can face- loneliness, and Osman is able to show how for Joyce, writing helps her overcome that. Also, the use of directing it to “whoever” might read it, includes the readers in the story and gives them a nod of thanks for taking the time to read the story and be on the journey.
I feel this book sums up some of the stories that have built over the last three books and cements the place of Thursday Murder Club as an ongoing much-loved series and I will be returning to review the fifth and most current novel in the series in November. It is great to know that there will be two more novels coming out in 2027 and 2029. Osman has also become the biggest selling author in the 2020s, which is very impressive.
Work cited-
Amazon. “Amazon”. Amazon. Date accessed: 13th August 2026. URL: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Devil-Die-Thursday-Mystery/dp/0593299442.
Osman, Richard. The Last Devil to Die. 2nd Edition. Penguin Books, Viking. 2024.