The Thursday Murder Club

by Richard Osman

  I first had the idea for The Thursday Murder Club a few years ago, when I was fortunate enough to visit a retirement community, full of extraordinary people with extraordinary stories, and even its very own ‘contemporary upscale restaurant’. The residents of that retirement village know who they are, and I thank them for their support. Don’t get ideas and start murdering each other though, please.

  It is hard work writing a novel. I’m assuming that’s the case for everyone, although who knows? Perhaps Salman Rushdie finds it easy? Either way, many people have helped me, knowingly or unknowingly, along the way. It is lovely to be able to thank them publicly here.

  I want, first of all, to thank Mark Billingham. I had wanted to write a novel for a long time, and over a very nice lunch at Skewd Turkish restaurant in Barnet (delicious, great value for money, try the chicken wings) Mark gave me exactly the encouragement I needed, at exactly the right time. He also told me there were no rules to writing a crime novel, and then proceeded to tell me two great rules which I kept in mind throughout the writing of this book. Anyway, Mark, I will be forever grateful.

  I was secretly squirrelled away for a long time writing The Thursday Murder Club and I want to thank a number of people for encouraging me to not give up during this time. Thank you to Ramita Navai, the best friend I could ever wish for, to Sarah Pinborough for telling me that, yes, it is supposed to be this difficult, to Lucy Prebble for always reminding me to ‘get it done, and then get it good’, to Bruce Lloyd for keeping the train on the tracks, and to Marian Keyes for the kindness and for the candle.

  Also, special thanks to Sumudu Jayatilaka for being my first reader. It will always mean the world to me.

  There comes a point when a book more or less exists, and that’s when you need wise and brilliant people around you to make it better. The few people who saw early drafts of this book, and are forever sworn to secrecy, include my wonderfully talented brother, Mat Osman (author of the brilliant The Ruins, also out now), and my friend Annabel Jones, who took time out of her ridiculously busy Black Mirror schedule to read the book and provide so many answers I was missing. Thank you so much, Annabel; you should do this for a living.

  I want to thank the brilliant team at Viking, most particularly my editor Katy Loftus, for backing me and supporting me, and for coming up with so many different, kind, ways of saying, ‘I’m not sure this bit really works.’ And behind every great editor is a great assistant editor, so thank you from us both to Vikki Moynes.

  Thank you also to the rest of the team at Viking: editorial manager Natalie Wall, the comms team Georgia Taylor, Ellie Hudson, Amelia Fairney and Olivia Mead, who have heard me say ‘well, maybe’ so many times. Thank you too to the amazing sales team – Sam Fanaken, Tineke Mollemans, Ruth Johnstone, Kyla Dean, Rachel Myers and Natasha Lanigan – and to the DeadGood online team, and Indira Birnie from the Penguin UK website. A book is such a team effort, and I couldn’t wish for a better team.

  I would also like to thank my US editor, Pamela Dorman, and her wonderful assistant editor, Jeramie Orton, and I apologize once again for making you have to google Ryman’s, Holland & Barrett and Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the Difference’. I am also indebted to the thoroughness and forensic creativity of my copy-editor, Trevor Horwood, without who I would never know what the days of the week certain dates were in 1971. Or, as Trevor would immediately point out, ‘without whom’.

  Writing a book is its own reward, and I was very ready to chalk this whole project up to experience before sending the very first draft to my agent, Juliet Mushens. From her very first reply, however, things changed and, thanks to Juliet, I realized that The Thursday Murder Club might be an actual book, which actual people might actually read. Juliet has been a force of nature from the start – brilliant, creative, funny and refreshingly unconventional. I couldn’t have done any of this without her. Thank you so much, Juliet. She is ably supported by the wonderful Liza DeBlock, who, given she has to deal with so many important contracts, is, refreshingly, slightly more conventional.

  I’ll end, if I may, with the big guns.

  Thank you to my mum, Brenda Osman. I hope that, amongst other things, there is a sense of kindness and justice, running through The Thursday Murder Club, and that comes from you. It comes as well, of course, from your parents, my grandparents, Fred and Jessie Wright, much missed but, I hope, very present within these pages. Thank you too to my wonderful auntie, Jan Wright. We are a small family, but I think we pack a punch.

  And thank you, finally, to my children, Ruby and Sonny.

  I have no intention of embarrassing you too much, so I will just tell you how much I love you.

  THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

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  First published 2020

  Copyright © Richard Osman, 2020

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Cover lettering by Joel Holland

  ISBN: 978-0-241-98827-5

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.