Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club was published in 2020, and four novels have followed: The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, The Last Devil to Die, and finally The Impossible Fortune. Each of the novels follows a group of friends who live in the Coopers Chase retirement community and investigate murders in their spare time, with “club” meetings each Thursday. The relationships among the group are rich and well-developed, and this group of seniors often manages to outpace the police, turning the assumption that people “slow down” as they age on its head. At the same time, the series does not shy away from portraying the very real challenges of aging, including the decline of one’s health, loneliness, and the loss of loved ones. The series is known for presenting aging, relationships, and justice as nuanced and complex concepts rather than simplistic and routine ones.

Like the other books in the series, The Impossible Fortune acknowledges both the positive and the negative aspects of aging in its portrayal of octogenarians. “The Thursday Murder Club members use many tactics to figure out the murder cases; however, one of the most effective is playing into the ageist ideals held by those younger than them” (“Themes: Aging and Underestimating the Elderly”). In The Impossible Fortune, the club members continue to be underestimated by people who don’t know them, like DCI Varma, the officer who investigates Holly’s murder. The series also explores the grief of losing loved ones as a painful and challenging aspect of getting older. The aging person must watch their friends and loved ones die, and then they must learn to navigate life without them. All four of the TMC members and several of the series’ secondary characters have experienced the loss of their spouses or partners, and each of them grapples with their grief in their own way. The fourth book in the series, The Last Devil to Die, foregrounds the pain Elizabeth experiences after the death of her husband, Stephen. The Impossible Fortune chronicles her ongoing attempts to navigate the pain of that loss.

Throughout the series, the four members of the TMC continually reinvent themselves, embracing new friends, new endeavors, and new opportunities. “The heart of [The Bullet that Missed] is in the friendships between the characters. These relationships are the most important thing in life” (“Themes: The Importance of Friendship”). In The Impossible Fortune, each of the protagonists is keenly aware of the sense of belonging and support they’ve found in each other. Joyce’s journal entries highlight secondary characters who lack the collective care and support of a chosen family, such as Jasper, the lonely old man surrounded by cat kitsch and in need of friendship, and Lord Townes, an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times, who finds himself utterly alone, facing penury and humiliation. For Joyce, these characters represent the “quiet corners” of life that constitute its reality. She befriends Jasper, hoping to befriend him after years of solitude so that he, too, can experience community and all the benefits it confers.

Osman’s focus on the love his characters have for each other helps situate his books within the cozy mystery genre. Certain events might catch characters off guard, impacting them in catastrophic and terrible ways, but—as in life—everything feels easier when one has the support of one’s friends with whom they share a common sense of purpose.