Are you reading the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman and forgot what happened in prior books? Getting ready for the new Thursday Murder Club series on Netflix? Want to know which characters return and what you need to remember to read the newest book? Check out my Plot Summary for The Thursday Murder Club Series, updated in 2025 to include book four, The Last Devil to Die!
Table of Contents:
Main Series Characters in the Thursday Murder Club
Plot Summary for Book One: The Thursday Murder Club
A Plot Summary for Book Two: The Man Who Died Twice
Plot Summary for Book Three: The Bullet That Missed
Plot Summary for Book Four: The Last Devil to Die
Brief Plot Summary for The Thursday Murder Club series Book One
This first book in the Thursday Murder Club series is mostly set-up and introduces all the characters and how they know one another.
Main Series Characters:
- Joyce Meadowcroft: former nurse
- Elizabeth Best: former MI6; seventy-six
- Stephen: Elizabeth’s husband; has dementia
- Ibrahim: former psychiatrist, now eighty.
- Ron Ritchie: former union leader
- PC Donna DeFreitas: local police officer
- DCI Chris Hudson
- Bodgan Jankowski: Polish immigrant; does handyman work for Coopers Chase.
Coopers Chase, a luxury retirement village in Kent, is built on land previously owned by the Catholic Church. Ian Ventham, the developer of Coopers Chase, comes to speak to the residents about two new development he’s planning.
To build the third development, Ventham will need neighbor Gordon Playfair to sell him some land.
Tony Curran, who owns a quarter of Coopers Chase Investments, realizes that Ian is going to cut him out of the new developments, and decides to kill Ian. But Tony is bludgeoned to death.
The Thursday Murder Club (TMC), comprised of former British spy Elizabeth Best, former psychiatrist Ibriham Arif, former union organizer Ron Ritchie, and new member Joyce Meadowcroft, decides to solve the murder of Tony Curran.
The main clue in Tony’s murder is a photo of Tony with two men, left by his body. Also John Gray, a witness, says he saw Ian driving away from the murder scene at 3 am.
TMC members befriend local Fairhaven police officers Donna DeFreitas and Chris Hudson, and give Donna, a new officer in town, advice on how to get assigned to Tony’s case.
Ian Ventham’s employees start work on the new development, something the local residents oppose as it involves relocating an old graveyard. Bogdan Jankowski, an employee of Ian, digs up a grave with two bodies in it.
Ian gets into a scuffle with Catholic Priest Father Mackie and then drops dead of a fenatyl overdose injected into his arm. In addition, the police learn that Mackie isn’t a real priest.
Elizabeth gets an old friend to examine the bodies Bogan found, and is told that one of them was decades old, a man shot in the leg.
Who Was the Second Body in the Coffin in The Thursday Murder Club?
The second body in the coffin (as well as Ian’s murder) turns out to be a red herring. Coopers Chase Peter Gray’s wife Penny killed the man and Peter hid the body to protect her. When it was clear that the graveyard would be dug up, Peter killed Ian as a way to stop the project.
The club tracks down the men in the photo: Jason Ritchie, Ron’s son, and Bobby Tanner, now a florist. Tanner tells the TMC that Gianni, a man who stole money from Tony, took the photo that was left by Tony’s body.
Who Killed Tony in The Thursday Murder Club book?
As for Tony’s murder, Elizabeth’s husband Stephen (suffering from dementia) says that Bodgan killed Tony to avenge the murder of his best friend Kaz, who was a witness to a crime Tony committed.
Brief Plot Summary for The Man Who Died Twice (Book Two)
Elizabeth shows the club a mysterious letter she received from a man called Marcus Carmichael asking her to lunch.
Police officers Donna and Chris are staking out a local drug wholesaler named Connie Johnson.
Ibrahim gets mugged and beaten by three men riding bikes, one of them named Ryan.
Elizabeth’s mystery man turns out to be her ex-husband, Douglas Middlemiss. He’s in town with his handler (case officer) Poppy. Douglas explains that he broke into the house of Martin Lomax and stole twenty million dollars in diamonds. If the diamonds aren’t returned, Martin will kill him.
Elizabeth agrees to help Douglas if Poppy will get her information on Ryan, Ibrahim’s mugger.
A man breaks into the flat where Douglas is staying and demands the diamonds. Poppy shoots him. Two MI5 agents, Sue Reardon and Lance James, come to deal with the body.
Elizabeth asks Bodgan, who is now good friends with her husband Stephen, if he could buy her ten thousand pounds’ worth of cocaine. He agrees. Ron then plants the cocaine in Ryan’s flat.
Joyce calls Poppy’s mum Siobhan and invites her for a visit. Elizabeth and Joyce go to the safe house where Douglas and Poppy have been moved and finds them both shot to death. Elizabeth takes photos of the scene and then hides her phone.
Sue Reardon brings Joyce and Elizabeth in for questioning. She pulls out a silver locket that opens to reveal a mirror and tells Elizabeth that they found it it Douglas’s pocket.
Frank Andrade, the American mafia guy who was supposed to be the recipient of the stolen diamonds, calls Martin Lomax and threatens to kill him.
Joyce and Elizabeth follow a series of clues left by Douglas that dead-ends at a locker at the train station.
CCTV footage shows a person in a motorcycle helmet opening the locker, and Kendrick, Ron’s grandson, notices that person wearing one of the friendship bracelets Joyce has been making.
The suspects with bracelets: Siobhan (Poppy’s mother), Sue Reardon, and Bogdan.
What Was the Ending of The Man Who Died Twice?
Elizabeth decides that Poppy must have faked her death AND finally figures out where the diamonds are.
The group plans to use the diamonds to flush out Poppy, plus arrest Martin Lomax and his client, Frank Andrade. Ron suggests involving Connie Johnson so that Donna and Chris can arrest her too.
Everyone meets on the Fairhaven Pier: Bogdan and Connie, Lance James and Martin Lomax, and Frank Andrade. Donne and Chris are watching. Connie shows Frank the diamonds, and he asks why there are only two.
Lance, Frank, and Connie all pull out guns. Frank shoots Martin and then starts to shoot Connie, but she kills him first. Connie flees, but Chris arrests her.
Elizabeth realizes that Poppy and Douglas are both really dead.
Who Killed Poppy and Douglas in The Man Who Died Twice?
Sue is the one who killed them.
Poppy found Douglas’s letter to Elizabeth and gave it to Sue. Sue realized that Douglas still loved Elizabeth, and that Douglas was going to double cross her. She told Martin Lomax where to find Douglas. Sue was the one who slipped the note into Joyce’s sweater, not Poppy. Siobhan is not Poppy’s mother but an accomplice of Sue’s (and an ex of Douglas).
Sue takes Elizabeth and Joyce to Joyce’s flat, where they hid the diamonds. Bogdan shoots Sue in the shoulder.
Joyce adopts a rescue dog, Alan. Elizabeth sells the rest of the diamonds and donates 20 million pounds to Living with Dementia.
Brief Plot Summary for The Bullet That Missed (Book Three)
The club members are trying to find Bethany Waites, a reporter who disappeared while investigating a VAT fraud case.
Elizabeth and Stephen get kidnapped by a man called The Viking and taken to Staffordshire. He wants Elizabeth to kill the man who they stole the diamonds from: Viktor Illyich. (Is he lying? In book two, we were told the diamonds were from a deal between Colombians and the American mafia…)
If Elizabeth doesn’t do kill Viktor, The Viking will kill Joyce.
Stephen and Elizabeth know exactly who Viktor Illyich is: an old KGB enemy.
Ibrahim visits drug wholesaler Connie Johnson in prison. He wants Connie to speak to a fellow prisoner, Heather Garbus and find out if she could have killed Bethany. Connie asks Ibrahim to be her therapist.
TMC goes over Bethany’s case. She left home at 10:15 pm. At 2:47 am, her car turned up at the bottom of a cliff, empty, but with Bethany’s blood inside.
Chris and Donna show up at Coopers Chase to tell the club that Heather died in her cell, leaving a note that said “they are going to kill me. Only Connie Johnson can help me now.”
Andrew Everton, a chief constable and author, visits Coopers Chase to do a reading of his book. Everton grills Ibrahim about his chat with Connie, but Ibrahim claims doctor-patient confidentiality.
The gang decided to fake Viktor’s death, send the Viking fake photos of his body, and bring him to Coopers Chase. Viktor says The Viking wants him gone because Viktor warned his clients away from The Viking, who launders money using cryptocurrency.
Stephen mentions book dealer Bill Chilvers to Bogdan. He lived in Staffordshire and had valuable rare books in his library. Bodgan thinks that maybe they can track The Viking through these books, so Stephen, Donna and Bogdan visit Kuldesh Sharma, an old friend of Stephen’s who says he will look into the rare books.
Crime boss Jack Mason tells Viktor and Ron that he knows where Bethany is buried. His partner killed her and buried her with a cell phone with Heathers fingerprints on it.
The Viking breaks into Joyce’s house, but she drugs his tea. With the help of Kuldesh Sharma, Stephen has figured out the Vikings identity: Henrik Hansen.
Chris and Donna find Jack Mason, dead.
Who Killed Bethany Waites in The Bullet That Missed?
The club figures out that constable/author Andrew Everton killed Bethany and blackmailed Heather and Jack. Andrew was Jack Mason’s partner in the VAT fraud. But Bethany found out.
Andrew confesses to killing Bethany Waites, but Connie decides to frame Andrew for Heather’s murder, even though Heather actually took her own life. Connie destroyed the real suicide note and wrote a new one.
What REALLY Happened to Bethany?
Ron cracks the Bethany case after realizing that his new girlfriend, TV station make-up artist Pauline helped Bethany stage her own death. She helped Bethany change her appearance and put two mannequins in her car to fool the CCTV.
Bethany, in hiding In Dubai, remembers that Andrew sent her a bullet with Mike’s name engraved on it.
Andrew reflects on his crimes. He stole the $10 million. He told Heather and Jack that he killed Bethany. And he killed Jack.
Brief Plot Summary for The Last Devil to Die
Recurring Characters to Remember:
- Connie Johnson: the cocaine wholesaler from books two and three, still in prison (and still in therapy with Ibrahim.)
- Kuldesh Sharma: the antiques dealer from book three.
- Viktor Ilyich: former KGB agent from book three.
- The Viking: the money launderer, from book three, gets a brief mention.
- Bethany Waites: the missing reporter from book three also pops up.
Kuldesh Sharma is in his antiques shop when a man comes in and offers to sell him a box for fifty pounds that his friend will then buy for five hundred. Kuldesh locks the box in his safe.
Chris and Donna are assigned to Sharma’s subsequent murder. Donna thinks about the statue that Kuldesh sold Bogdan for a gift to her (book two). She and Chris find Kuldesh’s phone behind the radiator. There is no CCTV footage.
Elizabeth and Joyce are rebuffed by Chris and Donna but head to a nearby cafe that does have CCTV. Connie identifies the man on the footage as Dominic Holt, a heroin smuggler who works for a man named Mitch Maxwell.
At Sharma’s funeral, the club trade information with Donna and Chris, who reveal that Kuldesh called two numbers around 4 pm, shortly before he died: an archeology professor named Nina Mishra, and a blocked 777 number.
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron stake out Dominic’s warehouse and he comes out to talk to them. He denies being at Kuldesh’s shop, and smashes their windshield.
Luca Buttaci, Maxwell’s business partner, is furious about missing heroin.
Joyce and Elizabeth go to Canterbury to talk to Nina Mishra. Nina says that Kuldesh called her about a problem that he seemed nervous about. Elizabeth asks Nina which antiques dealers are sketchy, and Nina mentions Samantha Barnes.
Elizabeth tells the group that she asked Chris and Donna to run her own phone records and her call to Samantha Barnes was also listed as a blocked 777 number. That leads them to believe Kuldesh called Samantha the day he died.
Elizabeth, Stephen, and Bogdan head to London to see Viktor.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim and Joyce talk to Samantha. They try to find out what she knows about skulduggery at antiques shops. Samantha and her husband Garth ask who brought the heroin to Kuldesh’s shop and they tell him: Dominic Holt.
Dominic Holt’s body turns up in his warehouse. Ron thinks Mitch Maxwell killed him, but Joyce suggests Samantha and Garth did it.
Stephen’s health is declining. Ron, Joyce and Bob discuss whether Elizabeth is putting Stephen in a home.
Stephen dies, assisted by Elizabeth and Bogdan, and his body is cremated.
Donna tells a grieving Bogdan that Samantha was hit on the head and fell down the stairs.
Elizabeth realizes where the missing heroin is: Stephen was actually the 777 number called by Kuldesh. Stephen buried the drugs to help Kuldesh.
Chris and Patrice are having dinner with Bogdan and Donna, plus Joyce and Ibrahim. They discuss their remaining suspects in the murder of Kuldesh Sharma: Garth, Mitch, Luca, Nina, Jonjo.
When Luca turns up dead, there is one fewer suspect.
Elizabeth has a new theory: the murders weren’t about the heroin,but about the box it was in. The box was 6000 years old and carved with the eye of the devil.
Elizabeth takes the box to Nina’s colleague, Jonjo. He thinks it was looted and offers to contact the Foreign Office for her.
Elizabeth says no, she needs it for Stephen’s ashes. The fire alarm goes off (set by Joyce) and Jonjo tells Elizabeth to leave the box with him. When she returns, the box is gone.
Who Killed Kuldesh Sharma in the Last Devil to Die?
Garth meets up with Nina, his wife’s killer, at a roadside service station. Elizabeth knew the killer had to be Nina or Jonjo.
Art History professor Nina admits killing Kuldesh. Kuldesh called her for help and she decided to steal the box and kill him. But Nina swears she didn’t kill Samantha.
Who Killed Dom and Samantha in The Last Devil to Die?
Caroline, Connie’s hired assassin, killed Dom Holt. Connie killed him so she could be the leading heroin dealer in South England.
Samantha offered Connie a partnership, but Caroline killed her too. (The police still think Nina killed Samantha.)
Connie intended Garth to die, but now he is a loose end.
Mitch has a heart attack on the garbage pile as he hunts for the box. Hanif will kill him if he doesn’t produce it.
What Happened to the Box and the Heroin in the Last Devil to Die?
I think the box was part of a money laundering scheme by Henrik Hansen, who paid 10 million for the box, according to Hanif. Kuldesh was supposed to give the box to Hanif’s cousin (the guy on the motorbike). But instead Kuldesh called Stephen and they hid the box.
The box was returned to Iraq by Jonjo, with Stephen’s ashes inside. (I’m not sure why Stephen wanted his ashes there, and if you know, please tell me in comments.)
The police have the heroin (which I think was hidden in Joyce’s microwave after she replaced it with the ashes.)
You can read my Review of The Last Devil to Die here!
And Richard Osman has started a new series! Check out my Review of We Solve Murders with Spoilers!
