The Thursday Murder Club ...

[naomi24]

... Richard Osman’s first
novel - a number one best seller, the film rights of which have already been sold to Spielberg, I believe.

A Christmas gift, I’ve read a bit - but I’m
not that impressed. It seems quite childishly written. I’ll persevere and hope to be pleasantly surprised but in the meantime, has anyone else read it and if so what are your thoughts?

[ichkeria]

I’m halfway through this and I think it’s excellent.
The style is “chicklit novel with a twist” but well done IMO with lots of nice touches.
As for the confusing narrator changes surely not? There is just Joyce’s occasional diary pieces and they’re all flagged as such

[ichkeria]

Talking to myself I know, but know finished and thoroughly enjoyed.

I've always steered clear of the quiz programme, and will continue to do so, but might be tempted by Osman 2.
I see he got a lot of advice from Mark Billingham, another quizzer ...

[bednobs]

it's on radio 4 at the moment (BBC sounds)

[ichkeria]

Read (presumably?) or dramatised?

[bednobs]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000rlln
read

[Vagus]

If it comes up on the amazon daily deal kindle books for 99p I’ll give it a go, but from what people here and on the amazon site are saying, it seems it’s not really worth paying much more for.
A pity as I like Richard Osman.

[bednobs]

why don't you listen to the first 15 mins on bbc sounds and see if it engages you?

[bednobs]

or download a sample

[ichkeria]

Don’t be put off by the negative comments.
Everyone takes as they find of course but my experience was very positive

[ichkeria]

As for Amazon, there are 87% 4 and 5 star ratings out of thousands. And most of those are 5s

[ichkeria]

I often read the one star reviews of books I’ve read.
All I can say is it takes all sorts :-)

[naomi24]

I still haven’t finished it and I’m not sure I ever will. It doesn’t hold my attention so reading it has become a chore rather than a pleasure.

[Vagus]

On the kindle site 68% give it five stars, of the first eight reviews six aren’t very complimentary.
I don’t have a radio bednobs, we’ll, not quite true, there is one somewhere.
Anyhow, will keep an eye out, as has been said, we should make our own minds up without being influenced by reviews.

[ichkeria]

You don’t need a radio Vagus: a link was posted above ...

[margarettom]

I did finish it and thought it got better at the end. I wouldn’t bother to read another though.

[choux]

I like nothing better to entertain me than listen to a good play or serialisation on the BBC Sounds. I saw that this book was coming up as a 10-parter so tuned in to it.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. If I had not already known it was a debut novel the fact would have occurred to me before very long.

Too many characters were introduced ad nauseam in a short space of time so denying me the opportunity to establish them in my own mind. Having listened to the first episode I moved on to the second before thinking perhaps I had not listened sufficiently to distinguish one character from another. I listened to part 1 again and decided the script was poorly written. I will not be wasting any more time with this "writer".

[ichkeria]

Maybe that’s a facet of listening rather than reading.
I am astonished that people found the book hard to follow. As complicated plots go it was hardly any more convoluted than your average detective novel. And I liked the way the book kept surprising us subtly all the way through. And I thought the writing was too class.
Still, we’re all different. You either like this sort of thing or you don’t. I wouldn’t want to read that type of novel all the time but then I’d not want to read any type all the time.

[naomi24]

//And I thought the writing was too class. //

What does that mean?

[ichkeria]

"Top class" - typo, sorry

I've now started listening to the audio (!)
I can see that if I'd not read the book before I might be a little confused, but that might just be a feature of listening. When I read I tend to go back over bits which isn't really practical with audio.
Also, the book doesn't have long, descriptive passages which are probably more conducive to listening perhaps.

[naomi24]

Oh, thanks, Ichkeria. I thought it was a literary term I'd never heard of. I can't agree with you though ... but you know that.