I’ve really enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club series. It has been one of those dependable, easy reading comfort series for me, with familiar characters and just enough mystery to keep things moving. I picked up The Impossible Fortune expecting more of the same but this one really let me down.
The story kicks off at Joyce’s daughter’s wedding, which should be a fun starting point. During the celebrations, Elizabeth is quietly approached by a man who claims someone is trying to kill him. From there, the Thursday Murder Club finds itself tangled up in a complicated mystery involving missing money, secret storage facilities, and people who are not quite who they seem. As usual, the group pokes around, asks questions, and follows a trail of clues.
That's the plot but the problem for me was that none of it felt interesting. The mystery itself was boring and instead of building real tension, the book relies heavily on chapters that end with mini cliffhangers. After a while this just became annoying rather than compelling.
By the middle of the book I was already losing interest, and toward the end I was skimming just to see how it would all wrap up. The resolution, when it finally arrived, felt flat and anti-climactic. There was no real sense of surprise or satisfaction, just a feeling that I had spent a lot of time getting to a fairly underwhelming conclusion.
What disappointed me most is that this book felt like a repetition of ideas from earlier in the series without the spark that made those books work. The characters are still likeable, but they are no longer enough to carry the story on their own. Everything started to blur together, and the whole thing felt like much of a muchness.
I did finish it, but more out of obligation than enjoyment. After loving this series for so long, it is a shame to say that this might be where I stop. The Impossible Fortune was not terrible, but it was boring, and that is somehow worse.
If you are a long-time fan, you might still want to read it just to keep up with the characters. But for me, this one confirmed that my time with the Thursday Murder Club may be over.
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