Books Like The Thursday Murder Club
Want another cozy mystery with sharp wit, warm characters and a puzzle worth solving? These books share The Thursday Murder Club's gentle humor, amateur sleuths and classic whodunit pleasures.
Jim's Picks
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith
Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie
The Maid
by Nita Prose
Anxious People
by Fredrik Backman
A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman
The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty
Why Each Pick
- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
- The closest in spirit: an unlikely detective who solves cases with common sense, patience and a deep understanding of people. Precious Ramotswe opens Botswana's first female-run detective agency in Gaborone and takes on missing husbands and small-town deceptions. It is gentler than Osman, with lighter crimes, shorter at 235 pages, and the first of a long series.
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
- The golden-age puzzle that Osman's club would happily take on. A wealthy American is stabbed in his compartment on a snowbound train, and Hercule Poirot must work out which passenger did it. It shares The Thursday Murder Club's pleasure in clues, alibis and a big reveal, with less comedy and a famously clever solution, in 274 pages.
- The Maid by Nita Prose
- Another cozy mystery with a charming, unconventional sleuth and plenty of humor. Molly Gray, a hotel maid who takes everything literally, finds a wealthy guest dead and becomes the prime suspect. Like Joyce's diary entries, Molly's first-person voice gives the mystery a personal, funny angle. The story is sweeter and more personal, and opens a series.
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
- For readers who loved Osman's warmth and comedy as much as the mystery. A botched bank robbery becomes a hostage situation at an apartment viewing, and police interviews with the hostages are woven through the story. Backman's mystery is light, and the real subject is the loneliness and kindness of ordinary people. It deals openly with suicide.
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- No murder, but the same affection for older characters who refuse to be written off. Ove is a grumpy widower whose rigid life is upended by the young family next door, and his neighborhood becomes a community much like Coopers Chase. It is funny and moving, with no crime plot. Content note: Ove's grief includes suicide attempts, handled with warmth.
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The classic detective story at its most atmospheric. Holmes and Watson investigate a spectral hound said to haunt a family on the Devon moors. Readers who enjoy Elizabeth's cool deductions and her banter with the others will recognize the type. It is a short Victorian novel, at 256 pages, with a gothic mood rather than comedy.
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- The darkest of Agatha Christie's best-known books, for readers who want the puzzle without the coziness. Ten strangers on an island off the Devon coast are killed one by one, following a nursery rhyme. It shares The Thursday Murder Club's English setting and its fair-play clues, but there are no friendly sleuths and the mood is suspenseful and grim.
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
- For readers who loved Osman's satire of a small community. Gossip, rivalries and secrets swirl around a school in a seaside Australian town until someone dies at a trivia night, and witness statements are woven through the story. It is funny and sharp but darker than Osman, with a serious storyline about domestic abuse.
What to Read After The Thursday Murder Club
If you loved the gentle sleuthing and the warm humor, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and The Maid are the closest cozy mysteries, each with an unusual detective who sees what others miss. If it was the puzzle, Murder on the Orient Express and The Hound of the Baskervilles are classic detective puzzles of the kind Osman's novel celebrates, and And Then There Were None is the twistiest and darkest of the three.
If what stayed with you was the community, the friendships and the older characters with full lives, A Man Called Ove and Anxious People offer the same warmth and comedy with lighter crime or none at all. Big Little Lies is the pick for readers who enjoyed the gossip and social comedy and want a sharper, more serious mystery.
Series to Settle Into
The Thursday Murder Club is the first in a series, and several picks here also open or belong to long-running series, which is part of the cozy-mystery appeal. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency has more than twenty follow-ups, The Maid continues with Molly's further cases, and Christie's Poirot and Conan Doyle's Holmes appear in dozens of novels and stories.
A Man Called Ove, Anxious People, And Then There Were None and Big Little Lies are standalones. For a quick read, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, at 235 pages, and And Then There Were None, at 272, are the shortest, and Big Little Lies, at 460, is the longest.