Unless you've been hiding under a rock you will have heard about the runaway success of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, you might have even read it. And if you haven't, what are you waiting for? It's an escapist dream!

First published in September 2020, The Thursday Murder Club has sold more than one million copies since it was published, and has spent most of that at the top of the fiction bestseller lists. Four septuagenarians from a retirement village set out to solve a murder in this wonderfully entertaining, warm, and amusing mystery.

The sequel, The Man Who Died Twice, which was released in September 2021 became one of the fastest-selling novels since records began, continuing the adventures of Osman’s gang of elderly sleuths, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron.

Next up was The Bullet That Missed, which came to our bookshelves in September 2022. Trouble is never far away from the Thursday Murder Club and a decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers. Just as fabulously readable as the first two this third instalment comes as highly recommended by our team.

The Last Devil To Die is the latest offering we've had from Osman, released in hardback in September 2023 and the paperback expected in May 2024. This time the gang spring into action when An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

Cosy crime has boomed in recent years with a need for escapism driving our reading selections. Readers love the opportunity to actively play detective and sift the evidence along with the characters.

Whatever the reason, cosy crime is here to stay and so we have put together a few suggestions of what to read next if you loved all of Osman's outings thus far and need some recommendations to tide you over until the next release.

As well as our recommended crime fiction list below, you might like to step in a slightly different direction too.

If you adored the charms and idiosyncrasies of The Thursday Murder Club’s older characters, its whimsical style and tone, and weaving plot, you’d do well to dive into The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. Both of these witty novels are penned by Swedish writers, and are packed with the hilarious, twisting adventures of fabulous rule-breaking older characters who’ve decided to do things their own way.