Author Guide · Crime Fiction
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In the week before Christmas 2020, The Thursday Murder Club sold 134,514 copies in the UK and became the first debut novel to be the country’s Christmas number one. Its author, Richard Osman, was 49 and best known as the tall co-host of the BBC quiz show Pointless. He had written the book in secret, about four friends in a Kent retirement village who meet once a week to look at unsolved murders, inspired by the retirement community where his mother lives. Five years later the series had become a Netflix film with Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, and Osman had sold more than 17 million books worldwide. In 2024 he started a second series, We Solve Murders. This guide covers his 7 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 2020–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Richard Osman has published seven novels: five in the Thursday Murder Club series, from The Thursday Murder Club (2020) to The Impossible Fortune (2025), and two in the We Solve Murders series, We Solve Murders (2024) and We Chase Shadows (2026). Start with The Thursday Murder Club: the later books build on what happens to its characters, so the order matters more than in most crime series.
Where to Start with Richard Osman
If you want the book that started it all
→ The Thursday Murder Club (2020) — the four friends at Coopers Chase, from the beginning.
If you want the series at its most emotional
→ The Last Devil to Die (2023) — read the first three before it.
If you want a fresh start without the backstory
→ We Solve Murders (2024) — the first book of his second series.
If you want his newest book
→ We Chase Shadows (2026) — Amy, Rosie and Steve’s next case.
7 Richard Osman Books, in Order
The Thursday Murder Club
At Coopers Chase, a retirement village near the fictional seaside town of Fairhaven in Kent, four residents meet every Thursday to study cold cases: Elizabeth, a former spy; Joyce, a retired nurse whose diary narrates part of the book; Ron, a political activist; and Ibrahim, a psychiatrist. Then a man connected to plans for the village is murdered on their doorstep. It sold 45,000 copies in its first three days and was the UK’s Christmas number one in 2020; Netflix released the film adaptation in August 2025.
The Man Who Died Twice
Elizabeth receives a letter signed with the name of a man whose body she once saw pulled from the Thames. It comes from her ex-husband Douglas, who is alive and in trouble over stolen diamonds. Meanwhile Ibrahim is mugged by teenagers for his phone, and the club plots revenge, until the two cases meet.
The Bullet That Missed
The club reopens the disappearance of Bethany Waites, a local television news reporter whose wrecked car was found almost ten years earlier but whose body never was. The case brings in a figure known only as The Viking, and Viktor Illyich, an old contact of Elizabeth’s from her years in intelligence.
The Last Devil to Die
Kuldesh Sharma, an antiques dealer and friend of Elizabeth’s husband Stephen, is murdered, and the trail leads into the antiques trade, art forgery and drug trafficking. Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim lead the investigation while Elizabeth stays with Stephen, whose dementia is getting worse. It became the fastest-selling hardback by a British author in its first week and went to number one on The New York Times list.
We Solve Murders
The first book of a new series. Amy Wheeler, a private security officer, is protecting the bestselling novelist Rosie D’Antonio when three of her firm’s clients are murdered. She goes on the run with Rosie and turns to her father-in-law Steve Wheeler, a retired police officer. It entered the UK chart at number one and reached number two on The New York Times hardcover fiction list.
The Impossible Fortune
At the wedding of Joyce’s daughter Joanna, the best man asks Elizabeth for help, and the club is drawn into a disappearance, a murder and the codes to a very valuable bitcoin holding. It is the first book after the loss of Stephen. It went to number one on The Sunday Times list and The New York Times combined fiction list.
We Chase Shadows
Amy, Rosie and Steve return when a body is found at sunrise on the steps of a private villa in the Italian hills. The investigation moves between Italy, Palm Springs and Barcelona, with Steve’s village pub as home base, after an elusive killer whom almost everyone seems to be protecting. It was published in September 2026.
In What Order to Read Richard Osman
Read each series in publication order. The Thursday Murder Club novels run in sequence: characters age, relationships change and losses carry forward, so The Last Devil to Die and The Impossible Fortune lose much of their weight if you have not read the first three. The order is The Thursday Murder Club (2020), The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022), The Last Devil to Die (2023) and The Impossible Fortune (2025).
The We Solve Murders books are a separate series with their own cast, so you can start them at any point: We Solve Murders (2024), then We Chase Shadows (2026). Reading all seven in publication order also works, because Osman alternated the two series.
A reading path
1. The Thursday Murder Club (2020)
2. The Man Who Died Twice (2021)
3. The Bullet That Missed (2022)
4. The Last Devil to Die (2023)
5. We Solve Murders (2024)
6. The Impossible Fortune (2025)
Everything Else Richard Osman Published
Beyond the 7 key books: 7 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Quiz and trivia books
7
7 books · 2012–2019
- 2012The 100 Most Pointless Things in the Worldwith Alexander Armstrong
- 2013The 100 Most Pointless Arguments in the Worldwith Alexander Armstrong
- 2014The Very Pointless Quiz Bookwith Alexander Armstrong
- 2015The A–Z of Pointlesswith Alexander Armstrong
- 2016A Pointless History of the Worldwith Alexander Armstrong
- 2017The World Cup of Everythinghis Twitter “World Cup” polls turned into a book
- 2019Richard Osman’s House of Gamesquiz book of the BBC Two show, with Alan Connor
The years · 1970–2026
Quick facts about Richard Osman
- Known for
- Co-presenting the BBC quiz show Pointless for over a decade, then writing the fastest-selling adult crime debut on record and the series that followed it.
- 1970
- Born in Billericay, Essex
- 2009
- Pointless begins on BBC
- 2026
- OBE; We Chase Shadows
- Born
- 28 November 1970, Billericay, Essex
- Education
- Politics and sociology, Trinity College, Cambridge
- Television
- Creator and co-host of Pointless (BBC One, 2009–2022); host of Richard Osman’s House of Games (BBC Two, from 2017)
- Series
- Thursday Murder Club (5 novels), We Solve Murders (2 novels)
- Sales
- More than 17 million books worldwide (2025)
- Family
- Married to the actor Ingrid Oliver (2022); his brother Mat Osman is the bassist of Suede
- Honours
- OBE, 2026 New Year Honours, for services to literature and broadcasting
The red mark is 2020: The Thursday Murder Club, his first novel and the UK’s Christmas number one that year.
How Richard Osman Writes: Short Chapters, Old Detectives
Osman writes in very short chapters: The Thursday Murder Club has 115 of them in about 400 pages. Sections in the third person, moving between the four friends, the police and the criminals, alternate with Joyce’s diary, written in the first person, chatty and full of asides. The diary carries much of the humour and lets him give the reader information the other characters do not have.
His detectives are old on purpose. “I created older main characters specifically because they have ‘lived’,” he told Saga, and he has said the difference between a 75-year-old and a 50-year-old is not the brain but “more grief, more experience, more insight.” That is why the series can move from comedy to dementia and assisted death: Stephen’s decline runs through the middle books and ends in The Last Devil to Die.
The plots are built like quiz rounds, with many suspects, false leads and a reveal that pulls in details planted early. After more than a decade making television formats, he wrote the first novel without telling anyone, giving it a month before deciding he liked it. In We Solve Murders he kept the structure and the humour but moved the action out of Kent, with a new cast and international settings.
Frequently asked questions about Richard Osman’s books
How many books has Richard Osman written?
Seven novels: five in the Thursday Murder Club series and two in the We Solve Murders series, all listed on this page. Before that he published seven non-fiction quiz and trivia books, five of them with his Pointless co-host Alexander Armstrong.
What are Richard Osman’s books in order?
The Thursday Murder Club (2020), The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022), The Last Devil to Die (2023), We Solve Murders (2024), The Impossible Fortune (2025) and We Chase Shadows (2026).
What order should I read the Thursday Murder Club books in?
In publication order: The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, The Last Devil to Die and The Impossible Fortune. Each mystery is self-contained, but the characters’ lives continue from book to book.
Where should I start with Richard Osman?
With The Thursday Murder Club (2020), which introduces Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim. If you want to try him without committing to a five-book series, We Solve Murders (2024) starts a new series with a new cast.
What is Richard Osman’s most famous book?
The Thursday Murder Club. It was the fastest-selling adult crime debut on record, the UK’s Christmas number one in 2020, and in 2025 a Netflix film.
Is We Solve Murders part of the Thursday Murder Club series?
No. It is a separate series with its own characters: the retired police officer Steve Wheeler, his daughter-in-law Amy, who works in private security, and the novelist Rosie D’Antonio. The second book, We Chase Shadows, came out in September 2026.
Is there a Thursday Murder Club film?
Yes. The Thursday Murder Club, directed by Chris Columbus for Netflix and Amblin, was released on 28 August 2025, with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan as Ron, Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim and Celia Imrie as Joyce. The screenplay is by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote.
Will We Solve Murders be adapted?
Osman said in September 2026 that he was working on it “with our friends at Netflix”, and a six-part series has been reported. At that point Netflix had not officially announced it.
Does Richard Osman still present Pointless?
No. He co-presented Pointless with Alexander Armstrong from 2009 and announced his departure in April 2022. In March 2026 he announced he would also leave Richard Osman’s House of Games, with Michael Sheen taking over.
Is Richard Osman related to Mat Osman of Suede?
Yes. Mat Osman, the bassist of Suede, is his brother.
Footnotes
- Richard Osman — Wikipedia
- The Thursday Murder Club — Wikipedia
- We Solve Murders — Wikipedia
- Richard Osman: ‘The worst thing in the world is someone telling you they’re writing a novel’ — The Irish Times, 2020
- Richard Osman on the Thursday Murder Club series — Saga
- We Chase Shadows — Penguin Books Australia
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“My view is that the brain of a 75-year-old is identical to the brain of a 50-year-old.”
— Richard Osman, interview with The Irish Times (2020)
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