Clara’s Verdict
By the time you reach the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series, you have either fully surrendered to Richard Osman’s particular project, four elderly residents of a Kent retirement village who are significantly more capable than the police, or you have decided it is not for you. If you are still here, The Last Devil to Die will reward your loyalty in ways the earlier books could not quite manage, because Osman has now had four books to develop his ensemble to the point where genuine emotional stakes are possible. This fourth entry is, by consensus among devoted readers, the most moving of the series so far. The Telegraph called it "deeply moving, some of his best writing yet." That is not a sentence you often write about a cosy mystery.
Fiona Shaw’s narration has been the series’ great secret weapon from the beginning, and here she is again, the definitive voice of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim, bringing Shaw’s own considerable intelligence and timing to bear on a cast of characters she now knows as thoroughly as she knows herself.
About the Audiobook
The inciting incident is the murder of an old friend in the antiques business, a man who was protecting something dangerous that has now gone missing. This draws the Thursday Murder Club into the world of art forgery, online romance fraud, and drug trafficking in ways that feel both improbable and, in Osman’s hands, completely natural. He has always understood that cosy mystery works not because the crimes are unserious but because the community that investigates them carries warmth and wit that the procedural genre often sacrifices for atmosphere.
What distinguishes this fourth book from the earlier three is the matter Osman handles with the most care: something troubling is happening closer to home, something the gang cannot investigate or solve, only witness and support. The inclusion of heartache that is not crime-related but domestic and tender marks a shift in the series’ emotional register. Osman has been honest in interviews about drawing on his own life experiences for the later books, and it shows, not in a way that makes the book feel personal in an intrusive sense, but in a way that gives the human moments a weight the plotting alone cannot provide.
The arrival of National Crime Agency Senior Investigating Officer Jill Regan complicates the gang’s relationship with official law enforcement, and the Loony Dunes community of the retirement village continues to generate its own subplot pleasures. Joyce’s diary entries remain a favourite structural device for long-time readers, and Osman uses them here with increasing confidence. They have moved from comic relief to something capable of genuine pathos, and this development is handled with considerable skill.
Fiona Shaw at Full Stretch
Fiona Shaw has inhabited this ensemble long enough that the performances feel less like characterisation and more like inhabitation. The audio edition includes an exclusive conversation between Osman and Shaw at the conclusion, which is a thoughtful addition for fans who want to hear the collaborators reflect on the series and its development. Shaw’s handling of the more emotionally demanding material in this fourth book is exceptional. She understands exactly when to let a moment land without theatrical underlining, and in a book that asks its characters to be brave in both small and large ways, that restraint is everything.
What Readers Say
Rated 4.7 from 82 reviews, this is among the most substantively reviewed books in the batch. "It is always a joy to be reunited with Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim," one reader wrote, noting that this entry is "a bit of an emotional rollercoaster" while the series’ warmth remains intact. Another praised the "excellent weaving of lines of enquiry" and appreciated that each character gets their moment of significance. The word "comforting" appears in multiple reviews, which tells you something important about what Osman is actually building: a world that feels safe enough to cry in.
The book also benefits from Osman’s increasing confidence with plot architecture. The earlier books in the Thursday Murder Club series are charming but occasionally a little loose in their plotting, relying heavily on character warmth to carry sections where the mystery mechanics feel secondary. By the fourth book, the plotting is tighter and the emotional stakes are built into the structure rather than added on top. The art forgery thread and the online romance fraud investigation weave together more elegantly than the earlier books’ less integrated subplots, which makes the reading experience feel more satisfying even as the emotional register deepens.
Who Should Listen?
Read the first three books first. This is not a place to begin. For existing Thursday Murder Club devotees, this fourth entry is the one most likely to make you genuinely emotional, and Fiona Shaw’s performance ensures every feeling lands cleanly. The exclusive Shaw and Osman interview at the end is a lovely additional reason to choose the audio version over print for this particular instalment.
