Book Review: The Man Who Died Twice (OT)(British, murder mystery, senior citizens)

The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman (Penguin Books, 2022, 400pp, $13.13 PB) Review by Skye Anderson

"Highly Recommended"

The Man Who Died Twice came highly recommended to me by a couple of friends in their 70s, the ages of the quartet of British sleuths in this book, and is a multi-million copy bestseller (whatever 'bestseller' means), so why was it so hard for me to finish. over several weeks with a break in the middle?

NPR's Book of the Day for October 3, 2024, is the newest Richard Osman title and series (We Solve Murders)

while Man is a "Thursday Murder Club Mystery." The best thing about Man, to this reviewer, is the large print and 84 short chapters, some with titles, plus the two pages of discussion questions for readers and a cute fox on the cover.

If you like voluminous Russian novels with numerous characters and long Russian names (lots of consonants), you will love Man, set in England with just as many characters (but shorter names) of all generations and genders (so the names transcend the generations and genders, thereby making it even harder for me to remember who's who)

Man is the second in the series (and soon to be major motion picture) starting with The Thursday Murder Club (soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment) and followed by The Bullet That Missed and The Last Devil to Die (in that order). I really should try reading another Osman book, but, in the meantime, here below is a sample of the humor.

Two women cross the Channel into Belgium for the day and buy souvenirs for their friends: "It was quite a long journey back, so somewhere in northern France I unwrapped Ibrahim's chocolates and we ate them, and then I unwrapped Ron's beers and we drank them."