The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman

This fourth outing of the Thursday Murder Club sees the team of retirees – Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim - investigating the murder of an elderly antiques dealer. He was known to them, a friend of Elizabeth’ husband Stephen, and his death appears to have been a professional hit connected to a missing cache of heroin. Meanwhile, Stephen’s descent into dementia has reached a tipping point – making Elizabeth less focussed than usual on the task at hand. This means the other three must step up, with the help of the usual local police officers, whose case has been taken over by outsiders. The usual undercurrent of humour is heightened by the pathos of the team dealing with the travails of ageing, particularly Elizabeth and Stephen. Osman has gradually built this thread over the previous three novels and deals sensitively and movingly with its inevitable outcome. This does come at the expense of the actual plot of the novel, so it’s probably best that he has decided to leave the Murder Club here for now and focus on other stories.