Richard Osman has written seven novels in two separate series. Start with The Thursday Murder Club (2020) and read that series in order, because its storylines and friendships carry from book to book. We Solve Murders (2024) opens a second series with different characters, so you can pick it up at any point.
- Series
- Thursday Murder Club (5 books) and We Solve Murders (2 books)
- Newest book
- We Chase Shadows, September 2026
- Next book
- Thursday Murder Club book 6, not yet titled or dated
Thursday Murder Club Books In Order
Publication order and story order are the same for this series, so there is only one order to read it in. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron age, grieve and change across the five books, and later books give away the endings of earlier ones.
- The Thursday Murder Club (September 2020)
Four residents of the Coopers Chase retirement village meet every Thursday to pick over unsolved cases. When a local property developer is killed, they have a live one.
- The Man Who Died Twice (September 2021)
A letter from a man in Elizabeth’s past pulls the club into a hunt for twenty million pounds in stolen diamonds.
- The Bullet That Missed (September 2022)
The club reopens the ten-year-old case of a murdered television news presenter, while a stranger gives Elizabeth an ultimatum: kill or be killed.
- The Last Devil to Die (September 2023)
An antiques dealer and old friend of the club is shot dead just after Christmas, and the package he was looking after has vanished.
- The Impossible Fortune (September 2025)
Joyce has a wedding to plan. Then a guest who fears for his life asks Elizabeth for help, and promptly disappears.
We Solve Murders Books In Order
This is a separate series with its own cast: Amy Wheeler, a private security officer, her father-in-law Steve, a retired police officer, and the bestselling novelist Rosie D’Antonio. You do not need to have read any Thursday Murder Club book first.
- We Solve Murders (September 2024)
Bodyguard Amy Wheeler is protecting the novelist Rosie D’Antonio when someone starts killing her firm’s clients and the trail leads back to Amy. She calls her father-in-law Steve, a retired detective who would rather be at his pub quiz.
- We Chase Shadows (September 2026)
A body is found at sunrise on the steps of a private villa in the Italian hills. Amy, Steve and Rosie follow the case to Palm Springs, Barcelona and back to Steve’s village pub.
Every Richard Osman Novel By Publication Date
Since 2024 Osman has alternated between the two series, one novel each September.
| Published | Title | Series |
|---|---|---|
| September 2020 | The Thursday Murder Club | Thursday Murder Club, book 1 |
| September 2021 | The Man Who Died Twice | Thursday Murder Club, book 2 |
| September 2022 | The Bullet That Missed | Thursday Murder Club, book 3 |
| September 2023 | The Last Devil to Die | Thursday Murder Club, book 4 |
| September 2024 | We Solve Murders | We Solve Murders, book 1 |
| September 2025 | The Impossible Fortune | Thursday Murder Club, book 5 |
| September 2026 | We Chase Shadows | We Solve Murders, book 2 |
Common Questions
Do You Need To Read The Thursday Murder Club Books In Order?
Yes, if you can. Each book has its own murder, but the lives of the four friends and the people around them move on from one book to the next, and book four in particular lands much harder if you have read the first three.
Is We Solve Murders Part Of The Thursday Murder Club Series?
No. It has different characters and a different setting, and it travels the world where the Thursday Murder Club stays close to a retirement village in Kent.
Will There Be A Sixth Thursday Murder Club Book?
Yes. A sixth novel is under contract with Osman’s publishers, but it had no announced title or publication date when this page was last checked.
Which Richard Osman Books Have Been Adapted For Screen?
Netflix released “The Thursday Murder Club” as a feature film in August 2025. Chris Columbus directed, with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan as Ron, Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim and Celia Imrie as Joyce. In September 2026 Osman said a “We Solve Murders” series was in the works with Netflix, which Netflix has not yet announced.
Non-Fiction And Quiz Books
Before the novels, Osman wrote a run of humour and quiz books, most of them tied to the BBC quiz show “Pointless” and co-written with its host.
| Year | Title | Written With |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | The 100 Most Pointless Things in the World | Alexander Armstrong |
| 2013 | The 100 Most Pointless Arguments in the World | Alexander Armstrong |
| 2014 | The Very Pointless Quiz Book | Alexander Armstrong |
| 2015 | The A-Z of Pointless | Alexander Armstrong |
| 2016 | A Pointless History of the World | Alexander Armstrong |
| 2017 | The World Cup of Everything: Bringing the Fun Home | |
| 2019 | Richard Osman’s House of Games: 1,054 Questions to Test Your Wits, Wisdom and Imagination | Alan Connor |
About Richard Osman
Richard Osman was born on November 28, 1970, in Billericay, Essex. He worked in British television for more than two decades as a producer and presenter before publishing fiction, and is best known on screen for the BBC quiz shows “Pointless” and “Richard Osman’s House of Games”.
His first novel, “The Thursday Murder Club”, came out in 2020. The series has now sold more than ten million copies.
Osman stepped down as co-host of “Pointless” in 2022 to give more time to his writing, although he still presents “House of Games”. Since 2023 he has also co-hosted the podcast “The Rest Is Entertainment” with the journalist Marina Hyde.
Titles and dates were last checked against publisher and bookseller listings on October 9, 2026. Dates are for first UK publication.