The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman Book Review
- Joao Nsita
- 1 hour ago
- 13 min read
Why The Last Devil to Die Deserves Your Attention
Some mystery novels entertain you for a few hours and disappear as soon as you close the cover. Others leave you thinking about the characters, their choices, their fears, and the people who quietly hold their lives together. Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die belongs to the second category, offering an engaging murder investigation while exploring aging, dementia, grief, friendship, assisted dying, and the meaning of a good life.
This The Last Devil to Die review looks at the fourth book in Osman’s bestselling Thursday Murder Club series. First published in September 2023 by Viking, the novel returns to Coopers Chase, the retirement community where Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron have built an unlikely but deeply loyal friendship.
This time, the club’s investigation begins with the murder of Kuldesh Sharma, an antiques dealer and friend of Stephen, Elizabeth’s husband. A mysterious package connected to the murder has disappeared, and several dangerous groups want to find it. The case leads the Thursday Murder Club into a world of art fraud, online romance scams, drug dealing, and criminal deception.
Yet the crime is only one part of the story. Elizabeth is dealing with Stephen’s worsening dementia, and the emotional reality of watching someone change becomes one of the novel’s most important threads. Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim must support Elizabeth while also facing their own private fears about health, memory, loneliness, and the future.
The book is still a cozy mystery, but it is more emotionally serious than the earlier installments. Osman does not abandon the humor, warmth, or charm readers expect from the series. Instead, he places those lighter elements beside some of the most difficult questions the characters have faced.
You can read the novel for its clues, red herrings, and criminal conspiracies. You can also read it for the friendship between four older people who refuse to become invisible. That combination makes the book particularly rewarding for readers who enjoy character-driven crime fiction.
If you love this, check out Book Review: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman.
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The Story at the Heart of The Last Devil to Die
The novel opens in the familiar world of Coopers Chase, but the mood is different from the beginning. The Thursday Murder Club members are older, more experienced, and more aware of the physical limits surrounding them. Their friendships are stronger, yet the passage of time is becoming impossible to ignore.
The central murder involves Kuldesh Sharma, an antiques dealer with connections to Stephen. When Kuldesh is killed and a mysterious package disappears, the Thursday Murder Club immediately becomes interested. The missing object is important enough to attract criminals, but the real question is why so many people are willing to risk so much to obtain it.
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron follow the case through the antiques trade, art forgery, drug dealing, and online fraud. These elements give the investigation a wider scope than a traditional retirement village mystery. However, Osman keeps bringing the story back to Coopers Chase, ensuring that the crime never overwhelms the personal relationships at the heart of the series.
Elizabeth’s private life becomes increasingly important. Stephen, her husband, is living with dementia, and Elizabeth must face the painful reality that love does not protect people from illness. She is used to being the capable person in the room, the one who plans ahead and controls the situation. Stephen’s condition creates a problem that cannot be solved through cleverness or manipulation.
Joyce becomes especially important during this part of the story. Her diary entries provide warmth and humor, but they also reveal her growing emotional intelligence. She understands that Elizabeth does not always need advice or a solution. Sometimes she needs someone to sit with her inside an impossible situation.
Ibrahim and Ron remain essential to the group’s balance. Ibrahim brings his careful reasoning and understanding of human behavior, while Ron contributes his directness, anger, and fierce sense of justice. Their methods are different, but both are motivated by loyalty.
The police characters, Donna and Chris, continue to develop as part of the wider Thursday Murder Club family. The relationship between the amateur detectives and the police remains playful, but it is also based on genuine trust. Osman avoids making either side completely right or wrong. The club may break rules, but the police understand that their unconventional methods can reveal information official procedures might miss.
The investigation also introduces people connected to financial scams and online relationships. These storylines are important because they show how vulnerability can be exploited at any age. The residents of Coopers Chase may be experienced, but loneliness and the desire for companionship can still make people susceptible to manipulation.
The title suggests death, but the novel is not obsessed with death for shock value. Instead, it asks what it means to remain alive emotionally when parts of your past are disappearing. The case becomes a way to explore memory, identity, and the stories people tell themselves to survive.
As the plot grows more dangerous, the Thursday Murder Club must decide how far it is willing to go. They are not young action heroes, and Osman does not pretend they are. Their strengths come from experience, patience, relationships, and the ability to make people underestimate them.
The story remains spoiler-conscious here because the emotional turns work best when discovered naturally. What matters most is that the murder investigation, the missing package, the online scam, and Stephen’s illness are not separate distractions. They are connected by the novel’s central concern: people often hide the truth because they believe they are protecting someone.
How Richard Osman Brings This Story to Life
Richard Osman’s writing remains light, conversational, and quick-moving. The novel uses short chapters and several points of view, allowing the story to shift between the investigation, the police work, the criminal world, and Joyce’s personal observations.
Joyce’s diary entries continue to be one of the most enjoyable features. Her voice is gentle, funny, and sometimes unexpectedly profound. She notices small things that other characters ignore, which makes her an effective observer and a natural emotional guide for the reader.
The dialogue is sharp without feeling overly polished. Ron’s bluntness, Ibrahim’s precise explanations, Elizabeth’s secrecy, and Joyce’s kindness create a rhythm that keeps the novel entertaining. Even when the subject matter becomes difficult, the characters continue to sound like themselves.
The pacing is well managed for a mystery that contains several subplots. The criminal investigation creates forward motion, while the emotional story slows the novel down at the right moments. Osman understands that a quiet conversation can be just as important as a clue.
The audiobook is also worth considering. Fiona Shaw narrates the edition, bringing warmth and personality to the different voices. Her performance suits the novel’s blend of humor, suspense, and emotional seriousness.
Osman’s tone is distinctive because he allows the story to be funny without dismissing pain. A joke does not erase grief, and a cozy setting does not eliminate danger. Instead, humor becomes one of the characters’ ways of coping with a world they cannot fully control.
For another look at Osman’s approach to mystery and character, read Book Review: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman.
The Themes That Make The Last Devil to Die More Than a Mystery
Love and Dementia
The novel’s most emotionally powerful theme is the impact of dementia on a relationship. Elizabeth’s love for Stephen remains, but the person she has known for years is changing in ways neither of them can control.
Osman writes about this with compassion rather than melodrama. The story recognizes that dementia affects more than memory. It can change communication, independence, responsibility, intimacy, and the balance between two people who have shared a life.
Assisted Dying and Personal Choice
The novel also explores assisted dying, a subject that can easily become simplistic or argumentative. Osman presents it as a difficult moral question involving autonomy, suffering, love, fear, and personal belief.
The characters do not all agree, and that disagreement is important. The book gives space to different perspectives rather than pretending that one answer can fit every person or family.
Friendship as Care
The Thursday Murder Club is often described as a group of amateur detectives, but in this book it becomes even clearer that they are also a care network. They notice when one another is struggling, offer practical support, and step into emotional spaces where family members may not know how to help.
Their friendship is not based on constant agreement. It survives irritation, secrets, and competing opinions. That makes it feel authentic and gives the emotional scenes real weight.
Fraud, Loneliness, and Vulnerability
The online romance scam storyline reveals how modern technology can exploit very old human needs. People want to be loved, listened to, and reassured. Criminals understand those desires and use them to gain trust.
This theme connects the book’s traditional murder mystery to contemporary crime. The threats are not always strangers hiding in dark alleys. Sometimes they arrive through messages, profiles, promises, and carefully constructed emotional manipulation.
Readers interested in the wider tradition of mystery fiction can explore The 20 Must-Read Crime Fiction Books of All Time.
What The Last Devil to Die Gets Absolutely Right
The novel’s greatest strength is its emotional maturity. The earlier books established the humor and charm of the Thursday Murder Club, but this installment gives the characters more room to confront difficult realities.
The treatment of Elizabeth and Stephen is especially effective. Their story is painful without becoming exploitative, and it gives Elizabeth a vulnerability that her usual intelligence cannot solve.
The group dynamic also remains excellent. Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim each bring a different emotional and intellectual quality to the investigation. Their friendship feels stronger because the book allows them to disagree and worry about one another.
The mystery itself is satisfyingly layered. Art forgery, drug dealing, online fraud, stolen packages, and personal secrets create multiple possible motives. The investigation moves through several worlds while still returning to the intimate community of Coopers Chase.
The novel also succeeds at making older characters central rather than decorative. They are not wise background figures who offer advice to younger heroes. They drive the action, make mistakes, pursue justice, and experience desire, fear, anger, and hope.
Finally, the humor remains perfectly placed. It lightens difficult scenes without making them meaningless. Osman’s characters use laughter as a form of resilience, and that makes the novel feel emotionally honest.
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Where The Last Devil to Die Could Have Gone Further
The novel’s emotional focus may not work for every reader. Some people will find the dementia and assisted dying storyline moving, while others may feel that it becomes more dominant than the murder mystery.
The plot also includes several criminal threads, and not every supporting character receives the same depth as the central group. The Thursday Murder Club members are richly developed, but some of the villains feel more functional than fully realized.
Readers seeking a tense thriller may also find the danger softened by Osman’s comforting tone. The book contains murder and criminal violence, but the emotional reassurance of the group means it rarely feels genuinely bleak.
These are reasonable limitations rather than serious flaws. The book knows what kind of experience it wants to provide: a warm, emotionally intelligent mystery with moments of danger rather than a relentlessly dark crime novel.
Books to Read If You Loved The Last Devil to Die
If you enjoy the balance of humor, crime, and older amateur detectives, try The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. It features a group of unlikely investigators in an English setting and offers a similar sense of community, friendship, and gentle suspense.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is another excellent choice. Precious Ramotswe solves mysteries through observation, empathy, patience, and common sense. The tone is quieter, but the focus on community and human behavior makes it a natural recommendation.
For a more contemporary cozy mystery, try Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Vera is an older amateur sleuth who investigates a murder while building an unexpected chosen family.
You can also explore 5 Must-Read Mystery & Thriller Books for July 2025 for further recommendations.
Who Will Love The Last Devil to Die the Most?
This book is ideal for readers who enjoy cozy mystery books, British crime fiction, retirement village mysteries, found-family friendships, and emotionally intelligent storytelling. It is also a strong choice for fans of Richard Osman’s earlier novels who want a deeper look at Elizabeth and Stephen.
Readers who enjoy humor alongside serious themes will likely appreciate the balance. The novel is especially suitable for book clubs because it raises questions about aging, dementia, assisted dying, loneliness, online fraud, friendship, and personal responsibility.
Content Warnings: Murder, death, physical violence, dementia, grief, assisted dying, drug dealing, online romance fraud, emotional distress, and references to illness. The book is not graphically violent, but several themes may be emotionally difficult.
For another mystery involving emotional stakes and hidden truths, read Book Review: Tell No One by Harlan Coben.
How The Last Devil to Die Stayed With Me
The strongest impression this novel leaves is the idea that love sometimes means accepting what cannot be fixed. Elizabeth cannot use intelligence, influence, or careful planning to stop Stephen’s illness. She can only remain present, make difficult decisions, and allow other people to help her.
That is a meaningful change for a character who is usually in control. Elizabeth’s strength is still visible, but the book shows that strength can also mean admitting fear and accepting care.
The Thursday Murder Club remains funny, but the laughter carries more tenderness here. These characters know that time is limited, yet they continue to investigate, argue, share meals, and protect each other.
The novel’s emotional power comes from that mixture of ordinary life and enormous questions. A retirement village, a diary, a cup of tea, and a murder investigation become the setting for a story about memory, dignity, and the people who make life worth continuing.
Final Verdict: Is The Last Devil to Die Worth Reading?
Yes, The Last Devil to Die is worth reading, especially if you have already grown attached to the Thursday Murder Club. It is one of the more emotionally ambitious books in the series, combining a layered cozy mystery with a thoughtful exploration of dementia, grief, friendship, and personal choice.
The criminal plot includes art fraud, drug dealing, online scams, and a missing package, giving the novel enough movement to satisfy mystery readers. However, the real strength lies in the relationships. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron feel like people whose lives continue beyond the pages.
The book is not the best choice for readers who want a dark, fast, or highly violent thriller. Its tone remains reassuring, and the mystery occasionally takes second place to the emotional story. That balance will frustrate some readers but comfort others.
For fans of character-driven crime fiction, the novel offers a powerful reminder that older people are not defined by decline. They can still seek justice, experience joy, make mistakes, fall in love, protect one another, and face the future with courage.
Richard Osman’s achievement is making a cozy mystery feel genuinely moving without losing its wit. The Last Devil to Die is warm, funny, thoughtful, and quietly heartbreaking.
About Richard Osman
Richard Osman is a British author, television presenter, and producer. He became widely known through television programs including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games before making his fiction debut with The Thursday Murder Club.
His Thursday Murder Club series includes The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, The Last Devil to Die, and The Impossible Fortune. He has also written the separate mystery series beginning with We Solve Murders.
Osman’s novels are known for witty dialogue, warm friendships, older protagonists, ensemble casts, and crime plots that explore emotional questions. His work combines the comfort of cozy crime with themes involving aging, loss, family, loyalty, and the search for purpose.
Learn more about Richard Osman: Official Author Hub | Goodreads | Instagram
Frequently Asked Questions About The Last Devil to Die
1. What is The Last Devil to Die about?
The novel follows the Thursday Murder Club as they investigate the murder of an antiques dealer. The case involves a missing package, art fraud, drug dealing, online scams, and emotional challenges within the group.
2. Is The Last Devil to Die worth reading?
Yes, particularly if you enjoy character-driven cozy mysteries with humor and emotional depth. It is one of the more serious books in the series but still contains the warmth and wit readers expect from Richard Osman.
3. Is The Last Devil to Die part of a series?
Yes. It is the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series. The books should ideally be read in order because the friendships and personal storylines develop across the novels.
4. Can The Last Devil to Die be read as a standalone?
The central murder investigation can be understood without reading the previous books. However, the emotional story involving Elizabeth, Stephen, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim will have a much stronger impact if you know the characters already.
5. What genre is The Last Devil to Die?
It is a cozy mystery, humorous crime novel, and character-driven detective story. It also includes elements of contemporary crime fiction, amateur sleuth fiction, and community mystery.
6. Who are the main characters?
The main characters are Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron, the four members of the Thursday Murder Club. Important supporting characters include Stephen, Donna, Chris, Bogdan, and several residents and criminals connected to the case.
7. Does the book focus on dementia?
Yes. Elizabeth’s husband Stephen is living with dementia, and the novel explores how the condition affects both of them. The subject is treated with seriousness, compassion, and emotional restraint.
8. Does The Last Devil to Die discuss assisted dying?
Yes. Assisted dying is one of the book’s major themes. Osman presents different perspectives and allows the characters to disagree, making it suitable for thoughtful book-club discussion.
9. Who narrates The Last Devil to Die audiobook?
The audiobook is narrated by Fiona Shaw. Her performance captures the different personalities in the group and supports the book’s mix of humor, suspense, and emotional storytelling.
10. What books should I read before The Last Devil to Die?
The best starting point is The Thursday Murder Club, followed by The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet That Missed. Reading the series in order will make the characters’ relationships and emotional changes easier to follow.
Further Reading and External Resources
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