What is so sensational about this book that people are hooked it from day one?? Is the plot or the protagonists?

After reading this smash hit of a book, I am inclining towards the later than the former. It’s not that we are unfamiliar with murder mysteries taking place in unusual circumstances/ places which in this case is a retirement community, but it’s more to do with the leading players shaping the storyline.

The story is told from different character’s point of view and as the view shifts so does its aspect. We get to meet and know the residents of Cooper’s Chase Retirement Community based out of rural Kent near a charming village called Fairhaven. Here, we meet our leading players who have invented the eponymous club to discuss cold cases from the police archives. Elizabeth Best, Ron Ritchie, Joyce Meadowcroft and Ibrahim Arif are helping local police or at best working as amateur sleuths solving open ended police cases sourced from their fellow resident Penny who was a former police officer. Joyce is in fact a new addition to the club as a replacement to an ailing Penny.

Joyce, a former nurse, greets the residents of this retirement village rather reluctantly. She is also unsure about her participation in the murder mystery solving club. But as the story unfolds, she finds her footing and proves to be a worthy addition to the ageing detective quartet. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is the founding member and comes with all the talent and grace necessary to excel as a detective. Ron and Ibrahim are long time friends who complement each other’s personality traits and flaws perfectly.

The story begins with a prolonged dispute with the property developer and promoter of the said Cooper’s Chase Retirement Village who intends to expand the existing property till the hillside cemetery. Not all the residents of the retirement community are on the side with this development and the company head honcho makes more than enough enemies to prolong this coveted development. However, all is not well within the company head and its main developer as we soon find out.

Not long after the developer is murdered in his own home resulting in opening up the murder investigation. One murder follows another and the glare of suspicion focuses everyone from a priest to a neighboring farmer family, till our brilliant hotchpotch quartet swoops in to take the stalled investigations to an astonishing conclusion.

At first, you might find the speed of this story to be slow and stalled. Although it provides ample opportunity for character building and adding context with subplots. But as one murder follows another, the story picks up pace till we hit the crescendo with the final reveal. We witness this coming together of divergent plots and diverse characters together to solve current as well as unsolved past cases.

Indeed, it’s a sheer delight to marvel at the storytelling knack of the author and how gives ample space to all his characters, places and surrounding people to come into their own. All this while maintaining enigma about the main characters and how their personality shaped so far, it’s absolutely fantastic to experience firsthand.

Now you can count me as a fan of this series as I am planning to complete the book series before the screen adaptation drops. Go read this and indulge in a summertime solitude (with a book)!!