I'm now writing on a fancy, on a whim. Enamoured by the book I'm currently reading - The Bullet that missed by Richard Osman. Osman has a kind, playful way with words. He might be discussing a serious topic but still his tone is polite and the voice is methodical and even. It draws you in. Keeps you waiting with bated breath. Looking forward to the next instalment, the next chapter of a whodunnit. Like poetry in the form of prose. If I ask myself, why I feel so? The answer is so simple. His sentences are brief and his chapters short. The story is moving forward despite the lack of very many novel information chapter after chapter. His book is definitely not written with a film adaptation in mind. His writing seems to just focus on that - the joy of stringing together words which have a certain ring to it. Wodehouse and Christie in equal parts.
I'm more than half way through this 3rd book of his - in the Thursday Murder Club series. A delightful series in essence with its heroes being septuagenarian detectives led by an ex-spy and ably assisted by an ex-nurse, ex-psychiatrist (or do psychiatrists even retire?). There is also an ex-famous who? - a boxer or a football player maybe. Whoever he may be, he surely does raise a few knowing eyebrows wherever he goes and can get more than a few doors open. And get witnesses talking by tapping into the right contacts. Maybe Osman will tell us who Ron Ritchie really was before he decided to hang up his boots and settle down in Cooper's Chase, the elderly home playing host to our Thursday Murder Club heroes.
It feels I'm writing in the author's style. Meandering around and letting my thoughts take control of my typing. Which seems perfectly the right way to write. The Thursday Murder Club series, as the name suggests, is indeed solving a murder mystery. But like I mentioned before the tone and style are far from it. There is certainly a bit of mystery surrounding every new character introduced. Hidden thoughts and undisclosed motivations surround these characters. Osman's habit of letting thoughts go unfinished in every chapter creates doubts in the reader's minds. You are inevitably drawn to thinking "Is it him?" or "Is it her - the murderer?" or "Was it that he was working in tandem with her?". There are also the "Surely it cannot be him? He looks naïve and more importantly what was his motive to commit the crime?". Some thoughts are more complex like the ones rising from second mystery running parallel to the cold case that is being solved. If you are reading the book like I do and if you are an avid whodunnit enthusiast, you might be forgiven for thinking "Is this second track a red herring? Or does it have some mystical connection, only to be revealed in the last scenes?".
No matter what my thoughts maybe the onion peel like uncovering of the facts is engrossing. Makes the book unputdownable - an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Like a weekend well spent. Like a weekend post which you wake up energised for work, no matter how laborious work may be. I have nothing to blame my current job - It seems anything but laborious as of now. Overwhelmed, confused and excited are more the adjectives I'm looking for at the moment. Be that as it may, I will return to Richard Osman for now. To an evening of solving crime together with the most adventurous septuagenarians I have known. To inspiring myself to live an exciting and interesting like till the end. Collecting memories, stories and joyous moments through experiences that I'm hoping to be blessed with for the rest of my life.
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