The Thursday Murder Club

Highlights

Page 523

There are still sheep farmed at the very top of the hill, where the woodland breaks, and in the pastures by the lake is a herd of twenty llamas. Ian Ventham had bought two to look quirky in sales photos and it had got out of hand, as these things do. That, in a nutshell, is what this place is.

Page 537

Elizabeth had formed the Thursday Murder Club with Penny. Penny had been an inspector in the Kent Police for many years, and she would bring along the files of unsolved murder cases. She wasn’t really supposed to have the files, but who was to know? After a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy. No one tells you off, except for your doctors and your children.

Page 545

They would meet every Thursday (that’s how they came up with the name). It was Thursday because there was a two-hour slot free in the Jigsaw Room, between Art History and Conversational French. It was booked, and still is booked, under the name Japanese Opera – A Discussion, which ensured they were always left in peace.

Note: Hahaha, I like this book already.

Page 580

These waterfront realities meant that shipping was a highly labor-intensive industry in the postwar era. Depression and war had sharply curtailed the construction of privately built merchant vessels since the 1920s, so ship operators had little capital invested in the business. In the United States, total private outlays for ships and barges from 1930 through 1951 amounted to only $2.5 billion, which was less than shipowners had invested during the decade of the 1920s. Ship lines could buy surplus Liberty Ships, Victory Ships, and tankers for as little as $300,000 apiece, so the carrying cost of ships that were sitting in port rather than earning revenue was not a major expense. Outlays for shoreside facilities were negligible. The big cost item was the wages of longshore gangs, which could eat up half the total expense of an ocean voyage. Add in the tonnage fees paid to pier owners and “60 to 75 percent of the cost of transporting cargo by sea is accounted for by what takes place while the ship is at the dock and not by steaming time,” two analysts concluded in 1959. There was little sense investing in fancier docks or bigger vessels when the need to handle cargo by hand made it hard to cut turnaround times and use docks and ships more efficiently.6

Page 585

I try to be honest where I can, so I hope you don’t mind me saying I don’t like him. He’s all the things that can go wrong with a man if you leave him to his own devices.

Page 630

Ian takes a smoothie from the Range Rover’s ice box. The ice box had not come as standard. A mechanic in Faversham had fitted it for him, while he was gold-plating the glove box. It is Ian’s regular smoothie. A punnet of raspberries, a fistful of spinach, Icelandic yoghurt (Finnish, if they are out of Icelandic), spirulina, wheatgrass, acerola cherry powder, chlorella, kelp, acai extract, cocoa nibs, zinc, beetroot essence, chia seeds, mango zest and ginger. It is his own invention, and he calls it Keep It Simple.

Page 813

Many years ago, everybody here would wake early because there was a lot to do and only so many hours in the day. Now they wake early because there is a lot to do and only so many days left.

Page 956

‘I want to talk to a female police constable.’ ‘I’m sure Mark can sort this out for you,’ says the desk sergeant. ‘Please!’ cries Elizabeth. Joyce decides the time has come to help her friend out. ‘My friend is a nun, Sergeant.’ ‘A nun?’ says the desk sergeant. ‘Yes, a nun,’ says Joyce. ‘And I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what that entails?’ The desk sergeant sees that this is a discussion that could end badly in so many ways and chooses an easy life.

Note: Sometimes you just want that easy life, like Stewart Lee says

Page 973

Chris takes a swig of Diet Coke. He sometimes worries he is addicted to it. He had read a headline about Diet Coke once, which was so worrying he had chosen not to read the article.

Note: It me 😂😂

Page 300

Last time I had been in London was for Jersey Boys with the gang, which was a while ago now. We used to go three or four times a year if we could. There were four of us. We would do a matinee and be back on the train before rush hour. In Marks they do a gin and tonic in a can, if you’ve ever had it? We would drink them on the train home and giggle ourselves silly. The gang has all gone now. Two cancers and a stroke. We hadn’t known that Jersey Boys would be our last trip. You always know when it’s your first time, don’t you? But you rarely know when it’s your final time. Anyway, I wish I had kept the programme.

Page 335

In life you have to learn to count the good days. You have to tuck them in your pocket and carry them around with you. So I’m putting today in my pocket and I’m off to bed. I will just finish by saying that, back at Charing Cross, I nipped into Marks and bought a couple of gin and tonics in a can. Elizabeth and I drank them on the train home.

Note: I love the characters. I wish I wrote more.

Page 444

There are silly, proper tears now. I’ll let them fall. If you don’t cry sometimes, you’ll end up crying all the time.

Page 843

‘Well, firstly, just to note, there are documents in that folder that would take you weeks to track down. You’d need warrants and all sorts. Ventham wouldn’t let you anywhere near some of them. So, I’m not blowing my own trumpet, but even so.’ ‘Feel free to let me know how you got hold of them.’ ‘Ron found them in a skip. Amazing what you can find, a lucky break for us all.

Page 884

It had been Elizabeth’s idea, he was happy to grant her that. They knew, somehow, that Ian Ventham had left Coopers Chase at exactly 3 p.m. and they knew that Tony Curran had been murdered at 3.32. Ibrahim had had to explain to everyone what a Fitbit was. And so here they were, timing the journey in Ron’s Daihatsu. Ibrahim knew they could have just plotted the journey on the satnav, but he also knew no one else realized that and he had fancied the drive. It had been a long time.

Note: This lot is so endearing.

Page 930

Bernard knows he has gone too far inside himself. Knows he is out of reach, even to Joyce. Bernard is not going to be saved and he doesn’t deserve to be saved. Still, what he wouldn’t give to be in that car right now. Looking out at the view, as Joyce nattered away, perhaps picking the loose thread from the cuff of his jacket. But instead he will stay here, on the hill, where he sits every day, and waits for what’s to come.

Note: Eleanor Rigby

Page 082

Ian is sure this little display will blow over, but he hopes the police show up soon. With the amount of tax he hypothetically pays, it’s really not too much to ask.

Page 229

He doesn’t mind the residents being up in arms, they’ll soon lose interest. He can just give them something else to complain about. Sack one of the waiting staff that they like, or ban grandkids from the pool on health-and-safety grounds. Then they’ll be all ‘what graveyard?’ He has to laugh, really, and so he does.

Note: This is so real. So easy to distract people, sadly. The Trump playbook.

Page 288

I hope I don’t sound callous, it’s just that I have seen a lot of people die and I have shed so many tears. But I have shed none for Ian Ventham and I just wanted you to know why. It is sad that he is dead, but it hasn’t made me sad.

Note: It is sad, but I’m not sad - perfectly reasonable.

Page 316

Joyce claps her hands. ‘Splendid. I’m not sure how any of us would have got hold of fentanyl, but splendid.’ She is arranging Viennese whirls on a plate commemorating Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s wedding, something Joanna had assumed she would like many years ago.

Note: Bet this wasn’t featured in the movie. Aged poorly.

Page 354

‘Funny to think, isn’t it?’ says Joyce, wiping crumbs from the front of her blouse. ‘That we know a murderer? I mean, we don’t know who it is, but we know we definitely know one.’ ‘It’s brilliant,’ agrees Ron. He is considering biscuit three, but knows there’s no way he would get away with it.

Note: I’m relating hard with Ron here.

Page 410

So who killed Ventham? Chris was right there when it happened. One way or another, he actually watched him being killed. Who had he seen? The Thursday Murder Club, they were all there, the priest. The attractive woman in the jumper and trainers. Now who was she? Was she single? Now’s not the time, Chris. Concentrate.

Note: It is so refreshing to read something where I like all the characters.

Page 622

Ron is insisting on marking everyone out of ten, and the more whisky he drinks, the higher his scores are climbing. Maureen from Larkin had just scored a seven, largely because she had once pushed in front of Ron at dinner, which ‘spoke a thousand words’.

Page 638

For Ibrahim one of the beauties of Coopers Chase was that it was so alive. So full of ridiculous committees and ridiculous politics, so full of arguments, of fun and of gossip. All the new arrivals, each one subtly shifting the dynamic. All the farewells too, reminding you that this was a place that could never stay the same. It was a community and, in Ibrahim’s opinion, that was how human beings were designed to live. At Coopers Chase, any time you wanted to be alone, you would simply close your front door and any time you wanted to be with people, you would open it up again. If there was a better recipe for happiness than that, then Ibrahim was yet to hear it. But Bernard had lost his wife, and showed no signs of finding a way through his grief. And so he needed to sit on Fairhaven Pier, or on a bench on a hill, and nobody ever needed to ask why.

Note: poignant.

Page 061

‘Would you like some sherry?’ asks Joyce. ‘It’s only Sainsbury’s, but it’s Taste the Difference.’

Note: Really does make a Difference, imo. Strongly agree with Joyce.

Page 419

‘Some people love their children more than they love their partner,’ says Ibrahim, ‘and some people love their partner more than their children. And no one can ever admit to either thing.’

Page 937

At least I have discovered that online dating is not for me. You can have too much choice in this world. And when everyone has too much choice, it is also much harder to get chosen. And we all want to be chosen.

Page 074

So, he would go home and have a night in by himself, with a curry. Chris knew that was where this was heading. The darts was on Sky. Chris wondered whether this was a tragic plan, or simply the sort of plan that people would think was tragic. Was he a content man, doing the things he liked alone? Or was he a lonely man, making the best out of what he had? Alone, or lonely? This question cropped up so often these days, Chris could no longer be confident of his answer. Though if he were a betting man, his money would be on lonely.

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