Robert Thorogood's THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB

 

 

 

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

I recently discovered a new “silver sleuth” mystery, Robert Thorogood’s The Marlow Murder Club. Thorogood, who also created the BBC television series Death in Paradise, has a narrative style infused with gentle humor possibly derived from his television work.

 

In The Marlow Murder Club, Judith Potts, a crossword puzzle creator, enjoys a nude swim in the Thames one evening when she hears a shot from a neighbor’s home. The narrator ends the first chapter with an appealing description of Judith:

 

If anyone had been out on the river at that precise moment and had had occasion to look up at Judith’s mansion, they’d have seen a very short and comfortably plump woman in her late seventies with wild gray hair standing entirely naked in her bay window, a cape over her shoulders as if she were some kind of superhero. Which in many ways she was. She just didn’t know it yet. (p.4)

 

The next morning, Judith discovers her neighbor’s body, and, due to what she perceives as a lack of interest from the local police, takes on the investigation herself. Judith recruits Becks Starling, the wife of the local rector, and dogwalker Suzie Harris to assist her. Local police sergeant Malik portrays them to perfection:

 

On the left of the trio was the perfect housewife with her flicky hair, jeggings, and gilet; on the right, a solidly built oak of a woman who walked and dressed as if she were about to set sail with Long John Silver; and in between them, the eccentric aristo who wasn’t much taller than she was wide and who was wearing, as ever, her dark-gray cape. (p.191)

 

The three women pursue many leads in the community. Another murder occurs, seemingly unconnected to the first. DS Malik, in charge of her first murder investigation, reluctantly asks the trio to wade through old case files, seeking a motive and possible connection for the two murders. And then a third murder occurs.

 

Possible links to identifying the perpetrator(s) include a common secondary school background, the sport of rowing, and a Rothko painting. Thorogood creates an intricate puzzle plot matrix with three murders, three amateur sleuths, and three suspects.

 

Her friends unable to rescue her, Judith risks her life to close the complicated case. A few days later, she punts down the Thames with her fellow sleuths, drinking champagne.

 

The narrative tone of The Marlow Murder Club is deceptively light, with an omniscient narrator moving in and out of the character’s heads. We learn quite a bit about the three women and their patient police colleague DS Malik—their past lives, current ambitions, and their loneliness. Judith, Becks, and Suzie are memorable characters. They become friends and grow and change in the book. DS Malik learns to appreciate their divergent thinking skills and contribution to solving the three murders.

 

Similar books include Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age (blog link) and Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. Like Osman’s books, The Marlow Murder Club is set in a small English village. The three female Marlow protagonists—two single women and the third, the harried wife of the local vicar and mother of two teens—recognize each other, but only become friends when they band together to solve a series of local murders. The Marlow women use low-tech investigative techniques and purchase their disguises and equipment from a charity shop. In a similar but more violent plot, in Killers of a Certain Age, Raybourn’s trained assassin female protagonists utilize kitchen chemistry and equipment to “MacGyver” a series of killings.

 

PBS Masterpiece and UKTV are filming the TV adaptation of The Marlow Murder Club for 2024 release.

 

Readers and writers, do you read or write “silver sleuth” mysteries?

Photos of the River Thames near Hampton Court Palace, fifteen miles from London