Day 30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Thursday Murder Club 

by Richard Osman

This is an excellent thriller. Do not be deceived by its gentle tone. Its plotting and characterisation are a lot more subtle than they might at first seem. It is full of shrewd and sharp observation and exposes a lot of the uneasiness and distress of growing old with an understated humour that doesn’t undermine its celebration of old people.

The Thursday Murder Club was set up by Elizabeth and Penny in their upmarket retirement village. Penny is a retired Detective Inspector and Elizabeth was something very shadowy which has given her a lot of experience in . . . . well, most things. Not a lot thwarts Elizabeth. Ibrahim, a meticulous retired psychiatrist, and Ron Ritchie, Red Ron, a former Union firebrand are co-opted to the club.

When the story starts Penny is in a coma in the village's nursing home following a stroke and Joyce, a retired nurse has joined the club. Almost immediately, Tony Curran a builder, part owner of the retirement village and thoroughly horrible character is bludgeoned to death. The Thursday Murder Club goes live. They bring on board (iow coerce) help from the police and off they go.

The book has a whole galaxy of characters, very few of whom are as they first seem. Osman has taken the ‘cosy’ detective thriller genre and subverted it. The temptation is to gallop through the book to find out who done it. This is a mistake, because you will miss much of the humour and more importantly, the perceptive comments about society that Osman has hidden within the text, so well camouflaged that it is easy to miss them. There are a couple of clichés that don’t ring quite true. One shouldn’t expect perfection.

I think it is a sign of a good thriller when, at some point in the story you find you have suspected (with good grounds) almost every character in the book, but I was afraid that the ending would be an anti-climax, that Osman would not be able to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion – but he does. It is managed with great skill and does not duck some of the more difficult issues raised.

But do not be deceived by the blurbs. This is not a ‘cosy’ murder mystery. It's as prickly as a well-worn flannel. I should imagine that quite a few Pointless fans will be disappointed when they realise how superficial the cosiness actually is.

I believe that a second book is on the way. The way forward is not obvious. I am very interested to see how he develops these characters.

 

Music

A bit of Mahler, because I am feeling a bit pensive today. Summer is over and I haven’t quite got myself into Autumn mode yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Les39aIKbzE

(I hope this comes without adverts. The first version I found had rather a tasteless example telling you how to save money on your funeral expenses. I've tested this twice & it seems OK. Fingers crossed!)

This piece of music makes me think of Klimt – not the Klimt of the highly decorated figurative paintings but the Klimt who painted the countryside of fin de siècle Austria - the schlosses* set in their once magnificent gardens, beginning to fade from their Baroque glory as nature takes over and the long reign of Franz Josef dwindles into the twilight of a once great empire.

These paintings are very different from his figurative paintings. They are less studied and contrived and even the more abstract and experimental images have a truth and reality to them lacking in his ‘golden’ paintings. You are very aware that a whole way of life is ending.

 

* How does one translate this word? Dictionaries dogmatically say ‘castle’, but these aren’t castles, nor are they stately homes. They are much more comfortable and gemutlich,  (another untranslatable word) yet, also in their way, magnificent.

 

 

 

 And now for something completely different . . .

 

Courgettes do not understand the concept of queuing. They do not wait their turn. They stampede through the garden transforming into enormous marrows as you watch. If only they were more disciplined – one or two small perfectly formed, ready to be picked each day. But no! I have a mountain of them sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to do something. I can’t bear to move them straight from plant to compost and nobody else I know wants them because they are all looking at similar piles in their own kitchens. The trouble is they don’t freeze well. Even when cooked in dishes like ratatouille or caponata they still manage to become mushy. I have scattered them with salt, dried them in the oven, seared them in hot oil. The result is the same – mush.

So, I am experimenting with new recipes to see what happens. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

1.    A spiced courgette cake

Ingredients

    80ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

    150g golden granulated sugar

    3 eggs

    160g courgette, coarsely grated

    180g plain flour

    2 tsp baking powder

    2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

Demerara sugar

    A pinch of salt

 

Method

1.    Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.

2.    Grease a 900g loaf tin.

3.    In a bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and eggs until smooth. Stir in the grated courgette.

4.    In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Tip the dry ingredients into the courgette mixture and stir until just combined.

5.    Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf tin and sprinkle the top with demerara sugar.

6.    Bake for 45–55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.

7.    Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

You can eat this as a loaf with butter or you can split it in two and sandwich together with a cream cheese filling.

Cream Cheese filling

125g/4oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

225g/8oz cream cheese, mascarpone or ricotta

The zest of a lemon

450g/1lb icing sugar

Beat together until fluffy. Chill before use.

 

2.   Stuffed Courgettes

1.    Heat the oven to 180°C/160° fan

2.    Slice the courgettes length ways and brush with oil.

3.    Place on baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.

4.    Leave to cool

5.    Remove from oven and very carefully scoop out the flesh.

The filling

Suggested ingredients

·      Fried diced pancetta or chorizo

·      Pine nuts

·      Chopped vegetables – eg fried onion, carrots (lightly cooked) chopped peppers, chopped tomatoes, cooked chick peas, cooked lentils

·      Cream cheese

·      Chilli, garlic to taste

1.    Combine any combination of the above to your taste, add the courgette flesh and season.

2.    Fill the cavity in the courgette and sprinkle with breadcrumbs or chopped nuts.

3.    Cook in the oven for a further 25 minutes.

 

Do you have any courgette recipes? Please pass them on. I’m desperate.