Flautopiccolo

Last night I  finished The Bullet That Missed, the third book in the Thursday Murder Club Mysteries by Richard Osman. It was on hold at Minuteman for several months.

Yet another fun, twisty book. Book 4 (The Last Devil to Die) is now on hold.

Highlights:

• Chris: One day the Thursday Murder Club will get him sacked, or possibly killed, but it’s worth the risk. He feels as if someone must have conjured them up just for him, to save him. The Thursday Murder Club brought him Donna, Donna brought him Patrice, Patrice brought him stir- fried tofu. And all of that, it turns out, brought him happiness. 
• Andrew Everton’s book titles: The Bloody Death of Archibald Devonshire (before he’d stumbled upon his elegant new system of titles), Given in Evidence, Harm Your Defense and Remain Silent
• Jack Mason’s rules to live by: No grassing, and no whisky till six.
• Viktor Illyich told the concierge if an Elizabeth Best were to visit, to show her up straight away. He said she might also be called Dorothy D’Angelo, Marion Schulz, Konstantina Plishkova or the Reverend Helen Smith. He also told her to watch and learn, because Elizabeth Best is the cleverest woman he has ever known.
• Ibrahim: Kendrick was, once again, the right man for the job. If life ever seems too complicated, if you think no one can help, sometimes the right person to turn to is an eight-year-old.

• Elizabeth and Joyce (‘me’) alternate questioning Fiona:
  elizabeth: Tell me about your relationship with Bethany Waites.
  fiona: We disliked each other.
  me: What’s the most money anyone has ever won on Stop the Clock?
  fiona: I don’t know. About twenty grand, I think.
  elizabeth: Why did you dislike each other?
  fiona: She disliked me because she thought I was an airhead. And I disliked her because she thought I was an airhead.
  me: A few weeks ago on the show you were wearing red shoes, I don’t know if you remember them? But I wondered where they were from?
  fiona: I don’t know, sorry.
• Jack Mason to Ron and Viktor about the money laundering: But when we needed it to start coming back the other way, as clean money, some of the things we needed to do to get it back were no longer legal. And some of the money had just vanished. We’d hid it so well even we couldn’t find it.
• Henrik Hansen: I am not Henrik Hansen.
  (Stephen figured it out with the help of Kuldesh.)
• Elizabeth: We were digging in Vladivostok once. I forget why, a warlord had buried something or other. Anyway, we uncovered a prehistoric moose. Intact, antlers and all. We were all set to fill the hole back in, but the head of the Russian Service at the time was on the board of the Natural History Museum, and in the end we released a Russian spy from Belmarsh Prison in return for the moose. It’s on display if you go there now.
• Henrik is here, naturally, it is his house. It’s like Downton Abbey, but with a pinball machine, and a hot tub.
• Donna to Bogdan: Here’s the basic rule: if I’m up for an award, I want you to be there—unless you’re catching a murderer by livestreaming a confession from the Instagram account of a famous television presenter. Then you’re excused.