Books like The Thursday Murder Club

Start with the part you want more of

A useful recommendation begins with a preference rather than a claim that another author writes exactly like Osman. If your favourite part is the company at Coopers Chase, look for recurring characters and a social setting you want to revisit. If you enjoy the puzzle, choose a mystery that gives you pleasure in testing explanations. If it is the humour, sample the narrative voice before buying a whole series. Cosy crime is a broad label: a warm community can still contain frightening violence or painful grief. Check an individual book’s premise and content notes when that distinction matters.

For another amateur-investigator ensemble

Robert Thorogood’s The Marlow Murder Club is a natural title to sample if you want another group of amateur investigators. The attraction of this route is companionship around a mystery rather than a solitary detective’s working day. Begin with the opening novel so you can see the team form. Compare how a new setting shapes the conversations and access to information. Do not expect the personalities to match Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron one for one. A good read-alike gives you some familiar pleasures while leaving room for a different writer’s rhythm, humour and approach to the case.

For village atmosphere and community secrets

If the social geography is what draws you back to Coopers Chase, Richard Coles’s Murder Before Evensong is another title to explore. Read the publisher description and a sample to decide whether its community and voice suit you. For a screen companion, The Village Murder Casebook guides you through Midsomer Murders, while The Kembleford Files follows Father Brown. Those are television fan guides rather than novels by Osman, and their appeal is the recurring community around the mystery. They make useful next destinations when you want villages, conversations and returning characters, even if you are taking a break from reading.

For a more intricate literary puzzle

Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders is worth investigating if the construction of a whodunit matters most to you. Treat it as a puzzle-led alternative rather than an exact match for the club’s atmosphere. Avoid detailed recaps, especially when a mystery’s structure is part of the enjoyment: an explanation of how the book is arranged can disclose more than a short premise. The Horowitz Reading Room is our related guide named for this reading route. The author’s official website below is another useful starting point for exploring the books.

For wit with a supernatural change of direction

Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London offers a different blend: crime investigation enters a magical London through Peter Grant’s policing world. This is a wider genre shift, so choose it if you are curious about an urban fantasy mystery rather than looking only for countryside comfort. Rivers After Dark is our sister guide to that world. A fantasy element changes what a clue can mean, which can be enjoyable for readers who like learning a setting’s rules alongside the investigation. Start at the beginning, sample the voice and allow the series to establish its own expectations instead of measuring every scene against Coopers Chase.

For humour, friendship and a time-travel detour

The Jodi Taylor Bookshelf, at Travel Across Time, offers another route for readers drawn to ensemble friendships and comic energy. Jodi Taylor’s work takes you beyond cosy crime into time-travel adventures, so this is a suggestion based on selected pleasures rather than a claim of the same genre. Use the bookshelf’s reading-order guidance before selecting a later instalment. The characters’ shared history is part of the attraction, just as it is in Osman’s series. If you want a mystery by Osman himself before making that detour, We Solve Murders supplies a fresh trio with a more international premise.

Build a small next-reading shortlist

Choose two possible openers and try a library copy or an authorised sample. Write down what attracted you: voice, setting, team or puzzle. That makes it easier to choose a second book after finishing the first, and it avoids accumulating a whole unread series on the strength of a broad genre label. For a book club, let members nominate a different reading route and compare the reasons before voting. Keep adaptation spoilers separate from novel discussion. Our own where-to-start guide, character trails and audiobook-narrator comparison can help if you decide that the next read should be another Osman rather than a new author.

More books for your next reading pile

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The Marlow Murder Club
Robert Thorogood · For another amateur-investigator team
Judith Potts, a crossword setter living by the Thames, joins forces with dog walker Suzie and the vicar’s wife Becks after a murder disrupts Marlow. This is the closest starting point here for readers who want a small team, a recognisable English community and the pleasure of watching underestimated people investigate. The personalities are different from Osman’s quartet, so enjoy their own chemistry. Begin with this first novel before moving on to the later Marlow cases.
Find The Marlow Murder Club at Waterstones
Murder Before Evensong
Richard Coles · For village life and dry humour
Canon Daniel Clement’s parish of Champton provides the community around this mystery. A proposal to install a lavatory in the church causes friction before a killing makes the parish’s disagreements considerably more serious. Pick this if you enjoy the conversations, loyalties and small routines around Coopers Chase as much as the clues. The church setting and Daniel’s vocation give the novel a distinct voice; it is a village mystery with its own social world.
Find Murder Before Evensong at Waterstones
Magpie Murders
Anthony Horowitz · For readers who love the puzzle
Editor Susan Ryeland reads a manuscript by crime writer Alan Conway, whose detective Atticus Pünd works in the tradition of classic village mysteries. A second story develops around the manuscript. This is a strong choice for readers who like clues, literary games and a carefully constructed whodunit. It has a darker edge than the club’s most comforting scenes. Keep the surprise of how the stories connect: a short introduction is plenty before opening the book.
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The Appeal
Janice Hallett · For a community with plenty to hide
A local amateur-dramatics group, a fundraising appeal and a murder sit at the centre of this mystery told through emails and messages. The reader gets to sift the correspondence, spot contradictions and decide which apparently minor exchanges matter. Choose it for the ensemble and the puzzle of competing accounts. Its documentary format feels very different from Joyce’s diary and Osman’s third-person chapters, but the interest in what people say about themselves makes it a useful next read.
Find The Appeal at Waterstones
The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp
Leonie Swann · For older sleuths with a darker comic edge
The residents of Sunset Hall, a house share for older people, investigate a death while contending with their own secrets and practical difficulties. Agnes and her companions make this an obvious option if the ages of Osman’s detectives are part of the appeal. Expect eccentricity, mutual dependence and darker comedy rather than a copy of Coopers Chase. The novel is translated from German by Amy Bojang; its English title identifies the opening book in Agnes’s adventures.
Find The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp at Waterstones
The Maid
Nita Prose · For an overlooked observer
Molly Gray takes pride in her work at the Regency Grand Hotel and in making rooms immaculate. Finding a wealthy guest dead brings her into a murder investigation. This is a good match for readers who enjoy Joyce’s attention to everyday details and the theme of people being underestimated. Molly has her own distinctive way of understanding social situations, so the attraction is her perspective rather than a four-person club. Begin with this opener to meet her properly.
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Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
M. C. Beaton · For Cotswold comedy and a prickly heroine
Agatha leaves her public-relations career in London for village life, then becomes embroiled in a death connected with a quiche competition. Her impatience and desire to belong make a lively alternative to the established friendships of Osman’s quartet. Choose this if you want a short, traditional village mystery and do not mind a heroine who is often tactless. It introduces Agatha’s world before the long-running series develops its returning cast and relationships.
Find Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death at Waterstones
Rivers of London
Ben Aaronovitch · For a witty supernatural detour
Probationary police officer Peter Grant encounters a witness who turns out to be a ghost, taking his London police work into magic. This is a genre change, not a conventional cosy-crime substitute. It suits readers who enjoy banter, an observant central voice and learning how a setting works alongside the investigation. Start with this novel before later cases; our sister guide Rivers After Dark follows the series, its characters and reading order.
Find Rivers of London at Waterstones
Just One Damned Thing After Another
Jodi Taylor · For friendship, humour and time travel
Historian Madeleine Maxwell joins St Mary’s, an organisation whose work takes the study of history into the past itself. Pick this for the team, comic energy and camaraderie rather than for a village murder puzzle. There is danger and loss alongside the jokes. This first Chronicles of St Mary’s novel is the right starting point, and The Jodi Taylor Bookshelf can help you navigate the novels and short stories afterwards.
Find Just One Damned Thing After Another at Waterstones
We Solve Murders
Richard Osman · For the same author with a fresh team
Steve Wheeler, his daughter-in-law Amy and novelist Rosie D’Antonio offer the most direct continuation of Osman’s humour and affectionate character writing. Steve’s quiet village routines meet Amy’s close-protection work and Rosie’s appetite for adventure. The case travels much further than the typical Coopers Chase investigation. Read this first, then We Chase Shadows; you do not need to finish the Thursday Murder Club series before meeting the new trio.
Find We Solve Murders at Waterstones

Our sister guides

These guides are also operated by Does Your Duck Quack?

Start with the part you want more of

For another amateur-investigator ensemble

For village atmosphere and community secrets

For a more intricate literary puzzle

For wit with a supernatural change of direction

For humour, friendship and a time-travel detour

Build a small next-reading shortlist

More books for your next reading pile

The Marlow Murder Club

Murder Before Evensong

Magpie Murders

The Appeal

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp

The Maid

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death

Rivers of London

Just One Damned Thing After Another

We Solve Murders

Our sister guides

Sources