Ron Ritchie

A campaigner who has not stopped campaigning

Ron Ritchie is a retired trade-union organiser living at Coopers Chase. Public argument, negotiation and standing up to authority belong to his former working life, and he has not discarded those habits in retirement. He is one of the Thursday Murder Club’s four members, alongside Elizabeth, Joyce and Ibrahim. Ron is blunt, quick to challenge an explanation and difficult to intimidate. Where Elizabeth may conceal what she is arranging, Ron is liable to make his objection perfectly clear. His directness supplies both comic friction and a useful refusal to accept somebody else’s version of events automatically.

Jason and the man behind the bluster

Jason Ritchie, Ron’s son, is a former professional boxer whose fame brings him into a different public world from his father’s union campaigning. Ron’s pride and protectiveness become important in the first novel. Their relationship adds tenderness to a character whose first impression can be combative. He can sound as though he is always ready for a dispute, yet much of that energy comes from loyalty. The same loyalty extends to Ibrahim, his close friend in the club. Their different ways of speaking are funny precisely because neither friendship nor respect depends on sharing the same temperament.

Football, jokes and an audience

Ron supports West Ham and enjoys a joke, including jokes his friends might consider inappropriate or unnecessary. His ability to occupy a room is part of his character. The Bullet That Missed opens with him preparing for a television appearance in the Jigsaw Room. He protests about make-up and claims his friends need not come, while secretly wanting them there. The scene is a useful glimpse of the affection beneath his bravado: the opportunity to perform matters, but so does being seen by the people whose opinions he values. Retirement has not made him indifferent to an audience.

Ron as an investigator

Ron’s campaigning background gives him experience of pressure and of people who would prefer not to answer a difficult question. He contributes the willingness to say an uncomfortable thing when everyone else is being tactful. That can help an enquiry or make it more confrontational than his friends intended. Elizabeth’s planning and Ibrahim’s analysis are useful balances, while Joyce brings a different kind of social confidence. The Man Who Died Twice makes Ron’s concern for Ibrahim especially clear after his friend is attacked. The club’s loyalty is personal: a threat to one member affects the whole group.

Where to start and what follows

Begin with The Thursday Murder Club, where Ron’s relationship with Jason provides an immediate reason to look past the blustering first impression. The Man Who Died Twice then develops his friendship with Ibrahim under pressure. The Bullet That Missed is particularly enjoyable for Ron’s television scenes and the contrast between public confidence and private hopes. Continue in publication order for the later family developments. He is not merely the group’s loud member. The combination of political experience, affection and vanity explains why he can be both an excellent friend and the person most likely to complicate a carefully managed conversation.

On screen

Pierce Brosnan plays Ron Ritchie in the 2025 Netflix film. See the full actor-to-character cast guide and the film guide.

Read the books and extracts

Start with The Thursday Murder Club. Our reading order follows the novels’ publication sequence. The publisher’s extracts below let you meet the characters in Osman’s own prose; review and cast links offer further background.

• The Thursday Murder Club: opening chapter
• Penguin’s guide to the four club members
• The Bullet That Missed: opening chapters