Richard Osman is a British television presenter and the author of the "Thursday Murder Club" series of cosy crime novels. The series features four amateur sleuths who work from the comfort of their retirement home.
The first four novels have sold more than 10m copies globally and spent a total of 310 weeks on bestseller lists in America and Britain. A fifth book was published in September 2025. A film adaptation of the first book, starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie and produced by Steven Spielberg, arrived on Netflix in August 2025.
The series grapples with ageing beneath its puzzle-driven plots, exploring both the good (heedless lunchtime drinking, caring less about what other people think) and the bad (one character's husband slowly slips into dementia).
Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what is wrong with it.