Just read Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club” and with no disrespect to the author I hated it. The mystery was set up to be intriguing and captivating, with twists and turns and red herrings, but then there was none of that. It was really just a story about retirees using a murder mystery as an excuse for why it happened.
As someone who came in after reading Agatha Christie novels, I wanted the characters to methodically piece together clues and other information and solve the mystery, but no matter how long I waited it just didn’t happen. The mystery just resolves itself without any way for the reader to solve it beforehand or even any semblance of an emotional payoff.
Are there any modern (read: 21st century) mystery authors who write in the old-school style where the mystery was the point of the novel, as opposed to a plot device?
by Square_Tangerine_659