By Patricia Ferraz
Brush up on your English through your love of reading! In this post, we highlight interesting phrases and idioms from the popular mystery novel, The Thursday Murder Club. If you like mysteries and unusual detectives, you’ll love this best-seller by Richard Osman, which is soon to be made into a film by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.
The Thursday Murder Club takes place in a sleepy retirement village. Four friends in their seventies and eighties become unlikely detectives when a real murder happens on their doorstep. This mystery will keep you guessing till the very last page.
The Thursday Murder Club is rich in colourful language – especially idioms. Let’s look at some of the ones used in this exciting story.
Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron, our four detectives, are committed to solving the case – in for a penny, in for a pound. This idiom is used to say if you start something, you need to finish it – even if it’s more complicated than you’d expected. Interestingly, it’s used in US English as well – no need to change pounds to dollars.
Solving mysteries might not float your boat, but Elizabeth, the leader of the group, loves being a detective. If something floats your boat, you like or are interested in it. This idiom is mainly used informally.
Not all detectives are the same. Some detectives, like our fantastic four, run rings around others. If someone runs rings around you, they’re much better at doing something than you are.
Chris and Donna, the police officers on the case, have to be really careful. If they don’t keep an eye on the Thursday Murder Club members, those four will have a field day trying to solve the crime (and maybe get in the way of the professionals). This idiom is used to say that someone is taking full advantage of an opportunity.
Some detectives are like a bull in a china shop. If you’re like a bull in a china shop, you are careless in how you move or behave. Not our team, though – they find out who’s guilty before the end. Will you?
We hope this exploration of the idioms from The Thursday Murder Club will add to your enjoyment of this thrilling mystery novel. Happy reading!
What u’ve presented r interesting in learning new phrases n’ idioms.Hope keep doing so.in.the days to come.Thanks.
Thank you! There will be a new article later this week. It’ll be based on another The Cambridge Book Club book but it’ll also focus on lots of interesting idioms. I hope you enjoy it as well. 🙂
I think the article is written excellent
I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Su! Watch this space for another article soon. 🙂
Hello, Patricia!
To record a delightful lesson in audio format, is it possible to use a microphone of proper quality?
Good luck to you, I hope for your understanding.
Hi Bezant! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the article and thank you very much for your suggestion! It’s always great to get your feedback. 🙂
Thanks a lot. It’ll be even more useful if you show these idioms in sentences or short dialogues.
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the article, Lily! Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll keep it in mind for next time. 🙂
looking forward to your next publish
Thanks, Cara! We’ve just published Putting a spanner in the works – Idioms in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Let me know what you think. 🙂
I had started reading “The Thursday Murder Club” a few month ago but dropped it at page #24 moving to “Death and Croissants”. The later is more witty and involving because of the discrepancy of main characters in the novel generates not only the change in their life attitude but also gradually generates a sexual tension.
Now you foster my return to “The Thursday Murder Club”. I will be reading more carefully spotting idioms you indicate.
I hope you enjoy it! I just bough the book you mentioned (Death and Croissants). It sounded fantastic! I can’t wait to start to reading it. Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂
Great to see that you’re still staying close to English Language teaching Patricia! I really enjoyed reading the blog. I miss our days working together and how you tried to create a book club within our circle then! I hope we’ll meet again someday somewhere
As opposed to goin’ all in .