It’s to Osman’s credit, ­however, that now that the world has fallen in love with his septuagenarian sleuths, he’s starting to allow the harsher realities of old age to bite them. Nevertheless there are several surprises sprung along the way, and other compensations include the usual neat one-liners and, in the person of a scrupulously polite Canadian psychopath, one of Osman’s best comic characters.

The joy of writing this, is dark things happen in these books, but you can always talk about daytime TV and cakes. Ron reaches out to longtime master criminal Jack Mason, who in old age has become a lonely soul after learning the hard way that “your henchmen are not real friends. With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? But when a local builder turns up dead, the 70-something sleuths find themselves grappling with their first live case — one with “a real corpse, and somewhere out there, a real killer. Never mind identifying with James Bond or Jack Reacher: what could be more appealing than a vision of senescence in which we might live in as much comfort as the residents of Coopers Chase, be part of an equally close-knit gang of friends, and hare around creating as much trouble in a good cause, in defiance both of a society that undervalues the elderly and of our own deteriorating bodies?

Richard Osman’s first three Thursday Murder Club mysteries are among the 10 bestselling hardback novels since UK records began; I ­suspect only nuclear armageddon or an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant plague can prevent this fourth entry in the series from muscling onto the list. The success of Richard Osman’s first comic crime novel, The Thursday Murder Club, came as no surprise. An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. Osman’s debut novel was a publishing phenomenon: It sold millions, and Steven Spielberg snapped up the film rights. Trouble is never far for the Thursday Murder Club and fans of this hit book series from Richard Osman, just can't wait to see what they are up to in their adventure!

She is then kidnapped by the “Viking” and is tasked with killing Viktor Illyich, a man once nicknamed “The Bullet” by his fellow KGB agents. Ever so ambitious,” Joyce remarks, “but they only use ‘ambitious’ as a criticism about women, don’t they? You've got two working class characters, two middle class characters, two very strong women, two slightly more brittle men. A plan to thwart all of these bad people – and dole out the correct amount of violent retribution to each – requires the full measure of Elizabeth’s genius, but of course she manages it all, while at the same time (here’s the clever part) raising none of the usual concomitant risks of going mano a mano with dangerous criminals.

I managed to steel myself to all the Twixes, but the throwaway reference to chocolate fingers on p284 nearly broke me. On this outing, the “four harmless pensioners” turn their attention to the case of Bethany Waites, a television reporter who, one night 10 years ago, while investigating a massive tax fraud operation, was in a car that went over a cliff. What couldn’t have been predicted about Osman’s books was that they would sell quite so phenomenally well, or be so good.

Clearly no other novelist ­working today can come up with anything to match the pleasure of spending time with Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron as they pore over the details of unsolved murders in the Jigsaw room at Coopers Chase retirement village. But unlike most crime novelists, he ensures his book’s strength and momentum stem not from its plot or its thrills but rather its perfectly formed characters. In previous books, her husband Stephen had been able to play some part in the adventures despite being in the early stages of dementia, but he has now reached the stage of being only intermittently able to ­recognise her.

The Man Who Died Twice” picked up where its predecessor left off and proved to be another skillfully constructed and brilliantly entertaining tale packed with intrigue, humor and adventure. Opening the new Osman is like sitting down to dinner with treasured friends you know are going to kill you - deliciously!

It helps that their leader, Elizabeth Best, is ex-secret service, and is always having hilarious flashbacks to East Berlin in 1970. I would only add on a personal note that it’s a particular challenge to read this book while attempting a sugar-free diet. A local news legend is on the hunt for an exciting new headline and our Thursday Murder Club favourites are soon on the trail of two murders that occurred ten years apart. Kuldesh’s murder kickstarts an Elmore Leonard-esque caper plot in which various ­interested ­parties compete to get their hands on a consignment of heroin that had been in his care, resulting in a string of violent deaths alternating with comic set-pieces.

As the cold case turns white hot, Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), while Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down clues with help from old friends and new. Naturally, however, Osman doesn’t miss an opportunity for comedy, and with Elizabeth ­occupied elsewhere, the mild-mannered Joyce – surely Osman’s finest creation – makes an effort to channel Elizabeth’s acerbity and imperturbability as she and her pals hunt Kuldesh’s killer. As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home. He is a much-loved TV personality whose company is enjoyed by an enormous number of people, many of whom chuckle “You’re absolutely right, Richard” at least 17 times a week. The women’s exchanges are studded with witty repartee and reveal Elizabeth to be queen of the dry reply: Joyce asks her whether she has ever been on TV; “I was once in a hostage video,” answers Elizabeth.