The Bullet That Missed

The Bullet That Missed is the third novel in the Thursday Murder Club series. In the first installment, The Thursday Murder Club, the club has four members: Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce. Another founding member of the club, Penny, a former police officer, slipped into a coma and was never able to rejoin the group. The group begins by investigating unsolved murders from Penny’s files. The Thursday Murder Club meets in the Jigsaw Room of Coopers Chase, the retirement community where the main characters of the novels reside throughout the series.

All installments of the series include diary entries by Joyce and perspectives of multiple characters. Joyce is introduced in the first novel as a widow, retired nurse, and mother of Joanna. The detective story she writes in The Bullet That Missed references the case from The Thursday Murder Club. The three corpses in Joyce’s story refer to the three murder victims and three people in a photograph that is left at the crime scene.

Joyce and Elizabeth are set up as having contrasting personalities in the first two books: Joyce is warm and emotional while Elizabeth is cold and calculating. Because she was once a spy, Elizabeth starts off in a leadership role in the club and maintains this role throughout the series. In the first novel, the reader learns that Elizabeth’s current husband, Stephen, is her third. In the second book of the series, The Man Who Died Twice, Elizabeth’s ex-husband, Douglas, reveals that he is still in love with her. His attachment can be compared to Viktor’s lasting affection for Elizabeth in The Bullet That Missed. Her former lovers never seem to get over her.

Ibrahim, a psychiatrist, is introduced as the oldest member of the club. He is assaulted by a teenager named Ryan in the second novel. This attack is briefly mentioned in The Bullet That Missed. Ron, a trade union official, is also introduced in the first novel as a divorcé. Ron’s son, Jason, is mentioned as being a retired boxer in The Bullet That Missed, a fact established in earlier installments. Bogdan is introduced in the first novel as a contractor at Coopers Chase and a chess partner of Stephen. Bogdan also confesses to Elizabeth about his part in the murders that the club investigates in the first novel. In the second novel, he remains loyal to the couple, taking care of violent threats.

The diamond case from The Man Who Died Twice is mentioned several times in The Bullet That Missed. This case involves an MI5 agent (and Elizabeth’s ex), Douglas, stealing $20 million in diamonds from a member of the New York mafia. Douglas is killed, but he leaves a note for Elizabeth with the location of the diamonds. Inspired by Stephen’s dementia, she donates them to a dementia charity. Stephen’s condition worsens as the series progresses. Connie, a drug dealer in Fairhaven, is involved in the diamond case as well. In The Bullet That Missed, Connie wants revenge on Ron for being imprisoned at the end of The Man Who Died Twice. Also, Bogdan rejected Connie’s romantic advances, and she also holds a grudge against him in The Bullet That Missed.