Book Summary of The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman is the second book in the Thursday Murder Club series. Again set in their retirement community, the members of the Thursday Murder Club are faced with another real-life murder case as an old pal of Elizabeth shows up needing help. If you liked Osman’s first book, you’re going to love this one.
These detailed chapter summaries are to reminder you of the main points of the book before you read the full book review. If you haven’t read the whole book, I highly recommend you do! And if you need a reminder of what happened in the first book, The Thursday Murder Club, you can check out my summary and review.
Part 1
Chapters 1-5
At a meeting of the Thursday murder club, Elizabeth Best is thinking about a letter under her door that was signed by a dead man from Elizabeth’s past. When she goes to meet him, it’s actually Elizabeth’s ex-husband, Douglas Middlemiss, who was an M15 agent with her, asking for Elizabeth’s help. At the same time, Ibrahim Arif is mugged by teenagers when he’s walking through town and taken to the hospital.
Chapters 6-10
When the murder club members and the two police officers Donna and Chris visit Ibrahim, DCI Chris Hudson and PC Donna De Freitas recognize the teenagers from the description, but say there’s nothing they can hold them on without more proof. Later, Douglas tells Elizabeth he’s hiding out here because he’s being hunted by a drug cartel and a violent mobster from America. During a surveillance mission for M15, Douglas stole millions of dollars worth of diamonds from the criminal middleman in the deal, Martin Lomax, who found out Douglas’s identity.
Chapters 11-15
Martin Lomax is planning a garden party at his house to show off his very expensive garden. Elizabeth tells the rest of the group about Douglas, and they agree to help watch out for him in exchange for information about Ryan Baird who attacked Ibrahim. Later that night, an assassin breaks into Douglas’s locked room and finds him.
Chapters 16-20
In the middle of the night, Elizabeth calls Joyce to Douglas’s apartment at Cooper’s Chase to console Poppy, Douglas’s handler, who shot the assassin. More M15 agents, Sue and Lance, show up to clean up and take Douglas and Poppy for questioning. Then, Elizabeth has Bogdan buy a bunch of cocaine for her.
Chapters 21-25
Joyce calls Poppy’s mother and invites her down after Poppy secretly left a note in Joyce’s pocket asking her to call. Douglas and Poppy are moved to a new safe house, but when Elizabeth and Joyce Meadowcroft go to see them at the agreed time there seems to be no one home. Bogdan picks up the cocaine from a local drug dealer, Connie Johnson, and gives it to Ron after.
Chapters 26-29
Ron Ritchie poses as a plumber sent by the housing association and plants the cocaine along with Ibrahim’s credit card in the back of Ryan’s toilet. Then, Ron calls Donna under an anonymous name reporting the drugs in the apartment. At the new safe house, Elizabeth finds Poppy and Douglas have been shot in an upstairs bedroom.
Part 2
Chapters 30-35
Donna and Chris arrest Ryan Baird while Elizabeth and Joyce get questioned by M15 agents, Sue and Lance, about the murders. Martin Lomax gets a call from the American crime group that they’ll kill him if he doesn’t return their diamonds. Ibrahim is back at Coopers Chase recovering, but doesn’t want to ever leave his apartment again.
Chapter 36-40
Bogdan drives Elizabeth, Joyce, and Ron to the garden party at Martin Lomax’s house, but he denies killing Poppy and Douglas. They agree to share information with Martin to find the killer in exchange for information to help him find the diamonds. Later, Elizabeth shares her theory with Sue and the members of the Thursday murder club that Douglas actually faked his death which they find believable.
After Sue leaves, Elizabeth brings them to a tree at Coopers Chase that Douglas had pointed out to her before as a good dead-letter drop. Inside a hole in the tree is a letter telling Elizabeth the diamonds are in a locker at the local bus station.
Chapters 41-45
At the locker, Elizabeth and Joyce find a hidden message from Douglas saying this wasn’t where the missing diamonds were, but Elizabeth should know the real location by now. Later, the murder club invites Donna, Chris, and Patrice (Donna’s mom and Chris’ new girlfriend) over to tell them about the case and ask for CCTV footage of where the locker is at the bus station.
Chapters 46-50
Siobhan, Poppy’s mom, shows up at Joyce’s place. Connie Johnson, who Chris has been investigating, shows up at Chris’s apartment threatening him to back off her operation, or she’ll go after Patrice.
Chapters 51-55
While watching the footage of the locker, Ibrahim sees someone in a motorcycle helmet open the locker a few days before Elizabeth and Joyce. They ask Donna for the footage from the lobby area to see the person without the helmet on.
Chapters 56-60
Chris asks Ron and Bogdan to deal with Connie Johnson before she can do anything to Patrice, and they agree. Looking at the video together, Ibrahim and Donna see that Poppy’s mom was the one who tried to open the locker. Then, Chris finds out that Ryan Baird has gone missing the day of his court date.
Chapters 61-63
The murder club along with Sue, Donna, and Chris meet and realize that Poppy found the letter from Douglas in the tree first. Then, Poppy sent her mom to check the locker. Elizabeth and the group start to think that Poppy is the one who staged her own death after killing Douglas.
Part 3
Chapters 64-70
Elizabeth and Joyce find the diamonds in a different locker at the bus station after Elizabeth figures it out from something Douglas said to her. Sue and Lance are at Martin Lomax’s house for protection because an American mafia boss, Frank Andrade Jr., is on his way over in an airplane. Later, Joyce also finds Ryan Baird in Scotland through a picture on his Instagram account.
Elizabeth and the murder club meet with Chris and Donna to make a plan to use the diamonds to catch Poppy, Martin Lomax, the mafia boss, and Connie Johnson.
Chapters 71-75
Disguised as drug dealers from London, Ron and Bogdan convince Connie to bring the diamonds along with drugs to the meeting with Lomax and the mafia in exchange for more drug dealing contacts while being driven by Ryan Baird (Ron’s supposed nephew in this deal). Connie, Lomax, and Frank show up for the meeting, but Frank gets mad Connie only has two diamonds instead of all of them. During the ensuing argument, Frank shoots Lomax, and Connie then shots Frank.
As Connie runs away, she’s arrested by Chris and Donna who have also arrested Ryan Baird. After waiting nearby, Joyce and Elizabeth ride in the van with Sue and Lomax’s body to the morgue, but on the way Elizabeth accuses Sue of killing Poppy and Douglas. Sue was the one who left the note in Joyce’s pocket to call Siobhan, and then Sue threatens them at gunpoint for the rest of the diamonds not realizing that Joyce is recording everything on her phone.
Chapters 76-79
On the way to Coopers Chase, Sue admits to being in with Douglas about stealing the diamonds, but killing him and Poppy after finding out he wasn’t going to share it. Poppy found Douglas’s letter in the tree, but gave it right to Sue who then used Siobhan (who’s not Poppy’s mom) to help. When they reach Coopers Chase, Bogdan sees them in trouble and shoots Sue after tying up Siobhan, who’s another M15 agent who used to be married to Douglas.
Chapters 80-84
Joyce finally convinces Ibrahim to leave Coopers Chase to help her pick up a dog at the local rescue. Bogdan tells Elizabeth’s husband Stephen. who has dementia, that he really likes Donna. The Thursday Murder Club agrees to keep what happened to the diamonds a secret, but the charity Living with Dementia receives an anonymous twenty million dollar donation.
Read the Full Book Review
Now that you’ve had a refresher on the main points of the book, check out my full book review. You can also check out the next book with these main characters, The Bullet That Missed, along with other book recommendations if you liked this one. If you need a refresher on the first novel in the series, The Thursday Murder Club, I have a review and summary, too.
Here’s the book summary of the next book: Summary of The Bullet That Missed
