Mr. Osman has written yet another charming, witty, engaging, and complex story stuffed with memorable characters. This book once again checks all the boxes–which is no small feat when the first two books set the bar so high. The voice and the writing craft are just suburb and the humor is delightful.

In addition to the old favorites, there are quite a few new, interesting characters added to this story, and it could have gotten quite unwieldy, but the author balanced it just right. One challenge is when the cast of wonderful characters keeps growing with each book, how with the author manage it? No doubt Mr. Osman will continue to manage it with his magic.

The double meaning of the title is clever and there are some nuggets of irony tucked in around the conclusion that really are really just frosting on a terribly, satisfying book.

As usual, the audiobook is first rate. It is a new reader, Fiona Shaw, for the third book and at first that was alarming because Lesley Manville, the previous reader, was so amazing. But, fear not, Ms. Shaw managed to capture all the characters’ original charm and pulled off the transition flawlessly.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 12 religious exclamations; 3 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore: Reference to various past murders and frequent discussion of evidence; hypothetical discussion of how someone would commit a murder; character has plans to kill two specific people; many implied and explicit threats of death/harm; person is appears to have been murdered (although maybe suicide), no details, implied that it was gruesome and involved knitting needles; characters knocked unconscious and abducted; person obtains gun with intent to kill; character says they are going to kill someone and then gunshot is heard; character is tied up; character threatens to kill someone at gunpoint; character is found dead by gunshot; character confesses to killing someone; apparent suicide; report that a body has been buried and subsequent digging for the body occurs.

Sex/Nudity: Several romantic relationships between heterosexual couples; flirting and innuendo between various characters; a couple of scenes where a non-married couple are in bed after having had sex (no details) and are talking; female character admires and thinks about the physique of a man; a character stays over at someone’s place, but they end up staying up to talk; characters kiss; characters hold hands; character goes to get a massage for the first time and is uncomfortable with only having a towel and other parts of the experience (humorous scene); a man and woman are dating and stay over at one another’s places; characters kiss and hold hands; flirty comments; innuendo; someone says that a man prefers dating other men; character meditates and thinks about his personal transformation as he came out as being gay thanks to the encouragement of a friend; passing reference that a man had boyfriends.

Mature Subject Matter:

Dementia, murder, aging, fraud/crime, blackmail, kidnapping/abduction, coming out, suicide, money-laundering.

Drug/Alcohol Use:

Reference to cocaine dealing; adults frequently drink alcoholic beverages socially; reference to sniffs; someone comments that they smell cannabis on a person, this is latter discussed and person admits to using it; adults smoke; reference to doing magic mushrooms; character is drugged with sleeping pills.