The Thursday Murder Club is Netflix’s big new mystery movie that is sure to get a sequel on the streamer, and that sequel should do the last thing that readers of the novels would expect. Netflix clearly hopes that Murder Club could become a franchise, and so long as viewership is strong for the film, that will almost certainly happen.

The Murder Club book series was written by Richard Osman, and currently has four books. A fifth novel, enтιтled The Impossible Fortune, is coming later this year. Reviews for each of the books have been increasingly strong, building on their strong characters and presenting more new and creative mysteries and puzzles with each installment.

The most obvious move forward is to next adapt The Man Who Died Twice. The second novel ratchets up the tension, presenting a thrilling story about a great fortune’s worth of missing diamonds. This international intrigue reaches a boiling point when Elizabeth’s former husband comes back into her life. However, there is an even better choice for the next sequel.

The Last Devil To Die Should Be The Next Thursday Murder Club Movie

Rather than adapting the second book in the series, the next chapter in the Murder Club film series should be based on the best novel, The Last Devil to Die. While this would certainly necessitate making further changes from the Murder Club books, events could be easily shuffled around to make this exciting narrative work.

It would be wonderful if Netflix could make every novel in the series into its own movie, but nothing is promised in the world of streaming. Properties are only valuable so long as they continue to bring in new subscribers, and while these stories do grow increasingly stronger, their audience will not grow in perpetuity.

Because of this, Murder Club needs to lead with its best foot forward. The Last Devil to Die is largely considered to be the best of the series, currently holding a 4.47 review score from users on Goodreads. The novel leaps into the criminal world of underground art and antiques that would lend itself powerfully to a film adaptation.

Just like how series like Reacher have adapted their book series out of order, it is important that Murder Club does not feel they have to adapt the series too stringently. The first movie made some narrative changes, and that helped it to tell the story in a way that was better suited for the screen.

While the narrative of The Man Who Died Twice is strong and exciting, and much of the novel opens the wider world of characters and dynamics, The Last Devil would make for a better film.

Elements of other novels in the series can be used here and there in The Thursday Murder Club‘s sequel, but the next film needs to ensure that it is even stronger than the first. The Last Devil to Die needs a movie, and audiences should not have to wait for several years and three more installments for that to happen.