The Last Devil to Die

The Last Devil to Die Plot Summary

Introduction

# Shadows and Whispers: A Thursday Murder Club Investigation Snow falls on the Kent countryside as Kuldesh Sharma sits in his red Nissan, engine idling in the darkness. At nearly eighty, the Brighton antiques dealer knows this winter might be his last. The box on his passenger seat contains enough heroin to buy a small house, and the men who want it back would kill for far less. He'd made his choice that afternoon when the well-dressed Liverpudlian walked into his cluttered shop with a leather holdall. Fifty pounds to store an ugly terracotta box overnight. Five hundred when someone collected it the next morning. Simple as breathing, except Kuldesh decided to complicate things. The headlights sweep across his mirrors as the second car arrives. The muzzle flash lights up the car interior like a camera bulb. Kuldesh sees it but never hears the sound. The bullet passes through the driver's side window and through his skull in one clean motion, professional and final. His last thought is of the fox with white-tipped ears that visits his garden each evening, patient and wild and free. What begins as a simple drug deal will spiral into something far more deadly, drawing four unlikely investigators into a web of ancient secrets and modern murder.

Chapter 1: Death in Winter: The Murder of an Antique Dealer

The call comes on a January morning that shatters the peace of Coopers Chase retirement village forever. Kuldesh Sharma, the gentle antique dealer who had become Stephen Best's unlikely friend, lies dead in his car on a lonely Kent lane. A single bullet through the skull, professional and clean. Detective Chief Inspector Chris Hudson stands in the rain, watching the forensics team work. The victim's phone shows two calls made the afternoon before his death. One to Professor Nina Mishra at the university. One to a number blocked by Code 777 encryption, the kind of protection reserved for government officials and spies. Elizabeth Best arrives at the scene with her usual air of quiet authority, silver hair untouched by the drizzle. She had been many things in her long life, but retirement hasn't dulled her instincts. One look at the crime scene tells her this is no random killing. Professional hit, she murmurs to Chris, her trained eye taking in the angle of entry, the lack of defensive wounds. But why kill an antique dealer? The answer lies in Kuldesh's shop, where Detective Constable Donna De Freitas discovers the back room ransacked. Drawers pulled out, papers scattered, a green floor safe forced open and empty. Someone had been looking for something specific, and their frustration shows in every overturned table and smashed ornament. Whoever killed Kuldesh had been searching for something worth killing for. In the shadows of Brighton's underworld, drug dealers Mitch Maxwell and Dominic Holt face their own crisis. A shipment of pure Afghan heroin, worth over a hundred thousand pounds, has vanished without a trace. Their courier, an old man they barely knew, has simply disappeared into the night. The threads of two worlds are about to become fatally entangled.

Chapter 2: The Thursday Murder Club Investigates: Four Unlikely Detectives

The Thursday Murder Club gathers in their usual room at Coopers Chase, the weight of loss heavy in the air. Joyce Meadowcroft, the former nurse with her endless supply of tea and wisdom, spreads the crime scene photographs across the table. Ron Ritchie, the old union man with faded tattoos, studies them with the eye of someone who has seen violence before. Ibrahim Arif, the gentle psychiatrist, makes careful notes in his precise handwriting. Elizabeth sees what the police missed. The timing of Kuldesh's death, the professional nature of the killing, the desperate search of his shop. This isn't about antiques. This is about something far more dangerous. He called Nina Mishra, Elizabeth says, her voice cutting through the speculation. An archaeology professor. Why would a dying man call an expert in ancient artifacts? They visit Nina at the university. Beautiful, brilliant, and drowning in debt, she reveals that Kuldesh had discovered something extraordinary hidden within a shipment of drugs. A six-thousand-year-old Mesopotamian container, carved from bone and marked with ancient symbols. A relic worth millions to the right collector. The breakthrough comes through Joyce's bureaucratic persistence. She extracts the location of Kuldesh's storage garage from Fairhaven Council, where Elizabeth's theatrical performance as a grieving widow had failed spectacularly. Storage garage 1772 on Pevensey Road contains the accumulated mysteries of Kuldesh's long career. Boxes of watches, jewelry, and artwork line the walls, each item tagged with numbers corresponding to some private system. Among the treasures are two Picasso prints, obvious forgeries but skillfully done, pointing toward a network of art fraud extending far beyond simple drug smuggling. But the heroin isn't there, confirming that someone else has claimed the prize. The hunt for the missing drugs is about to become a hunt for something far more precious and infinitely more deadly.

Chapter 3: Love and Loss: Elizabeth's Private Battle with Grief

Behind Elizabeth's fierce determination lies a private agony she shares with no one. Stephen, her beloved husband of decades, is disappearing piece by piece into the fog of dementia. The brilliant academic who once debated Middle Eastern archaeology with the world's greatest minds now struggles to remember how to make tea. The decision comes on a quiet Tuesday evening as snow begins to fall outside their flat. Stephen sits in his favorite chair, lucid for perhaps the last time, his eyes clear as they haven't been in months. I won't fade away, he tells Elizabeth, his voice steady and certain. I won't become a ghost of myself. Elizabeth holds his hand, understanding flooding through her like ice water. They had discussed this in fragments over the weeks, in the moments when his mind surfaced from the fog. Stephen Best had been a man of action all his life, a man who faced challenges head-on. He would not surrender his dignity to a disease that stole memories like a thief in the night. The arrangements are made with the quiet efficiency that marked Elizabeth's career in intelligence. A doctor who asks no questions, a drug that will bring peace without pain, a final evening together listening to Dvořák and remembering their love story. Tell me again, Stephen whispers as the injection takes hold, about the day we met. I saw a handsome man, Elizabeth begins, tears streaming down her face, and I dropped my glove outside a bookshop. He picked it up, and my life began. Stephen smiles, his breathing growing shallow. Lucky bugger, he murmurs, and then he is gone. In his final weeks, Stephen had spoken often of the allotment, of radishes that needed tending. Elizabeth had thought it was the dementia talking. She is about to discover how wrong she had been.

Chapter 4: Following the Trail: Heroin, Art, and Ancient Secrets

The bodies begin piling up like autumn leaves. Dominic Holt, Mitch Maxwell's lieutenant, is found in a warehouse with a bullet through his skull. His Thom Sweeney overcoat hangs on the back of the door, still carrying the scent of his last cigarette. The timing tells its own story. Dom had been at the Brighton versus Everton match that Saturday, spotted by Donna and Bogdan in their clumsy attempt at surveillance. Each death brings the survivors closer to madness. Mitch Maxwell, once the undisputed king of the South Coast heroin trade, now jumps at shadows. His hands shake as he counts his dwindling resources, knowing that somewhere in Afghanistan, his suppliers are growing impatient. Someone is making a play for his territory, and that someone has connections reaching into the highest levels of law enforcement. The National Crime Agency takes over the investigation, led by Senior Investigating Officer Jill Regan. All sharp suits and sharper questions, she demands to know about Kuldesh's missing mobile phone while keeping her own cards close to her chest. The NCA's involvement suggests this is more than a simple drug deal gone wrong. Meanwhile, the Thursday Murder Club pursues their own investigation with characteristic disregard for proper procedure. Joyce's natural empathy opens doors that official badges cannot. She charms information from café owners and shopkeepers, building a picture of Dom Holt's last day. The man in the expensive overcoat who paid cash for his meal, the nervous energy that suggested someone running out of time. The investigation leads them to Samantha Barnes, an antiques dealer whose modest shop in Petworth couldn't possibly support her lavish lifestyle. Her husband Garth, a mountain of a man with careful eyes and dangerous hands, completes the picture of a criminal enterprise hiding behind respectable facades. Phone records reveal the crucial connection. Kuldesh had called Samantha's untraceable number on the afternoon of his death, a desperate attempt to sell stolen heroin to someone who might have the connections to move it safely.

Chapter 5: Dangerous Games: Criminal Networks and Deadly Ambitions

The heroin emerges from the frozen ground like buried treasure, its plastic wrapping still intact after weeks in the earth. Elizabeth stares at the white powder that has cost so many lives, understanding finally why Stephen agreed to help his old friend. In his confused state, he probably thought he was hiding stolen antiques, not Class A drugs. But the real prize is the container itself. A small, ugly box that once held the powder. Six thousand years old, carved with symbols that speak of ancient gods and older fears. To most people, it looks like junk. To the right collector, it is worth millions. Joyce takes charge with the efficiency of a former ward sister. They will use the heroin as bait, let word spread through the criminal underworld that the Thursday Murder Club has found what everyone is looking for. Then they will wait to see who comes calling. The trap is set through Ibrahim's weekly visits to Connie Johnson, the cocaine queen who rules her empire from a prison cell. Within hours of his carefully casual revelation, phones are ringing across the South Coast. The old people at Coopers Chase have the drugs. The hunt is on. Samantha Barnes tumbles down her marble staircase with her skull crushed, another casualty in the escalating war. In Amsterdam, another of Maxwell's men dies in a canal, his throat cut. The criminal empire that grew around the box crumbles as quickly as it rose, leaving bodies in its wake. Elizabeth has a deeper game in mind. She has studied the crime scene photographs, analyzed the timing of the murders, cross-referenced the victims. The killer isn't some random criminal. It is someone who has been close to the investigation from the beginning, someone who has used the chaos to eliminate rivals and seize control. As armed men converge on the retirement village, Elizabeth prepares for the final act of a deadly drama that began in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Chapter 6: The Final Confrontation: Truth Revealed and Justice Served

The confrontation comes at a motorway service station, that most mundane of locations for the resolution of an ancient evil. Nina Mishra sits across from Garth, the massive Canadian whose wife died for the secret of the box, her beautiful face calm as she negotiates for millions. I killed Kuldesh, she says with the casual air of someone discussing the weather. One shot, quick and clean. He didn't suffer. Garth's phone records every word as Nina reveals the cold calculation behind her crimes. She had seen an opportunity when Kuldesh called her in desperation, had recognized the value of what he possessed. A struggling academic drowning in debt, she had made what she considered the rational choice. Murder for money. Human life isn't sacred, she explains, her voice steady and certain. We're all dying anyway. I just accelerated the process. But Nina has made one crucial mistake. She assumed that everyone is as coldly rational as herself. She hadn't counted on love, on loyalty, on the bonds that tie the Thursday Murder Club together. As Elizabeth and Joyce emerge from the shadows, as Bogdan's massive frame blocks her escape, Nina finally understands that she has been outmaneuvered by her supposed victims. The revelation comes not through dramatic confession but through careful observation. Elizabeth had noticed the tells, the micro-expressions that betrayed guilt and knowledge. Joyce's intuitive understanding of human nature filled in the gaps. Ibrahim's psychological insights revealed the motivations that drove each player. The ancient container had done its job. It had caught the devil who wore a professor's face, who killed with a scholar's precision, who had forgotten that some things are worth more than money. Nina would spend the rest of her life in prison, her brilliant mind trapped behind bars she built with her own greed.

Chapter 7: Peace at Last: Closure and New Beginnings

The box makes its final journey not in the hands of smugglers or killers, but in the careful custody of Professor Jonjo Mellor, who flies it personally to Baghdad. There, in the museum Stephen had dreamed of visiting, it finds its place among other treasures that have survived the centuries. Elizabeth stands in the winter sunshine at Coopers Chase, watching the daffodils push through the earth with their eternal optimism. Stephen's ashes have traveled further than he ever did in life, carried by an ancient vessel that witnessed the rise and fall of empires. It seems fitting somehow. Two old souls finding peace together in a place where time moves differently. The criminal empire that grew around the box crumbles completely. Mitch Maxwell dies of a heart attack while searching a rubbish tip, his dreams of sparkling wine vineyards buried with him. Garth disappears into the Spanish sunshine, carrying his grief like a weapon. The survivors learn to live with their losses, their victories, their choices. Joyce returns to her quiet routines, her Picasso sketch, genuine as it turns out, hanging proudly on her wall. Ron wears the colorful jumpers Pauline buys him, his old prejudices softening like his heart. Ibrahim finally speaks of Marius, the love he carried in secret for sixty years, finding in friendship the courage to remember.

Summary

The shadows of theft stretched far beyond a simple drug deal gone wrong, revealing a criminal ecosystem where antiques dealers and art forgers operated alongside heroin smugglers and professional killers. Elizabeth Best and the Thursday Murder Club had uncovered not just a murder but an entire network of corruption that reached from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the genteel tea shops of the English countryside. Justice came not through police procedure but through the relentless pursuit of truth by four unlikely investigators who refused to let an old man's death go unavenged. They exposed the killers, recovered the stolen heroin, and dismantled a criminal enterprise that had operated in the shadows for years. But it was Elizabeth who traveled the furthest, from the woman who helped her husband die to the woman who could live with that choice. Love, she had learned, was not always gentle. Sometimes it wore the face of mercy, sometimes the mask of justice. The ancient box had taught them all that some evils were worth fighting, some prices worth paying, some journeys worth taking, even if they led through the valley of the shadow of death itself.

About Author

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Richard Osman

Osman delves into the intersection of entertainment and storytelling through his unique contributions to television and literature. Known for his work as the creator and co-presenter of the BBC quiz show "Pointless", Osman has built a career that seamlessly combines humor, suspense, and character-driven narratives. His foray into fiction with "The Thursday Murder Club" exemplifies his ability to craft engaging stories that resonate with audiences, offering an "ingenious plot" set in a Kent retirement village. This debut novel launched a successful series, cementing his reputation as a notable author in the cozy crime fiction genre. \n\nBeyond his television career, Osman's literary works, including "The Man Who Died Twice" and "The Bullet That Missed", demonstrate his flair for blending witty dialogue with empathetic characterizations. This skillful combination has led to worldwide sales exceeding 10 million copies, underscoring his impact on readers who appreciate both humor and suspense. Furthermore, the adaptation of his debut book into a Netflix film illustrates his narrative's adaptability and broad appeal, attracting talents like Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. \n\nOsman's career trajectory from television production at Endemol UK to bestselling author highlights his versatility and creative prowess. His work appeals to readers seeking engaging and accessible stories that offer both warmth and intrigue. As his books consistently appear on bestseller lists, including the "New York Times", Osman's ability to connect with diverse audiences remains evident. This brief bio encapsulates a dynamic career marked by a distinctive narrative style and the ability to captivate both viewers and readers alike.

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