The Last Devil to Die

One of the key elements of all the Thursday Murder Club books is the point-of-view shift that takes place whenever a “Joyce” chapter appears. These chapters break with the third-person narration that characterizes most of the chapters and instead are presented as snippets from Joyce’s diary. As such, they are told in first-person and present a more intimate view of this main character’s thoughts and feelings.

Joyce’s chapters often include humorous anecdotes, personal quirks and observations, or bits of nostalgia or gravitas. Much of what the reader learns about the daily happenings of Coopers Chase come from Joyce, including how the gang spent Christmas and New Year’s. The reader also gets emotional insights into events like Snowy’s burial and Stephen’s funeral. In drawing attention to the work’s themes—e.g., The Impact of Aging, Dementia, and Mortality—Joyce acts as a kind of mouthpiece for the author, as the final paragraph of the book makes clear: “Time for me to turn in now. I know it sounds silly, but I feel less alone when I write. So thank you for keeping me company, whoever you might be” (349). Though Joyce the character presumably does not intend her diary for public consumption, she here addresses the novel reader directly, reinforcing her status as a surrogate for Osman.