The Thursday Murder Club

The group arrives at Tony’s property, and Ibrahim claims that there are three routes Ian could have taken to get to Tony’s house. After looking into traffic patterns and other potential factors, he came to the conclusion on whether or not Ian could do it, but the chapter ends and changes perspective before he actually gives a straight answer. Chapter 42 depicts Ian on his treadmill, thinking about the pushback he is getting from Father Matthew and others over the development. he decides to stop waiting and instead go ahead with the digging as soon as possible. Joyce opens Chapter 43 with her diary, and the answer to the question of whether or not Ian could do it. She writes that, according to Ibrahim, Ian could have made it to Tony’s house by 3:29 pm, which would have “given him two minutes to get out of his car, get into the house, and hit Tony with a large object” (106). Elaborating, Joyce goes on to state that it seems Ian could have killed Tony; he had motive. However, she also wonders if the fun will stop if they arrest Ian.

Chapter 44 depicts what many characters are doing in their homes: Ian goes to bed early; Ron misses the limelight; Ibrahim is in his study, Elizabeth is unable to sleep as she lays in bed, and Bernard is on his computer looking at the plans for The Woodlands.

Edwin Ellidge is the first one in Chapter 45 to see Ian’s Range Rover up early that morning. He is there to pick up Karen and to let the diggers in. By the time Ian comes back down the hill, the entire community has come out to see what is happening; Ron is the first one to confront Bogdan, asking him why they are there, before he addresses the rest of the crowd and tells them how the diggers are coming in behind their backs to dig up their nuns. Ron argues with Ian, saying that they are not pushovers. He adds that their community is full of fighters, and Ian’s diggers are picking a fight. Ian says that he has every legal right to do what he wants.

Joyce and Bernard return during this confrontation, and Joyce addresses the crowd to say that they will be setting up chairs in front of the gates, offering others to stay all day. Meanwhile, Ian returns to his vehicle to call the police. Ian is in his car watching everyone barricade the gate, but he feels that he doesn’t need to do anything because all these people will fold once the police show up. The only person missing from the scene at the gate is Elizabeth. She is sitting on the bench that Bernard is always seen on, watching the scene unfold down below. Bogdan passes her on his way to begin digging, but Elizabeth stops him to ask whether or not Ian told Bogdan that he wanted Tony murdered. Bogdan says that, while Ian would normally ask him to help with such a thing, he never brought it up to him.

In another diary entry, Joyce details the events that went down that afternoon. While Chris said he would have to arrest anyone that blocked the diggers, Joyce called him on his bluff and had him admit that he would not actually arrest any of them. So, the groups were in a standoff. Changing back to third-person, Chapter 50 picks up where Joyce’s diary left off. Father Matthew gets out of the taxi and stops to introduce himself to those in the barricade, before confronting Ian.

The confrontation between Ian and Father Matthew is put on hold as the perspective changes once again in Chapter 52 to center around Bogdan and his digging on top of the hill. It is going well until he discovers a grave with loose bones in it, which was something he was hoping to avoid by digging up the earlier graves; however, he soon discovers that it is a skeleton placed on-top of another coffin, which holds another skeleton inside it. Bogdan doesn’t know what to do; if he reports it, the digging will be stopped for the investigation, so he puts everything back and decides to ask Ian about it. Chapter 53 is the final chapter of Part 1. Ian knocks into Father Matthew’s shoulder, pushing the older man backwards, and as he falls he drags Ian down with him. Ron, Bernard, John, Ibrahim, and Chris pull back Ian from Father Matthew. Chris tells Ian that he will have to arrest him if he doesn’t leave because he assaulted someone in front of him. As Ian heads towards his Range Rover, his “stumbles and topples backwards,” dying “before he hits the ground” (124).