Book Review: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

“Solving murders. It’s a family business,” is the provocative descriptor for Richard Osman’s new series. Osman has created a new world for lovers of his special brand of mystery. The family consists of a father-in-law, his daughter-in-law and his son. Meet Steve Wheeler, a retired policeman and a widower who lives in Axley, a fictional small town that nudges up against the New Forest in southern England: “The forest is the whole point of the place. The village itself simply found itself a small clearing and settled in.” He does a spot of investigating but mostly he follows his well-trodden routines—a daily walk, a weekly pub quiz, and taking care of his cat Trouble. Other than his dead wife Debbie, with whom he “speaks” to daily by leaving messages on his Dictaphone, Steve’s closest confidant is his daughter-in-law, Amy. Like Debbie, Amy is strong and sensible, a person who embraces life and doesn’t shy away from challenges.

Amy’s life has all the adrenaline a person could want. She does private security at an elite level. Right now, she’s protecting a world-famous author, Rosie D’Antonio who has received a death threat. Rosie is richer than rich, and she’s outlived many a friend and lover. 

It’s not the most exciting job Amy has ever had, but it’s sunny, and she likes the client. Rosie D’Antonio, the world’s bestselling novelist, “if you don’t count Lee Child.” Her Spanish-style mansion on her own private island just off the coast of South Carolina. With her own personal chef.

It’s a copacetic assignment for Amy, until it isn’t. Andrew Fairbanks, an Instagram influencer, is found dead on a yacht in the Caribbean, with a bag full of cash beside him. It’s nothing to do with Amy until the former Navy SEAL turned personal chef tries to assassinate her. Why is someone trying to tie her to viral executions with an Instagram twist? Don’t mess with Amy. She and Rosie Amy escape the island. Their plan is to get out of Dodge by flying away on Rosie’s plane, but they have no doubt the assassination attempts will continue. Not to mention the reason Amy is protecting Rosie in the first place—a Russian is trying to kill her. Amy needs reinforcements stat, in the person of her father-in-law Steve. Reading the peregrinations Steve goes through before he is finally persuaded to fly to America is laugh-out-loud funny. This is a guy who barely leaves Axley.

“Look, I can’t promise you,” says Steve, “but I could look into flights on the computer? See if I can get a cheap deal next week? Maybe you’ll have solved it by then?”

 

“There’ll be a plane waiting for you at Farnborough,” says Amy. “Rosie’s private jet.”

 

“Give over,” says Steve. “Farnborough. Is there parking?”

 

“A car will come to your house. It’ll drive you to the plane.”

 

“Wait a minute,” says Steve.

 

“I need you, Steve,” says Amy. “Get the plane.”

 

“I’ll have to mull it ov—”

 

“What would Debbie tell you to do?”

 

Steve knows exactly what Debbie would tell him to do. She’s telling him right now. He feels sick. But then he realizes there’s another feeling too. One that he can’t quite put his finger on. Surely not excitement? At being wanted? At being needed? At danger? No, he must be in shock.

 

“Are there alligators?”

 

Steve hears Amy put this question to Rosie, who replies, “God, yes, huge ones.”

Righty-ho! What more does Steve need? Perhaps a personal explanation from Amy, who tells him she needs “someone I can trust.” “There are murders to be solved, and I can’t do it by myself. It’s you and me.” Readers will crack a rueful smile when they read Steve’s answer: “But we don’t solve murders.” 

Rosie and Steve get on like a house on fire. Rosie likes Steve so much she foregoes the pleasure of adding him to her endless list of conquests. Sometimes a lady just needs a friend. Curiosity about Rosie’s age is a running joke in We Solve Murders. She bemoans the fact that at her age she has “fewer friends.”

“People die,” says Steve.

 

“And a lot more people die when you get to my age,” says Rosie.

 

“Remind me what age that is again?” asks Steve.

 

“Thirty years younger than my first husband,” says Rosie. “And thirty years older than my next husband.”

Complaints notwithstanding, there’s a lot of life left in the old girl—the ageless Joan Collins might be a good actor to play Rosie.  

We Solve Murders is grittier, and in some ways, a more grounded mystery than The Thursday Murder Club series but then again, Rosie owns her own plane. No more comparisons, except to say that Osman has a deft hand at finding the perfect phrase or action to describe someone. His writing is a rare treat—I can’t wait for the next adventure of Steve, Amy, and Rosie and the cast of characters they collect around them. Perhaps, like me, you are worried about “the further adventures of a gang of friends called Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron.” Have no fear, Osman assures us that “they’ve enjoyed their year off and are ready for a few more murders.”