We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Dec. 16th, 2024 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Solving murders.
It’s a family business.
Steve Wheeler likes retired life. He still does some investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits: the pub quiz, a favourite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. HIs days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting infamous author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise …
As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer?
Steve Wheeler is a retired Metropolitan Police detective who now lives alone in the quiet village of Axley in Southern England with a cat called Trouble since the death of his wife, Debbie. Steve has learnt to appreciate the slow pace and the lack of danger, enjoying being part of a local pub quiz team and picking up litter and although he takes the occasional private eye job, he has no intention of getting involved in anything more strenuous or demanding.
His daughter-in-law, Amy, is completely different. An adrenalin junkie who works as a bodyguard at Maximum Impact Solutions, a private security and investigations agency run by her mentor, Jeff Nolan. Right now she’s on assignment on a small island off South Carolina, serving as bodyguard to famous author Rosie D’Antonio who has incurred the ire of a Russian chemicals oligarch called Vasiliy Karpin after using him a little-too-obviously as the basis for a character in her latest bonkbuster, Dead Man & Diamonds. Amy is tasked with keeping Rosie alive until Jeff can convince Karpin to stop trying to kill her.
What should be a straightforward job changes when the local news reports that the influencer Andrew Fairbanks has been found dead in the sea, apparently eaten by a shark. Amy knows Fairbanks - did a job for him - and also knows that he’s the latest in a number of influencers who have met sudden demises, all of whom she has worked for. So when she suddenly finds herself the target of assassins she has no choice but to find out who wants her dead and why and the only person she trusts is her father-in-law.
Steve has always been closer to Amy than his son Adam (who works in finance) and reluctantly agrees to help her and Rosie (who is thrilled by all the danger) as they travel around the world dealing with minor gangsters, money launderers, assassins and social media.
Richard Osman’s thriller (the first in a new series) couples jet-setting action, wry observations - particularly about ageing and dealing with grief - sharp one-liners and an interesting trio of central characters. However for me, neither Rosie nor Amy quite rang true in terms of their characters and the plot - though entertaining - was too easy to guess. That said there’s a lot of potential here and I will definitely read the sequel.
I picked this up because I very much enjoy Osman’s THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB series and was interested in seeing what he did next.
The good news is that if you enjoy Osman’s dry sense of humour from THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB then that’s all present here. I really enjoy the way his characters are grounded in the everyday, talking about TV quiz shows like Tipping Point and crisps, while still having adventures and there’s a lot of fun to be had as Steve comes to terms with Rosie’s freewheeling world of the ultra rich and the benefits that this brings.
Steve is, for me, the most interesting and relatable of the three main characters. Osman is particularly good at drawing out the routine that he has created for himself as he tries to come to terms with the death of his wife but also how he is a good detective because he’s got a good feel for people. The friendships that Steve has on his pub quiz team and his conversations with them work really well because they seem so natural and the awkward way he deals with Rosie’s interest in him is equally believable.
By contrast Rosie - while a lot of fun - was a bit too larger than life for me. With echoes of the late, great Jackie Collins and endless wealth I enjoyed her stories of her exploits both criminal and sexual but I can’t say that I ever bought into her or her interest in Amy and Steve. Equally Amy also didn’t ring true to me. Osman is at pains to set out her background and the way she thinks and she scores high on the psychopath test, but that doesn’t explain the love that she clearly has for both Steve and Adam and I needed to believe in why she did more than what’s currently on the page. That said, this is the first book in a new series and I trust Osman to draw this out more in future stories so at this point it’s a niggle rather than a killer.
The bigger issue for me is that although the plot is a lot of fun and Osman runs a lot of red herrings and clearly has a ball with sending up the influencer industry, I found the twists a tad too easy to guess. This was particularly the case with the true identity of money launderer Francois Loubet, who I figured out very early on, which did kinda spoil the last quarter of the book.
If this all sounds a bit churlish then it’s not meant to because there is a lot of fun to be had here and I liked the fact that Osman is branching out into a new world with a new set of characters (although I think fans of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB will enjoy an uncredited cameo from one of that book’s main characters). I’m particularly interested in learning what kind of relationship the new We Solve Murders agency will have with Maximum Impact Solutions and hope that Jeff and his business partner Henk will appear again as their rivalry and pragmatic approach to their business gave me the biggest laughs. I am definitely looking forward to reading the sequel and will be quick to put in my pre-order for it.
The Verdict:
Richard Osman’s thriller (the first in a new series) couples jet-setting action, wry observations - particularly about ageing and dealing with grief - sharp one-liners and an interesting trio of central characters. However for me, neither Rosie nor Amy quite rang true in terms of their characters and the plot - though entertaining - was too easy to guess. That said there’s a lot of potential here and I will definitely read the sequel.
It’s a family business.
Steve Wheeler likes retired life. He still does some investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits: the pub quiz, a favourite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. HIs days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting infamous author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise …
Steve Wheeler is a retired Metropolitan Police detective who now lives alone in the quiet village of Axley in Southern England with a cat called Trouble since the death of his wife, Debbie. Steve has learnt to appreciate the slow pace and the lack of danger, enjoying being part of a local pub quiz team and picking up litter and although he takes the occasional private eye job, he has no intention of getting involved in anything more strenuous or demanding.
His daughter-in-law, Amy, is completely different. An adrenalin junkie who works as a bodyguard at Maximum Impact Solutions, a private security and investigations agency run by her mentor, Jeff Nolan. Right now she’s on assignment on a small island off South Carolina, serving as bodyguard to famous author Rosie D’Antonio who has incurred the ire of a Russian chemicals oligarch called Vasiliy Karpin after using him a little-too-obviously as the basis for a character in her latest bonkbuster, Dead Man & Diamonds. Amy is tasked with keeping Rosie alive until Jeff can convince Karpin to stop trying to kill her.
What should be a straightforward job changes when the local news reports that the influencer Andrew Fairbanks has been found dead in the sea, apparently eaten by a shark. Amy knows Fairbanks - did a job for him - and also knows that he’s the latest in a number of influencers who have met sudden demises, all of whom she has worked for. So when she suddenly finds herself the target of assassins she has no choice but to find out who wants her dead and why and the only person she trusts is her father-in-law.
Steve has always been closer to Amy than his son Adam (who works in finance) and reluctantly agrees to help her and Rosie (who is thrilled by all the danger) as they travel around the world dealing with minor gangsters, money launderers, assassins and social media.
Richard Osman’s thriller (the first in a new series) couples jet-setting action, wry observations - particularly about ageing and dealing with grief - sharp one-liners and an interesting trio of central characters. However for me, neither Rosie nor Amy quite rang true in terms of their characters and the plot - though entertaining - was too easy to guess. That said there’s a lot of potential here and I will definitely read the sequel.
I picked this up because I very much enjoy Osman’s THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB series and was interested in seeing what he did next.
The good news is that if you enjoy Osman’s dry sense of humour from THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB then that’s all present here. I really enjoy the way his characters are grounded in the everyday, talking about TV quiz shows like Tipping Point and crisps, while still having adventures and there’s a lot of fun to be had as Steve comes to terms with Rosie’s freewheeling world of the ultra rich and the benefits that this brings.
Steve is, for me, the most interesting and relatable of the three main characters. Osman is particularly good at drawing out the routine that he has created for himself as he tries to come to terms with the death of his wife but also how he is a good detective because he’s got a good feel for people. The friendships that Steve has on his pub quiz team and his conversations with them work really well because they seem so natural and the awkward way he deals with Rosie’s interest in him is equally believable.
By contrast Rosie - while a lot of fun - was a bit too larger than life for me. With echoes of the late, great Jackie Collins and endless wealth I enjoyed her stories of her exploits both criminal and sexual but I can’t say that I ever bought into her or her interest in Amy and Steve. Equally Amy also didn’t ring true to me. Osman is at pains to set out her background and the way she thinks and she scores high on the psychopath test, but that doesn’t explain the love that she clearly has for both Steve and Adam and I needed to believe in why she did more than what’s currently on the page. That said, this is the first book in a new series and I trust Osman to draw this out more in future stories so at this point it’s a niggle rather than a killer.
The bigger issue for me is that although the plot is a lot of fun and Osman runs a lot of red herrings and clearly has a ball with sending up the influencer industry, I found the twists a tad too easy to guess. This was particularly the case with the true identity of money launderer Francois Loubet, who I figured out very early on, which did kinda spoil the last quarter of the book.
If this all sounds a bit churlish then it’s not meant to because there is a lot of fun to be had here and I liked the fact that Osman is branching out into a new world with a new set of characters (although I think fans of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB will enjoy an uncredited cameo from one of that book’s main characters). I’m particularly interested in learning what kind of relationship the new We Solve Murders agency will have with Maximum Impact Solutions and hope that Jeff and his business partner Henk will appear again as their rivalry and pragmatic approach to their business gave me the biggest laughs. I am definitely looking forward to reading the sequel and will be quick to put in my pre-order for it.
The Verdict:
Richard Osman’s thriller (the first in a new series) couples jet-setting action, wry observations - particularly about ageing and dealing with grief - sharp one-liners and an interesting trio of central characters. However for me, neither Rosie nor Amy quite rang true in terms of their characters and the plot - though entertaining - was too easy to guess. That said there’s a lot of potential here and I will definitely read the sequel.
