I saw We Solve Murders in the airport and as I was in the mood for a fun holiday read, picked it up. I really enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club so was intrigued to see where Richard Osman would take this new book which, based on the title anyway, follows the same murder mystery / crime themes as his famous series.
Opening sentence: You must leave as few clues as possible. That’s the only rule.
Meet Amy and Steve Wheeler
Our lead characters: Amy is a private security guard for Rosie D’Antonio, a world-famous author and Steve is her father-in-law. He’s a retired policeman who lives in the New Forest and has a quiet life that revolves around quiz nights and evenings in his local pub.
As you can see, they have very different lives, but they are close. Interestingly, we don’t hear much about or from the man who links them, Amy’s husband – aside from that he has a fractured relationship with Steve.
When a series of people linked to the agency Amy works for are found dead, one thing links them – Amy was in the vicinity when all of them were murdered.
Amy looks like she’s being set up and she needs help – so she calls on the only person she can trust, and who has a background in detective skills:
‘There are murders to be solved, and I can’t do it by myself. It’s you and me.‘
‘But we don’t solve murders,‘ says Steve.
He can hear Amy smiling down the phone. ‘Then we’re going to have to start.‘
Round the world chase
What then follows is a high-octane, round-the-world chase that sees Amy desperately trying to discover who is actually behind the murders so that she doesn’t get accused of them herself.
While the plot was definitely well-paced and clever, it’s alway really helpful when one of the characters (in this case, Rosie D’Antonio) is so rich that nothing is a problem. Just hop in your private jet and off you go! The world really is boundless to the rich. Whether you’re trying to solve crimes or not.
Overall, my feelings about this book are that while I enjoyed We Solve Murders, I’m not quite sure why it wasn’t just another of the Thursday Murder Club series? The differences between the two in voice, characters (albeit there are new characters here, but they could easily slip into the world of Joyce etc) are slight.
As you would expect from a Richard Osman novel, the plot delivers, there are jokes in the right places and characters are endearing. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy this page-turner but I’m not sure I’ll be reading more in the series. Just personally, it’s not quite hitting the mark for me!
