“Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...
Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?”
Whilst we may have left behind Joyce, Elizabeth and the boys in the quaint retirement village of Cooper’s Chase, Osman’s latest offering still imbues the same warmth and cosy feeling of his ‘Thursday Murder Club’ books. The gentle humour between characters and nods to classic British staples are still clear throughout the book, but instead of Joyce’s penchant for M&S, we’re invited into a world of Monster Munch and Greggs sausage rolls. We have moved to a slightly more modern world…the world of the social media influencer. Yes, I know Joyce has an Instagram account, but these unfortunate Instagrammers find that bagging a freebie trip to foreign lands is a costly and unglamourous mistake to make.
Meet our protagonist, Amy. Her latest job is to protect bestselling crime novelist Rosie D’Antonio from being murdered. D’Antonio appears to have angered a notable Russian oligarch after she featured him in her latest blockbuster! Whilst they are hiding out on a remote island, another Instagram influencer is murdered and Amy realises that somehow, she is connected to all the victims. It’s not only Rosie’s life in danger, but somehow, Amy seems to be in danger too. In a strange twist of events and with Rosie’s private jet at their disposal, the most unlikely crime busting duo of all time team up. With some added help from Amy’s father-in-law Steve (ex-police) they take-off on a globe-trotting adventure that will see them dodging hitmen and finding new collaborators to aid them in their dangerous quest.
Someone is funding these murders, but who wants the influencers dead…and why? Our only clue is a money launderer who sends emails using ChatGPT, lurking behind the façade of ‘a friendly British gentleman’. Can Rosie, Amy and Steve work out who is behind the killings before the killer can get to Amy?
The book is full of suspense, but also full of a gentle humour, creating a real depth of appeal to each of the characters, whether they are good or bad. You are willing to invest your time reading this crazy story because you start to care about what will happen to each of them.
Unlike the beloved pensioners of Cooper’s Chase, the new characters in We Solve Murders are a mix of different age ranges, and so the tone and pace of the book is different from what we have come to expect from Osman’s books. In some instances, it feels as though he is a bit out of his comfort zone and trying to be ‘down with the kids,’ but on the whole I think the book works and it is a superb start to a new series.
Amy Wheeler is a young and dynamic private security officer working for Maximum Impact Solutions. Whilst she has had no formal training, she is a natural at her job and loves the adrenaline rush the work brings to her previously mundane life.
Rosie D’Antonio is world-famous author and an absolute dream of a character. She has lived a life which is probably more outlandish than that of any of her characters. She made me think of Samantha from Sex in the City with her couldn’t care less ‘let’s jump aboard my plane and fight the baddies’ type attitude!
Steve’s beloved wife Debbie has recently died, but he takes comfort talking to her from a bench near his home in the New Forest, telling her about his day as though she was still there (which reminded me a bit of the Ricky Gervais comedy After Life.) He has a black cat for company called Trouble, and so I at once felt an affinity towards him! Steve enjoys the simple life of the retired, a weekly pub quiz and a pint with his neighbour. He is the opposite of his high-octane daughter-in-law, but despite their differences, there is a beautiful synergy between the two of them. He has no desire to the leave the comfort of his home, but for Amy he will do anything, even if it means risking his life trying to keep one step ahead of her assassins.
Osman has managed to once again bring a large cast of characters to life, each one with their own eccentricities that provides interest and connects them to the reader. Whilst the plot of the book is well constructed, it is the relationships that develop between the characters that make you want to continue reading. The book, like his Thursday Murder Club series, highlights the strength that can be found in friendship, however unlikely that friendship might be. The ending of the book suggests that there are future outings lined up and another successful series is in the pipeline. I’m already a convert and I hope there will be another opportunity to meet up with some of these personalities again…although I am itching to get back to Cooper’s Chase to see what my favourite group of pensioners are up to now!
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Cosy Crime, Mystery
Release Date: 12th September 2024
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Listening Time: 10h 33m
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