We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman
Richard Osman is back, this time not with another Thursday Murder Club mystery but with the first in a new series. Steve Wheeler is a retired police officer, recently widowed and carving out a quiet life in a small English village. His daughter-in-law Amy, whom Steve finds easier to talk to than his son, is a private security specialist who travels the world and lives for adrenaline. Together with the world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio, for whom Amy is currently working as a bodyguard, the Wheelers get drawn into a some high-stakes international thriller stuff that, frankly, I cannot remember any of the plot details of a couple of months after reading this book. I do remember that it was fun to read, with lots of twists and turns, including one that I managed to figure out before it was revealed.
As is often the case with mysteries and almost always the case with anything remotely resembling a thriller, I’m not really here for the plot, which I often have difficulty following (almost certainly says more about me than about the writer). A mystery or thriller will keep me engaged if the characters are engaging and believable, and this is where Richard Osman shines.
While he’s left (temporarily) the posh-retirement-village setting of the Thursday Murder novels behind, Osman still manages to match high-stakes action and offbeat comedy with a tender and insightful concern for grief and aging. While Steve Wheeler is considerably younger than the Thursday Murder Club protagonists, the end of his career and the death of his beloved wife has left him feeling like the big adventures and big emotions of life are over for him, and only small pleasures like the weekly pub quiz night remain. While there’s nothing wrong with small pleasures, the narrative arc of We Solve Murders (which will, presumably, continue in subsequent volumes) is as much about Steve learning to take risks and immerse himself in life again, as it is about international drug deals, murder, and money laundering. It’s the former, much more than the latter, that will inspire me to keep reading this series.
