We Solve Murders: A new mystery series from Richard Osman
© Penguin Random House
If you like the Thursday Murder Club series, then I believe you will love Richard Osman’s newest series beginning with the first installment, We Solve Murders. Osman’s mystery novels follow a growing trend featuring older, active protagonists actively solving mysteries, in spite of their age. In fact, it is usually because of their age these older sleuths are able to better discern mysteries that might confound the younger generation of detectives simply because they haven’t quite lived long enough to see as much. For a broader appeal, in both his novel series, he pairs a group of older people, usually including one retired police detective, with a younger neophyte.
In We Solve Murders, this pairing includes Steve Wheeler, retired detective and widower, with his younger daughter-in-law, Amy Wheeler, who works in private security. Amy is a cross between a body guard and a sort of Secret Service Agent. There is a third wheel, Amy’s current ‘job’, Rosie D’Antonio, an ageless (but clearly over 65) best-selling, bigger-than-life author, who becomes a sort of comic foil and secret weapon for Steve and Amy.
As the narrative unfolds, Amy becomes a pawn in a conspiracy, when she realizes she has been framed for the murder of a string of internet influencers, as well as some local corrupt law enforcement officers, around the world. In order to save herself, and her client, who is going along for protection and a wild ride, she must figure out the conspiracy and who wants her dead…with a little help from her father-in-law and his network of friends who happen to be on his local Pub Quiz team.
While I feel that Rosie D’Antonio can be a bit over-the-top at times, I also remind myself that if you happen to see some gregarious older ladies, they do happen to sometimes like rhinestones and shiny shoes. I just kept wishing that Rosie would reign it in a bit. Especially when her overt dress style and personality could be a bigger hinderance than help, but she managed to reign things in when it counts.
Of the three characters, Steve Wheeler is the most nuanced but I do feel that might be on purpose. Amy, the body/security guard extraordinaire has many secrets and layers, which I can only assume Osman will be slowly revealing through this series. Steve’s story is the least opaque in terms of his past. We understand exactly where he is coming from and there is a clear set of moral guidelines that he uses for decision-making. While Steve is not an ex-MI-5 or MI-6 agent, such as Maggie Bird in Tess Gerittsen’s The Spy Coast, he most definitely fits the profile of the older-age heroes beginning to heat up the bookstores and TV streaming services around the world. For a more in-depth analysis of these aging detectives, especially Maggie Bird, visit Ruth Steinberg’s insightful analysis.
I’ve been reading several mystery books that include cats and dogs in the narrative and I am consistently disappointed, mostly because I feel as if the relationship between the pets and the detectives are fairly depthless and flat. One of the only authors who I feel have effectively incorporated pets into narratives is Louis Penny in her Armand Gamache Canadian mysteries (another series with an older detective protagonist as well as several older characters in the series set in Quebec). Another mystery series I enjoy that incorporates a dog is the Library Lovers Mystery series by Jenn McKinlay, this series set in Connecticut.
There are several female characters in this book and it is extremely satisfying experience their trajectories as they go from almost stereotypical patsies to far more astute business women and members of society. Osman does an excellent job of showing how marginalized women can be in most jobs, even when they are the boss, and how it sometimes takes remarkable circumstances to give these women courage to step beyond their societal and self-imposed mental/emotional constraints and rise to the occasion to become far more remarkable creatures.