Sometimes it feels like I’ve been growing up with Richard Osman on television for my entire life. I wasn’t one of the people who watched Pointless from the very start. I saw the occasional episode of Two Tribes when that was on. But I am a huge fan of House of Games. I don’t know why, but that level of quizzing is right up my street. I’m not a fan of the Distinctly Average or Where is Kazakhstan rounds, but at least they’re only once a week each. For the record, Answer Smash is the round where I come alive, but I’m also partial to Password123 and Rhyme Time.
Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last five years, you will know that Richard Osman has stepped out from behind the Pointless laptop and instead he now sits behind… presumably a different laptop where he writes cosy crime fiction. It all started with The Thursday Murder Club, published in 2020. Ahead of its publication, I’m certain there were countless people around the country saying: “Here we go. Another celebrity author. That Katie Price has a lot to answer for. And don’t talk to me about David Walliams.” I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least slightly sceptical myself.
But I borrowed that first book from the library out of curiosity. As I read it, I thought to myself, “You know what, this is good.” I actually think it’s unfair for Richard Osman to be stuck under the umbrella of a celebrity author. He is an author. Full stop. There doesn’t need to be any caveats or asterisks. He’s just somebody who knows how to tell a story. The fact that he happened to become a published author after years of working in television is nothing more than happenstance.
I can only imagine that over the last five years, Mr Osman must’ve been pinching himself on more than one occasion. If it’s not just the fact that there have now been four books in the Thursday Murder Club series (with a fifth out soon), it’s selling the rights to the feature film adaptations with Steven Spielberg producing and Chris Columbus directing. And the film is good as well. At this point in his life, what more can a man ask for?
We Solve Murders is the first in what will be a second series of books. The central characters in this series are Steve Wheeler, a retired detective, and his daughter-in-law, Amy Wheeler, an elite security guard for hire to the rich and famous. At the start of the story, we spend time with Steve, who is a creature of habit and adjusting to life as a widower. He has taken in a stray cat whom he has named Trouble. He spends most of the time speaking to his late wife via a Dictaphone, while he enjoys nothing more than a pub meal and a quiz.
Meanwhile, Amy is halfway across the world on a private island protecting a bestselling author who would appear to be somewhat based on Jackie Collins. The two women couldn’t be more different, but surprisingly they get on. That all changes when it seems that there’s an assassin out there who wants Amy dead. If she’s going to survive this, she’s going to need the help of Steve. If she can convince him to leave his comfort zone, that is.
If you’ve read any of the Thursday Murder Club books, you’ll have a rough idea what to expect from this. It is packed full of that typical Osman humour, and it had me laughing in numerous places. That said, I struggled with this book because there were just so many characters. There were many instances where I thought: “Who is this person again?” It made the book really hard to follow. The characters of Steve and Amy are very well defined, as is the author, Rosie. But a lot of the rest left me confused.
At the heart of it, this wasn’t the book I expected based on the blurb and what I’d heard ahead of time. What this book is is an origin story. And I think the next book in the series will be more along the lines of what I expected.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 stars)
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