Richard Osman started off as a TV host, but is best known outside the UK for his series of detective novels. The detectives in these books, The Thursday Murder Club series, are not your usual tormented private eyes or Detective Inspectors given to drink. They are a set of elderly residents of a retirement community whose former careers gave them the skills to tackle murder cases, and who have the time to investigate without having to deal with mundane financial or household problems.
In We Solve Murders, Osman has branched away from his quartet of elderly investigators, but not very far. The characters in this novel include Amy Wheeler (a capable private bodyguard) and Rosie D’Antonio (a famous billionaire elderly nymphomaniac author who needs protection from a Russian oligarch who she included by name in a book). But back in England there is Steve, Amy’s elderly father-in-law, who is an ex-policeman and now a private investigator, and his pub quiz team, who are not dissimilar to the Thursday Murder Club lot. Clearly, small-town England and elderly investigators are Osman’s comfort zone.
As with the Thursday series, the plot is inconsistent, disorganized, and requires major suspension of disbelief. Rosie D’Antonio, the writer, has infinite resources and is immediately recognized all over the world, but never actually seems to spend a moment writing. Amy and her husband are described as soulmates, but they never want to talk to each other, while Amy and her father-in-law Steve have a daily conversation and a deep connection. The bad guys are trained in all kinds of weapons and have a long history of murders and assasinations, but are somehow stymied by this random opposition or just by blind luck.
Amy drags herself to her feet and runs out of the panic room, heading back into the house as Kevin aims and fires. She falls in a heap on the hallway carpet just as Kevin’s first bullet thuds into the door of the panic room, which Rosie has swung shut.
At the end, someone magically identifies the secret evil kingpin, based on very little information, and the plot is quickly wrapped up with a couple of romantic connections made along the way.
There is a vast cast of characters that one barely gets to know, and I, for one, hardly cared whether the kingpin turned out to be Person A or B. Some characters who could potentially be important, like Amy’s husband Adam who is also Steve’s son, appear so intermittently and hazily that one keeps expecting something more, but no, his job remains mysterious and he remains largely off-page.
By about halfway through the book, Steve becomes a somewhat better-rounded character, but the rest of them remain simplistic. Amy, in particular, is bland and boring, which is a pity because she is one of the main characters.
The book is structured in many small chapters, each dealing with a different character and situation. One chapter is about lunchtime in the Brass Monkey, a small-town English pub; the next has Amy and Rosie in South Carolina; the next is from the desk of the mysterious murderous kingpin; and then we’re suddenly in Dubai among some new characters. Each chapter ends on a gently tense note:
Something in her tone has worried him. Probably nothing.
“Let’s swim the last bit; the sharks never come this close to the shore.”
He throws the SIM and the phone out of his window and drives on.
All this chopping and changing of characters and scenes is annoying, and removes any possibility of developing a deeper interest in most of the characters.
The Thursday books are set in good ol’ England, but this book travels all over the world; from South Carolina to St Lucia to Dublin to Dubai. The diverse locations do not improve the book, and are almost ridiculously stereotypical. South Carolina has a black airport TSA guard. St Lucia has a drug kingpin. Dublin has a plethora of delighted fans who mob Rosie D’Antonio. Dubai has golf courses and luxury accommodations. It is tempting to suspect that these locations were included after Osman’s book tours.
There is a gentle sense of humor that may appeal to some readers.
“Have you ever shot anyone before?’ Rosie asks Steve, while snapping through Amy’s cable ties.
‘No,’ says Steve. ‘But the Coldplay T-shirt made it easier.”
“Henk said someone needs to teach you to hold a gun properly, but I loved it” says Jeff. [to Max, a mid-level action film actor]
“Huh”, says Max. A man who has been given something to think about.
“Not everyone gets cinema,” says Jeff.
“I am misunderstood as a man,” says Max. “And as an artist. That’s Britain all over.”
The Thursday series were never great books, but were fun in a forgettable way. Sad to say, We Solve Murders has even less to recommend it.
The Thursday Murder Club was recently made into a film with a star cast of Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley. Even the minor characters are played by the likes of David Tennant and Jonathan Pryce. The plot is still all over the place, but it’s all done with such a light heart that it is enjoyable escapist entertainment. Honestly, the actors add so much to the film that it is much more fun than the books.
The assisted living community in which they reside, Coopers Chase, is gorgeous, with huge apartments, wonderful food, and lots of activities; I think we should all be booking spots there.
agree entirely with your review! I only read one of these Osman books, one was enough. But happy to hear the TV series is better.