I love Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series, so it's not much of a surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed We Solve Murders.

Amy Wheeler is a bodyguard for a private security company. She's been assigned to guard a romance author who is experiencing a career renaissance in her later years but who has -- unfortunately -- angered a Russian oligarch.

When things go haywire with her assignment, Amy reaches out to the one person she knows she can trust: her father-in-law Steve, a policeman retired to a quiet English village.

Amy and Steve, along with the very resourceful author, travel the world to unravel a plot that has already left several people dead.

If you love the breezy fun, indelible characters and intricate plots of Osman's other series, be sure to pick up this book.


I received an early review copy from NetGalley.

Don’t expect another version of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club with We Solve Murders. In fact, it reminds me more of Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age. We Solve Murders was a little slow in starting, but once Rosie D’Antonio stepped in, it picked up speed and became funny.

Steve Wheeler retired after twenty-five years as a policeman. After his wife died, his world narrowed, and he’s happy just puttering around the small village where he lives, and going to the pub quiz once a week. On the other hand, his daughter-in-law, Amy, lives for the adrenaline rush of a good fight. She’s in the close-protection business, working for Maximum Impact Solutions, and the man who taught her everything she knows, Jeff Nolan. Her current assignment is to protect Rosie D’Antonio, one of the world’s bestselling authors. They’re on an island with just a Navy SEAL, since Rosie was threatened by a Russian she named in one of her books.

When an influencer is killed, Amy realizes he was the company’s third client to die in a dramatic fashion with a bag of money found near the body. When Jeff disappears, and Amy is attacked, she knows she’s in trouble. She still has to protect Rosie, but there’s only one person Amy can trust to help her. She turns to her quiet, unassuming father-in-law, Steve, who is reluctant to leave home. But, Rosie is pushy enough to send her private plane to pick him up, and the quiet man knows how to get around authorities and make friends in unlikely places.

Someone’s out to ruin Maximum Impact and kill Amy Wheeler. Is it the world’s biggest money smuggler? What about Henk von Veen, Jeff’s former partner? In a fast-paced caper that moves from America to Dublin to Dubai, with stops in between, Amy, Rosie, and Steve are on the run, looking for a killer while trying to stay alive.

Fans of The Thursday Murder Club might be a little disappointed. The characters in We Solve Murders don’t seem to have the same depth, but this is the first in a new series, and it takes time to develop the characters. But, Rosie is a hoot, and Steve has unusual depths. It appears that Osman’s next book may bring back his characters from The Thursday Murder Club series. We’ll just have to wait to get to know Steve, Amy and Rosie a little better.

Richard Osman’s debut novel of what promises to be a hit new series once again proves the author’s skill at inventing and developing unique characters that quickly worm their way into readers’ hearts and minds. Widower and former police officer Steve Wheeler is absorbed in his grief and content to stay in the small world he shared with his beloved late wife. When his bodyguard daughter-in-law set up to be the patsy in a triple murder investigation he realizes that he must give up his lonely, safe life to save her from disgrace or death. Add in the wealthy Rosie d’Antonio, the second most popular mystery writer in the world, and you have a disparate trio whose whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. An elusive, deadly antagonist and his equally mysterious henchmen provide worthy foes, and readers will be captivated by the richly complex plot. “We Solve Murders” is sure to please fans of The Thursday Murder Club and cement Osman’s standing in the top ranks of mystery writers.

WE Solve Murders
by Richard Osman
Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Possibly my favourite Osman yet! Another cracking story with brilliant characters that Osman brings to life in his witty and wonderful way. A clever, funny and thrilling story on a more international scale that kept me fully entertained and even pulled at the heart strings a few times too! Amy, Steve and Rosie are a truly brilliant cast and I can really see them and this series becoming a personal favorite too. Can’t wait for this to hit shelves in September!

No one writes lovable characters like Richard Osman! Fans of Thursday Murder Club will devour this cozy mystery and fall in love with Amy and Steve.

In We Solve Murders, Amy is a celebrity bodyguard who chats with her retired cop father in law, Steve, all the time. While on a job protecting a high profile author, Amy finds out that someone wants HER dead. She goes on the run with the eccentric writer, Rosy, and has to call on Steve to help her figure out who is trying to kill her.

This book is full of adventure, private planes, and hilarious side characters. Amy and Steve will steal your heart! I can’t wait for more! Highly recommend!

The four titles in The Thursday Murder Club series have been major highlights in my recent years as a reader and librarian . So when author Richard Osman came out with a new title in a new series, I was wondering ...

Would the first book, (We Solve Murders), reach as deeply into my emotions and provide characters that I really care about? It does.

Would this new book offer as strong a plot line and as intriguing a story? It does.

Would there be nuanced "good" bad guys that would become my favorites, and would there be repeats of ordinary people having extraordinary adventures? There are.

And most of all, would I be so engaged as a reader that I would continue always wanting to read the next page? I was! and I did!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the chance to read an advance copy of this next direction for Richard Osman. And thanks to the author for what I wager will be an ever better series than the first. Publication date September 17, 2024.
SO good!
Don't miss it!

Richard Osman's new cast of characters is just as charming as the last! Amy is bodyguard, her father in law Stephen is a retired cop and they have an easy, enviable relationship. While Amy is protecting world-famous author Rosie D'Antonio, the job so sideways and she finds herself in need of protection as well. Amy convinces homebody Stephen to fly around the world with her and Rosie to solve the murders of several mid level influencers and figure out why Amy is being framed. Quick banter, multifaceted characters and lush settings make this series every bit as enjoyable as The Thursday Murder Club.

I miss the Thursday murder club but We Solve Murders is a fine addition. The characters are great. Amy Wheeler is a body guard whose specialty is protecting famous people from death threats. Her client now is Rosie D'Antonio, a fiction writer-she is suitably quirky and humorous and lives on an island off the coast of South Carolina. She is alone with Amy and her back up body guard/chef-Kevin. Things take a turn when Kevin attempts to assassinate Amy, who is no woman to mess with. There have been a number of murders in the vicinity of where Amy has been working-all linked by the fact they are clients of her agency and instagram influencers. With the help of her father-in-law, Steve, a retired cop, they take a globe trotting adventure with Rosie. Laugh out loud!! I look for more installations of this series.

Do not despair to learn the Thursday Afternoon Murder Club is not meeting in Richard Osman's new book. The crew Osman introduces in "We Solve Murders" is just as appealing.

There's Amy Wheeler, a pretty young thing and a top-notch bodyguard. Her father-in-law Steve, a retired police officer. Rosie, the body Amy is guarding until someone takes aim at Amy.

Keeping Amy off a growing list of murders requires several trips on Rosie's luxury jet. Rosie is a best selling author and a femme fatale who provides access to anyone Steve and Amy think might crack the case.

This first in a series is a poignant laugh riot.

Amy Wheeler is a high-powered body guard, trying to protect her client, Rosie, a best-selling author. Someone is out to kill Rosie, but is someone also trying to kill Amy? Suspicions arise as bodies pile up so Amy calls in her father-in-law Steve for back up. A world-wide chase ensues. Who are the bad guys and who can be trusted?This is a highly entertaining adventure and the start of a fun new series.

I love this book. So much. I kept thinking about the characters and wanting to spend time with them. Yes, everything about Amy and her job is implausible but I didn’t care. It was all just too much fun. The plot and the mystery were good but, just like The Thursday Murder Club, it’s the characters that make this book special.

I LOVED the Thursday Murder Club series so I had high hopes for this one and it didn't disappoint! The characters and story were so amazing. I'm very excited to have a new series by RIchard Osman to look forward to.

A hoot and a half. I’m crazy about this new group of characters and premise from Richard Osman. I spent the entire time laughing out loud and throughly enjoying myself.
Three characters, who at first glance are very different from each other, team up to find a killer. Amy works as a bodyguard and is protecting infamous author Rosie D’Antonio from a Russian mobster, when another killer has a contract to kill Amy. Turning to her beloved father in law, retired police officer Steve, Amy entices him to leave his quiet small existence to chase the killer around the world. The three of them become an unlikely but perfect team together.
The beginning is confusing as you’re reading three different plot points and characters at once but it soon starts to make sense and then you’re off on this wonderful ride, or should I say flight. And the cover does not do the book justice at all.
I’m already anxiously awaiting book 2 to find what happens next.

For those of us Thursday Murder Club fans who worried when Osman announced he was starting a new series -- we can relax. His new book is terrific and he makes it clear he is continuing with both series and all the characters we have come to love as well as a whole new set of quirky folks.

We Solve Murders features Steve, a retired widowed English cop who lives in a small village and has built his life around minor investigations, his cat, and a weekly pub quiz with his buddies. His son Adam is a world-traveling financier and they don't see much of each other. But Adam's wife Amy is close to Steve, and they chat daily.

Amy is different -- she had a traumatic and violent childhood which she doesn't share. Her background encouraged her to develop a bodyguard's skill set and she is unflappable and comfortable with doing whatever needs to be done.

When the book opens, Amy is guarding world-famous author Rosie D'Antonio, who has been threatened by a Russian oligarch after she put an unflattering portrait of him in one of her best-selling novels. They are on an isolated island with only a Navy Seal chef as staff.

That's one plot thread. The other is that the elite security company Amy works for is clearly being targeted. Three of their clients have met gruesome and very public deaths -- and Amy is being framed for the crimes. Who to trust? Everybody is suspect including both both Amy and her boss and a cast of nicely drawn oddball characters.

There is lots of action, great dialogue, and once again, we find we care what happens to these people. Osman is a master. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I highly recommend "We Solve Murders" from Richard Osman to those who enjoy a murder mystery filled with heartwarming characters struggling with grief and personal trauma. I was excited to learn about the lead characters in the novel because my Dad and I share a love for murder mysteries and we text as often as Amy and Steve.
Having the main characters be a father-in-law and daughter-in-law was a unique twist in an intergenerational private detective style story. I truly enjoy the world building from this first novel and can tell that the author takes great care of making the characters multidimensional. Rosie D’Antonio, a crime writer caught up in Amy's plight brought a lot of humor to the overall adventure. Although the murder mystery at the center of the novel was a bit simplistic, the author's focus on fleshing out each character created a fun and engaging read. I look forward to future stories about Steve and Amy.

Richard Osman is back at it, and even though these aren't the cast of characters I've grown to know and love, this new crew of crime solvers is almost as charming. We Solve Murders tells the story of a professional bodyguard, her ex-cop father-in-law, and a wildly rich star author who set off on an around-the-world trip to solve a money-laundering crime...that has led to multiple murders. This mystery is perfectly set in the 2020s; the criminal uses AI to disguise his writing style and content creators are the targets. As Instagram wannabes keep dying and Amy, the bodyguard, is blamed for their deaths, they must track down the true criminal. Full of hijinks and hilarity, Steve, Amy, and Rosie travel around the world trying to get to the bottom of these crimes. Told in various perspectives--Steve, Amy, Rosie, the killer, and various characters, every twist and turn is delightful.

The strength of this novel was its sheer hilarity. I laughed out loud frequently and enjoyed the new characters, especially Steve and Rosie. Osman does an amazing job of giving each character a unique voice and personality, including many secondary characters. I felt that Amy was the weakest character--all I took away from her was that she likes danger and hates slowing down. I hope he invests more into her character development in the next book. This mystery was not as complex as the TMC mysteries but seemed more comedic. His writing style is distinctive with many choppy sentences, but this works in the context of his books.

Thanks to Netgalley, I give this book 4.5/5

Richard Osman's WE SOLVE MURDERS is another treat from a beloved author. Although different in tone and scope from his well-known THURSDAY MURDER CLUB series, Osman's fans will find familiar elements, including Osman's inimitable prose, and much to love in WE SOLVE MURDERS.

I do have to complain that, once again, the publishers have made the bewildering choice to offer readers a terribly formatted EPUB file. I simply don't understand how, in 2024, this continues to happen, and it makes it unlikely I will accept future review copies from this publisher.

4.25 (Bonus points for the creativity and research. Are private islands, private jets, and private clubs still research for Richard Osman, or are they just, say, a Tuesday?)

What did I just read?! I’d say it was something along the lines of the Elizabeth-heavier parts of the Thursday Murder Club books and Snatch. The range of emotions and expressions I had while reading this included, but were not limited to:

I’m missing a new Thursday Murder Club for this?;
This Steve guy is kind of pathetic. No way he was a Met cop.;
They have to know their phone calls and texts can be hacked.;
Carlos is my hero!;
Keep your eyes on the road, Ferdy!;
I know these people will get what they deserve (good or bad), but this is too stressful. I need a break.;
I’d love to get tired of private jets!;
This Max guy is a douche!
What’s with the ponies?;
Don’t do it, Bonnie! Just turn around.;
Wait, who’s in prison?;
Wake up Felicity!;
Did they explain that? I don’t think they explained that.;
Are people really this stupid?;
I need another mental health break.;
That’s what I thought at the beginning!;
How could he possibly know that? Did they explain that?;
That’s a terrible name for a serious agency!;
I can’t find where they said how he knew that!; and
Glad I didn’t skip the acknowledgments. Very informative!

In the end, it was pretty enjoyable book. I do wish I had thought that a bit more readily throughout the book though.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I am a HUGE fan of the Thursday Murder Club, and so was excited for this new series from Richard Osman. I was disappointed at first when I tried to read and just couldn’t connect with the characters or the story, and almost gave in to a DNF. However, I persevered and suddenly I couldn’t put the book down! Once I got into the groove of the characters, figured out who was who and where they were, it became a very enjoyable read, and I did not guess who the bad guy was until it was revealed! I look forward to continuing the series and am so glad I didn’t give up!

OMG! Osman has brought back the big guns and released a brand-new addictive series that I highly enjoyed. At first, I had slight doubts if I could love it as much as the Thursday Murder Club series, but my prayers were answered, and yes, I absolutely adored this new book and its new characters:

Steve Wheeler: a retired cop, local investigator, pub quiz and puzzle expert, pint lover, stray cat cuddler, and a man still grieving his wife, Debbie, as he talks to her about his day. He also has a unique bond with his daughter-in-law, Amy Wheeler.

Amy Wheeler: works in private security as an experienced bodyguard, protecting highly important people. She is calm, calculating, motivated by adrenaline rushes, and always keeps her emotions at bay. Interestingly, she has a successful marriage with her husband, despite rarely seeing each other, and has a closer relationship with her father-in-law than with his son, talking to him every day.

What if fate brings them together to unite their powers and skills to outsmart a very dangerous man named François Loubet? Disguising himself behind emails written in a British gentleman’s tone, Loubet is a powerful money smuggler who uses micro-influencers for fake advertisement jobs to carry his money across oceans, aided by a smoke screen agent company whose owner is oblivious to the scheme.

Loubet targets influencers protected by Maximum Impact Solutions, where Amy works. Coincidentally, an influencer is found dead each time they unknowingly smuggle money near Amy while she is protecting another client.

Amy’s latest job is protecting the second most popular eccentric thriller author( Lee Child is still number one), Rosie D’Antonio, who might be in her eighties (her age is still unknown, but she has the spirit of a 20-year-old). Rosie included a character in her latest book clearly based on Russian chemical oligarch Vasiliy Karpin, making her a target and forcing her to hide on her private island in South Carolina with Amy and former Navy Seal Kevin, who also serves as their private chef.

When another influencer, Andrew Fairbanks, is found dead on a yacht near their location, Amy realizes it’s no coincidence that each time she is assigned to a client, someone nearby gets killed. Could someone be trying to frame her for the murders and ultimately target her to finish the job? When she gets attacked by an unexpected person, she realizes there’s a target on her back. She must escape, dragging Rosie with her, who is delighted to have a heart-throbbing adventure as hitmen chase after them.

To protect Rosie and herself, Amy needs someone she can fully trust. Her father-in-law, Steve, is the only man who fits the description. Initially, Steve has no intention of leaving his house, missing the pub quiz, or chatting with his friends over a few pints. And who would take care of his cat, Trouble? But when duty calls and his daughter-in-law’s life is at stake, he must push himself out of his comfort zone, finding himself in a whirlwind adventure: traveling on private jets, experiencing gourmet food, getting drunk with the mischievous thriller author, vomiting all over the Dublin countryside before helicoptering, shooting at hitmen, befriending new people, and having the time of his life.

Would Steve’s wits and Amy’s skills outsmart the army of men sent by François Loubet? And will they be able to identify who he really is, as anyone in their close circle could be working for him?

The clock is ticking. The evidence against Amy piles up! They have to find this mysterious man before he beats them in their own game.

Overall: I had an amazing time and laughed so hard! Rosie D’Antonio is a legendary character who stole the chapters and made me guffaw several times. I even fell off the couch, laughing so hard my stomach hurt. I wish there were more books, and I could read them for weeks! It is a true mood healer!

I cannot wait to read more adventures of this team! I am looking forward to catching up on more "We Solve Murders" agency’s adventures!

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking/Pamela Dorman Books for sharing this amazing cozy mystery’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts. And thank you so much to Richard Osman for introducing these amazing characters and writing this fabulous book!