Fans of the Thursday Murder Club mystery series (The Bullet That Missed; The Last Devil to Die) may never tire of it, but one can't begrudge author Richard Osman for trying something new. Perhaps he was finding things getting a little too cozy in Coopers Chase, spurring him to create the high-anxiety but hilarious We Solve Murders.
Retired cop turned private investigator Steve Wheeler essentially lives in a cozy mystery. He's a quietly heartbroken widower residing in the English village of Axley, where pub quizzes are all the adventure he craves. About as cozy as a stomachache is the career of his daughter-in-law, Amy, a bodyguard with Maximum Impact Solutions. She's currently protecting Rosie D'Antonio--"the world's best-selling novelist, 'if you don't count Lee Child' "--on the writer's private South Carolina island. Only when Amy, fearing for her own life, phones Steve for help is he willing to leave Axley--provided he can find a cat sitter.
If Steve belongs in a cozy mystery and Amy in an action thriller, what's the upshot when they join forces? Farce of the highest order. We Solve Murders sends up influencers, egomaniacal actors, ChatGPT, and more, but the novel's centerpiece is the relationship between Amy and Steve. (Thinks Steve at one point: "It's not every daughter-in-law who will high-five you when you've shot a drug dealer in a Coldplay T-shirt, is it?") Great news: these characters will get another vehicle, according to Osman's acknowledgments, which are almost as entertaining as the book itself. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer