Richard Osman struck fame with his Thursday Murder Club cozy mystery series, now four books’ strong. His new series, in a genre one might call cozy thriller, kicks off with We Solve Murders and it is a treat. A female bodyguard teams up with her ex-cop father-in-law and a famous writer to find out why a series of influencers have been murdered. The new series is as wryly comedic and skillfully written as TMC but differs in being more propulsive plot wise and less concerned with his characters’ non-plot lives, so it has a very different feel. Indeed the plot is preposterous, full of outrageous McGuffins and segues that could derail any normal novelist. Yet somehow Osman keeps delighting with lovely one-liners and deft action. Situating the storyline within the milieu of global money laundering adds spice to the story. As befits its genre, very little explicit violence takes place, but this seems to only add to the adroitness of the writing. Overall, We Solve Murders is another Osman triumph and streets ahead of most humorous thriller fare.
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