We Solve Murders

What is We Solve Murders about?

Steve Wheeler is a retired police officer — content, domestic, happily settled into a life of routine and cups of tea. His daughter-in-law Amy Wheeler is a private security operative with a talent for finding trouble in places that are supposed to be safe. When a client is murdered on a remote island and someone starts trying to kill Amy, Steve gets pulled out of retirement and into a partnership he did not ask for and is not entirely sure he survives.

Richard Osman uses this series to do something deliberately different from the Thursday Murder Club. The pace is faster, the locations change with each set piece — this is globe-trotting mystery rather than village mystery — and the central duo drives the story through friction and unlikely competence rather than cosy community. Where the Thursday Murder Club is built on accumulated warmth and the weight of long friendship, We Solve Murders runs on contrast: the cautious ex-cop and the woman who treats personal risk as a professional qualification.

The humour is still very much Osman — dry, warm, fundamentally decent — but the delivery mechanism is different. Steve is not a wit; he is baffled and endearing and more capable than he looks. Amy is the engine, the risk, and the chaos. Together they are better at staying alive than either has any right to be.

Should I read We Solve Murders in order?

The series has one book published as of 2024. Read that book. Order is not yet a pressing question, but when future entries arrive, the relationship between Steve and Amy will develop in ways that reward staying current — Osman has built the Thursday Murder Club’s appeal significantly on accumulated character knowledge, and there is every reason to expect the same approach here. For now, pick up We Solve Murders and enjoy it on its own terms.

Who will enjoy We Solve Murders?

Fans of the Thursday Murder Club who want a faster read. Readers who like their mysteries to move through multiple locations, who enjoy the odd-couple structure of action-comedy in the vein of caper fiction, and who appreciate an author willing to try a different gear. Osman’s voice translates well to this format. Those who prefer the deep community texture of Thursday Murder Club may find this a notch lighter — but that is entirely the point, and it works.

What makes We Solve Murders worth reading?

Osman proves he is not a one-trick writer. Where the Thursday Murder Club earns its depth through accumulation and the weight of age and memory, this series goes for energy and momentum — and delivers it cleanly. The Steve-and-Amy dynamic has real comic potential that the first book only begins to exploit. The series is young. Worth watching closely.