This book deals with mature subject matter. While there are various humorous moments, it also addresses murder, attempted murder, and other criminal themes.
"If you have any sort of personality, someone will eventually want to kill you"
Steve Wheeler is living a quiet, retired life. A former police detective, Steve enjoys doing the odd investigation work around Axley, a sleepy English village in the New Forest area. His cases consist of missing money from the local shop's till and a missing dog. He has his simple routine, eating lunch with his friends, participating in the pub quiz, and walking to his favourite bench to talk to his deceased wife, Debbie. The highlight of Steve's day is petting his cat, Trouble and talking to his daughter-in-law, Amy, when she has the time.
Amy Wheeler is the exact opposite. Drawn to adrenaline and sticky situations, Amy is a bodyguard. Working in private security brings danger to her doorstep almost every day. She wouldn't have it any other way. She and her father-in-law have their careers in common. While Steve's days in the police force are over, he still loves hearing about her latest case and newest adventures.
This week, her assignment has brought her to a remote island owned by Rosie D'Antonio, a mega-bestselling author whose life is being threatened. So far, Amy has sat in the sun by the pool and watched Rosie have one too many drinks. Everything is going well until shit starts hitting the fan. Trouble in paradise leads Amy to call the only person she can trust.
The Review
In my opinion, the book has a slow start. Though I think that is simply Richard Osman's writing style. The Thursday Murder Club is also slow in places, but I think I didn't notice as much because the cast of characters is so quirky that they keep you engaged. The build-up to what was going on felt a little drawn out, and understandably so; some of the backstory was a little long (but understandable for the first book in the series).
Thankfully, it did pick up. And it was a very enjoyable book. One thing I enjoyed about this book that The Thursday Murder Club didn't have was the travel. Amy and Rosie (and eventually Steve) jetset around the world, going to new and unique places as they try to solve these murders (does that need a spoiler alert? If so. . . oops). I enjoyed hearing about that and what each new place brought.
SPOILER ALERT
I am a little disappointed with the ending of this book. I enjoyed the book, I really did. I love Steve, and I enjoyed the quirky dynamic he and Rosie added to the story. The main characters are wonderful, just like his other series, The Thursday Murder Club.
The whole book felt like a rollercoaster ride. For a while, I was certain Henk was Loubet, then I was certain it was Jeff! The writer in me thought for a while, maybe it was Adam, Amy's husband or one of Steve's friends from the pub. I even wondered if maybe Rosie herself was somehow behind it. Or if Felicity was going to come back from Steve's kitchen with a gun and a long story about how she had become tangled up in the whole thing. (Instead, she returned with cookies.) I did have my suspicions of Susan Knox, though. Given that only she, Jeff, and Henk had access to the files, it was clear it had to be one of them. I also thought maybe Susan would be working with one of them - she, Joe Blow, and one of the ex-partners, Francois Loubet.
Needless to say, it was a little disappointing and anticlimactic to learn that Mickey Moody was the bad guy all along.
As a writer, looking back on it, I think an amazing twist would have been if Francois Loubet would have been Gary Gough (Lauren's father). When they returned to Axley, I thought that may be the case that they were going to trust this guy, only for him to turn around and try to kill Amy. But at last, that wasn't the case.
I read this book (paperback).
Rating and Recommendation
I gave this book three and a half stars for two reasons. One, I liked The Thursday Murder Club better. That's why I bumped it down to four stars. After reading the ending and really sitting with my disappointments (as laid out in my spoiler section), I felt that my rating would be more accurately represented by three and a half stars. (On GoodReads, I will give it four stars because I do feel it is closer to a four than a three.) If you like The Thursday Murder Club, you will like this series also. Richard Osman has a unique way of writing and storytelling. If you enjoy that, you will enjoy almost any novel, no matter which series.
I personally discussed this book with a family member recently. He enjoyed this one more than The Thursday Murder Club novels. I was slightly shocked. He felt that this book had less "filler". I, on the other hand, am an old lady in a young woman's body. I like small-town gossip, and I think that may be why I enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club more. That being said, I think it is clear that I rated this book based on the connections made to the characters and only slightly based on the story itself.
Story time. As many adults know, Christmas shopping for other adults can be difficult. In our family, we are a little over the "surprise" of it all. To make it easier on everyone, we make lists, but we also sometimes ask each other if they would like to "purchase" certain things. One such example was this book.
Around Christmas 2025, I saw this book on sale at Coles. I bought it and a few other books while I was Christmas shopping. Later, a family member paid for the books as a Christmas gift. So full transparency. This book was a gift. However, I did buy it myself.
Conclusion
I strongly recommend you give Richard Osman a try. It may not be this book; you may want to start with The Thursday Murder Club. But I strongly believe once you read one of Richard Osman's novels, you will want to read the rest of them.
While I may not be a fan of the ending, the novel is a rollercoaster ride right to the end. While I wouldn't call this a "Cosy Mystery", I can see why some would. It does that cosiness to it. It is very humorous in places, and it's not very descriptive of the crimes or anything like that, so it's very PG in that way.
You can find We Solve Murders in its respective mediums below:
* Book cover image retrieved from GoodReads. All rights belong to the author and/or publisher.
* All the "stickers" in this blog were provided by Bookish (presented by NetGalley). * Magnify Glass provided by bluebudgie via Pixabay, and used under the Pixabay Content License
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