Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

If you follow me, you might have noticed that I typically write my book reviews immediately after I finish reading a book, while it is still fresh in my mind. But, I finished Richard Osman’s latest book, We Solve Murders (Penguin Random House/Viking/Pamela Dorman Books, 2024), book #1 in a new series, three days ago. Why the delay, you ask? Well, I had no idea what to say about it. Here’s why.

First of all, I LOVED Osman’s first series, The Thursday Murder Club, books #1-4. I own them on Kindle and in paperback, as evidenced by my current “favorites” shelf in my home library.

Secondly, this new book of his was highly anticipated in the book world, myself included. I absolutely begged for an ARC of it, posting about it on social media and tagging the publishers, requesting it on NetGalley, etc., but sadly, I had to wait with the rest of the reading world for its publication date to come.

Thirdly, and finally, I really hate to write anything negative about a book I’ve read. I’ve written before about the respect I have for writers who make it to the finish line, find an agent, an editor, a publishing house, and after back-breaking work of redrafts and edits, it ends up on my Kindle to read and form an opinion.

So there you have it, the only spoiler you will get here. I didn’t love We Solve Murders. The easiest thing to say would be that it wasn’t The Thursday Murder Club. The more difficult thing to say is WHY? Why wasn’t it more like Osman’s writing style that I adored in his first four books? Why didn’t the characters leap off the page as fully developed, IRL human beings that I expect to meet huddled around a table on a Tuesday morning having coffee together at Panera?

If you read any of the 1, 2, and 3 star reviews (yes, shockingly, there are 1 and 2 star reviews for an Osman book) on Goodreads, you will hear repeatedly that there are too many characters. There are too many settings, as private jets hopscotch from one place to another, covering three different continents. There are too many hitmen (and too many of them are really poor at their job).

All of these are valid points, but it took me a LONG time to settle into this book. I think I was at 45% before I stopped considering maybe I wouldn’t finish it. In fact, if it had been written by anybody besides Richard Osman, I am pretty sure it would have a DNF and I would have moved on to something else.

For me, and I say this because there are a LOT of 4 and 5 star reviews also, it was just soooooo slow, and for a murder mystery novel, I don’t think that is a good thing. Yes, its book one, and yes, we need the background/exposition on these people to go forward in books 2, 3, and I don’t know, on in to infinity if you are Richard Osman, but it dragged an awful lot for me.

Billed in advance as a father-in-law/daughter-in-law detective team solving murders, I was surprised to see that there is (I guess) a 3rd main character, an aging celebrity novelist who tags along for the fun of it.

In The Thursday Murder Club, there is humor but the humor is sharp and witty, but in comparison (I know this is like comparing siblings who are entirely different individuals in their own right), the humor in We Solve Murders is sort of slapstick and middle-school, even though two of the main characters, Amy and Steve (the original as-billed father-in-law/daughter-in-law duo) are both super sharp and quite clever in different ways. The humor should have reflected that.

In a world where professional hitmen get paid tens of thousands of dollars to fire one shot and walk away from a dead body, it is agonizing how inadequate these men are at this. You had one job, right?

There’s so many things I’d like to ask Richard Osman about the writing of this book (after I ask him when the next TMC comes out and can I have an ARC), but mainly, why is the writing style and construction of this novel so very different from the winning formula he created with his debut work?

Will I read book 2 of this series? If enough time passes, lol, I will be too curious to know if it is sharper, more clever, quicker, than book 1. Is there more of the relationship that Steve and Amy share? Does the plot hinge on something more realistic? I guess, my main question will be, is it more like TMC in its excitement?

(Is it really a negative review if I praise FOUR other works by the same author? I think not.)