Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Book Author: Richard Osman

These days everyone wants to be famous.  Not for developing a vaccine to fight a pandemic sweeping the world or for writing a novel that wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  Honestly, anyone can do those things.

No, people want to be famous as an Influencer, someone with thousands, if not millions, of followers on TikTok or Instagram.  And the people with rather small followings but who believe they should have thousands more are very vulnerable to an agency promising that they can make that happen.

Rosie D’Antonio doesn’t need an agency to bump up her profile.  She’s a best-selling author and a noted media personality.  But she does need a bodyguard because a character in one of her books is obviously based on Vasiliy Karpin, a Russian billionaire, and he took exception to the way he was portrayed and has twice attempted to kill Rosie. 

That’s why she and Amy Wheeler, a bodyguard who works for Maximum Impact Solutions, are on Rosie’s private island in the waters off South Carolina.  Until MIS can neutralize this threat, Amy and Rosie need to stay out of the public eye.

Jeff Nolan, CEO of MIS, is clearly taking no chances with Rosie’s safety.  He has already “lost” three influencer clients to unexplained deaths, and he certainly doesn’t want to lose any more.  He’s not in doubt about who is behind these deaths.  It’s François Lubet, a former client and money-smuggler, and Jeff is writing to him to let him know that he will take steps to stop this threat to his business if Loubet doesn’t cease and desist.  But who is François Lubet?

As it happens, in each case where a client was murdered, Amy Wheeler was in the vicinity.  Now her father-in-law Steve wants to talk to her about the latest murder victim, Andrew Fairchild.  Andrew was just beginning his career as an influencer when his body was found.  He’d been shot, tied to a rope, and thrown from a boat into the Atlantic.

Jeff wants Amy to come back to London to help him solve these murders, and she’s about to leave Rosie on her South Carolina island with a second bodyguard, an ex-Navy SEAL named Kevin, when Kevin comes into the room and points a gun at her.  He tells her to handcuff herself behind her back, which she does, and starts to lead her to the panic room that Rosie had installed.  Suddenly he’s hit on the head with a golden statue held by Rosie, and then the two women manage to put Kevin in the panic room.  His gun is useless there, Rosie tells Amy.  “He’s in there for the long run.”

And thus the Rosie and Amy begin their trip around the world, stopping only to bring Steve to America to join them, and the three of them start to work together to solve these murders.  Their stops include Dubai and Dublin and then back to Dubai, ending up in London.  There are murders along the way, suspicious influences, money-laundering criminals, and murderers.  All in all, it’s a fabulous trip.

Richard Osman continues the winning streak he started with The Thursday Murder Club, creating another group of characters who are utterly charming and beguiling, funny and determined.  I imagine We Solve Murders is only the first in the author’s new series; all I can say is that I hope so.

You can read more about Richard Osman at various sites on the web.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

Is it a “cozy”?  Is it a traditional mystery with unusual/eccentric protagonists?  Does it really matter?

As those who have taken my WHODUNIT? courses at BOLLI (the Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) are aware, I am not a fan of cozies, although I recognize that they have become the most popular sub-genre of mysteries.  The “official” definition of a cozy is a mystery with little or no violence or sex, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.

But I think that begs the question.  My definition of a cozy is that the crime takes second or even third place to some other feature of the book–cooking, for example, or knitting, or coffee shops–and the murder(s) is secondary.  That’s why I cringe when people describe Agatha Christie’s books as cozies because they don’t feature sex or torture prominently.  It’s true they don’t, but what they do feature is MURDER!  And that why I read mysteries–for the crimes, not the recipes.

So I don’t think that The Bullet That Missed is a cozy, although that’s how it’s publicized.  The cold-case murders that interest the Thursday Murder Club in the quiet retirement community of Coopers Chase don’t involve much sex or on-the-page violence and the detectives are amateurs (for the most part).  But, and here’s my rationale, they are investigating murders, and that is the point of the novel.

The four members of the Club are Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim, each bringing a different set of skills to their investigations.  Elizabeth was a member of Britain’s Intelligence Service, Ron a socialist labor leader, Ibrahim a psychiatrist, and Joyce a nurse.

In this book, the third investigation by the team, they decide to investigate the murder of television personality Bethany Waites, definitely a cold case.  Bethany’s car went off a cliff nearly ten years before the book starts.  Joyce is the impetus behind choosing this case as she wants to meet Mike Waghorn, the man who was Bethany’s co-anchor (or news reader, as the Brits say) on South East Tonight at the time of the woman’s death.

Although Bethany’s body was never found, there was enough ambiguity about the incident for the police to investigate and decide it was murder.  But they were not able to close the case, and that’s where the Thursday Murder Club comes in.  They will bring their individual skills and personalities to their attempt to find the truth.  Along the way there are murders, prison corruption, fraud investigations, and violent gangsters.  That doesn’t sound too cozy, does it?

The characters in The Bullet that Missed are wonderful.  Beside their individual skills, each brings a distinct voice to the novel, and there’s no mistaking which member of the Club is speaking.  And in a small aside, kudos to the author for the portrayal of the marriage of Elizabeth and Stephen in which readers see Elizabeth’s determination to keep her husband’s dementia hidden as much as possible in order to allow him to remain at home with her and not in a memory facility.

Richard Osman has worked as a producer, podcaster, comedian, and television presenter (or anchor, as it’s called in the United States).  You can read about him at many sites on the internet.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.