We Solve Murders Book Summary: Richard Osman’s Fun New Crime Series

Welcome, fellow bookworm! If you devoured the Thursday Murder Club books and have been waiting for Richard Osman’s next move, your wait is over. This We Solve Murders summary covers everything you need to know about Osman’s brand-new 2024 crime series: the full plot, the unforgettable new detective duo, the globe-trotting twists, and the warm humor that made Osman a phenomenon. Whether you’re deciding what to read next or prepping for book club, you’re in the right place.

Published in September 2024, We Solve Murders launched between the fourth and fifth Thursday Murder Club novels and debuted at No. 1 on the UK bestseller charts with one of the biggest hardback fiction first weeks on record. It’s Osman doing what he does best — ordinary people solving extraordinary crimes — but bigger, faster, and more international than ever. Let’s dive in.

Book and Author Details

Author: Richard Osman (born 1970) is the British television producer and presenter turned literary phenomenon. After three decades creating hit TV shows — and becoming a household face on Pointless and House of Games — he published The Thursday Murder Club in 2020, which sold more than ten million copies worldwide and spawned a Netflix film. We Solve Murders is the first book in his second series, written, as Osman puts it, because he simply loves spending time with kind, funny people solving murders.

Publication: September 2024, Viking Press (UK) / Pamela Dorman Books (US), approximately 400 pages.

Genre & Audience: Cozy crime / comic thriller with an international chase plot. Perfect for Thursday Murder Club fans, readers who like their mysteries warm and witty rather than grim, and book clubs that enjoy guessing the killer together. Works as a series starter — no prior Osman reading required.

Table of Contents

• One Minute Book Summary
• The Book in Three Sentences
• We Solve Murders — Full Summary
• Characters
• 6 Main Key Lessons and Concepts
• Quotes
• Conclusion

ONE MINUTE BOOK SUMMARY

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life — the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting at home — doing only the odd bit of investigation work on the side. His days of adventure are over; adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now. Amy Wheeler works in private security and is currently on a remote island off South Carolina, protecting mega-bestselling romance author Rosie D’Antonio, which was meant to be an easy assignment. Then three clients of Amy’s security firm are murdered, a dead body and a bag of money turn up, and a killer sets their sights on Amy herself. Amy sends an SOS to the only person she trusts, and Steve reluctantly leaves his routines behind as the unlikely pair — plus the glamorous Rosie — embark on a breakneck race around the world through the UK, Ireland, the UAE, and the Caribbean to outrun and outsmart a deadly enemy.

The Book In Three Sentences

When a string of murders strikes the clients of her private-security firm, adrenaline-junkie bodyguard Amy Wheeler goes on the run with her celebrity client Rosie D’Antonio and calls her retired-cop father-in-law Steve for help. The mismatched trio chases a conspiracy across continents, dodging killers while Steve applies old-fashioned detective work and Amy handles the dangerous parts. Beneath the jokes and the jet-setting, it’s a story about family — the one you’re born into and the one you assemble along the way.

We Solve Murders Book Summary

Part 1: Retired Life, Reluctantly Interrupted

We meet Steve Wheeler in the small English village routines he loves: the pub quiz he takes very seriously, his favorite bench, his cat, his Sudoku. A former police officer, Steve still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he’s earned his rest and intends to keep it. His daughter-in-law Amy is his opposite in every way — a private security officer who thinks adrenaline is good for the soul and never stays still long enough for habits. Osman sets up the book’s central engine in these opening chapters: two people who love each other, live completely different lives, and are about to need each other desperately.

Part 2: Trouble in Paradise

Amy’s current assignment looks like a paid holiday: guarding Rosie D’Antonio, a mega-bestselling romance novelist described as “basically Jackie Collins,” on a remote island off the South Carolina coast. Rosie is wealthy, glamorous, hilarious, and far sharper than her celebrity persona suggests. But the easy job curdles fast. Three clients connected to Amy’s security firm have been murdered. Then a dead body appears, along with a bag of money, and it becomes clear that someone is not just killing — they’re targeting Amy herself. The paradise assignment becomes a trap.

Part 3: The SOS

With professional killers on her trail and the police asking questions she’d rather not answer, Amy does the one thing she rarely does: she asks for help. She sends an SOS to Steve — the only person she fully trusts. Steve, who has spent the book’s opening chapters insisting his adventuring days are done, gets off his bench. What makes this section sing is Osman’s handling of their dynamic: Steve doesn’t suddenly become an action hero, and Amy doesn’t suddenly become cautious. Instead, each covers the other’s weaknesses — Steve’s methodical, old-school detective brain complementing Amy’s physical courage and field instincts.

Part 4: A Race Around the World

The middle of the novel is a genuine international thriller, hopping between the UK, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, the American South, and the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Osman juggles a large cast of suspects, victims, and oddballs — hitmen, influencers, wealthy fixers, and ordinary people caught in extraordinary machinery — while keeping every thread readable. The conspiracy behind the murders connects money, fame, and power: people are being killed to protect secrets worth killing for, and the bag of money is only the visible tip. Rosie, meanwhile, steals every scene she’s in, proving that a romance novelist who has spent decades studying human desire can read a room — and a suspect — better than most detectives.

Part 5: Endgame — We Solve Murders

The finale brings the chase home and delivers Osman’s signature move: a reveal that reframes everything, hidden in plain sight among the book’s crowd of characters. Steve’s quiet observation skills — the same ones that win pub quizzes — turn out to be the key that unlocks the conspiracy, while Amy confronts the danger head-on. The killers are outsmarted rather than merely outgunned, which feels true to a series built on brains over brawn. The book closes with the trio’s partnership formalized in the most Osman way possible: this unlikely family isn’t done, and neither is the series. The sequel, We Chase Shadows, picks up their story.

Characters

1. Amy Wheeler — Private security officer; brave, restless, and allergic to routine — the adrenaline half of the duo.
2. Steve Wheeler — Amy’s father-in-law; a retired police officer who loves pub quizzes, benches, and his cat — the brains half.
3. Rosie D’Antonio — Mega-bestselling romance novelist; glamorous, filthy-rich, razor-sharp, and unexpectedly brave.
4. The murdered clients — Three clients of Amy’s security firm whose deaths ignite the plot and put Amy in the crosshairs.
5. The killers — Professional, well-funded, and global; the conspiracy’s muscle, hunting Amy across continents.
6. The money men — Wealthy figures circling the fortune at the conspiracy’s heart; everyone has a motive.
7. The influencer victims — High-profile social media figures whose murders raise the stakes and the body count.
8. Steve’s village circle — Quiz teammates, neighbors, and routines that ground Steve — and that he risks by leaving.

6 Main Key Lessons and Concepts

1. Core Message: Unlikely people make the best teams. A retired pub-quiz devotee and an adrenaline-junkie bodyguard should never work — and that’s exactly why they do. Osman’s thesis across both his series: competence comes in unfamiliar packaging, and the people the world underestimates are often the ones who save the day.

2. Purpose: Osman writes to entertain and to warm. After the Thursday Murder Club proved that readers were hungry for kind, funny crime fiction, We Solve Murders scales that formula up: bigger stakes, faster pace, international scope — but the same belief that decency and humor are not weaknesses in a detective. For book clubs: it’s a masterclass in keeping a complex plot readable.

3. Audience: Thursday Murder Club devotees first, but the book is engineered as an entry point — new readers need zero background. It also courts thriller readers who’ve grown tired of grim, tortured detectives: here’s a crime novel where the heroes like each other and the jokes land.

4. Foundational Insight: Generations complete each other. Steve’s analog instincts (watch, listen, remember, ask the quiet question) solve what Amy’s digital-age speed cannot, and vice versa. The book quietly argues that experience isn’t obsolete — it’s a different kind of technology.

5. Supporting Ideas: Fame is a magnifying glass that reveals character rather than creating it (Rosie); money at scale corrupts quietly before it kills loudly; family is a choice you keep making — Amy chose Steve as her emergency contact, and that choice is the whole book; humor is a survival strategy, not a decoration.

6. Practical Implications: For readers: if the Thursday Murder Club felt too gentle, this is your Osman — same heart, more horsepower. For writers: study how Osman plants a large suspect pool without losing the reader — every character gets one vivid, memorable trait, and clues hide inside jokes. For book clubs: the “who’s behind it” debate will split your group; the reveal rewards careful readers. Take notes on the duo structure if you write fiction: contrast is chemistry.

Quotes

“Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.”

— The book’s setup line. In one sentence, Osman establishes the duo’s entire dynamic: danger belongs to the young; Steve has retired from it — or thinks he has.

“His days of adventure are over.”

— Steve Wheeler’s belief at the start. The quiet tragedy and comedy of the line is that the reader knows it isn’t true — and Steve half-knows it too.

“A dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy.”

— The inciting trio. Osman escalates with classic thriller economy: a corpse, a motive, and a target the reader already likes.

“She sends an SOS to the only person she trusts.”

— Amy’s turning point. The toughest character in the book admitting she needs her retired father-in-law is the emotional core of the story.

“Can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?”

— The chase question. Everything after this line is momentum — five countries, countless suspects, and one very determined family.

Conclusion

We Solve Murders is Richard Osman proving that his Thursday Murder Club success was no fluke — it’s a formula he understands deeply and can now stretch. The international scope gives the book a cinematic energy the retirement-village series never attempted, but the soul is identical: decent people, sharp jokes, a puzzle that plays fair, and the conviction that kindness is a kind of intelligence. Amy and Steve earn their place alongside Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron.

For mystery readers, this is the rare series opener that works completely on its own while promising more. The plot is twisty enough for thriller fans and warm enough for cozy readers — a difficult balance that Osman makes look effortless. Pay attention to how he uses Rosie: she’s the proof that a “celebrity sidekick” can be a fully realized character rather than comic relief, and she quietly becomes the book’s third lead.

For everyone else, the takeaway is simpler: read the book that makes you laugh and think in equal measure. In a genre crowded with damaged detectives and bleak Scandinavian winters, Osman offers something radical — hope, friendship, and the belief that a retired man with a pub-quiz brain can save the world. Take notes on that. It’s why ten million readers keep coming back.