We Solve Murders is the first book I read this year, and still the best. It’s by Richard Osman, writer of the Thursday Murder Club series (which I have since started, and which I also like, but not as much). It’s also probably the first of a new series but so far the only entry.
The central pair of sleuths here are a father- and daughter-in-law, which is at least fresh. The daughter-in-law is a high-class bodyguard who’s protecting a super-successful later-in-life author whose main personality trait is Up For It, where “it” is sometimes adventure and sometimes boning. The father-in-law is a widower detective who’s trying to enjoy the rural retirement he’d originally planned to enjoy with his wife — if you’ve read the Thursday Murder Club books and enjoyed them, he’d certainly fit in with that gang.
The plot is almost a cozy thriller? Does that exist? I’d read a lot more of them if I could find them. There’s a lot of globetrotting, and hitmen coming after people, and organized crime, and everyone (yes everyone) has some good or sympathetic qualities and the whole thing is well-written and funny. There are surprises along the way but the book plays fair. The character arc for the father-in-law has a slightly clunky/inevitable resolution but honestly I didn’t mind it. Oh, and there’s a cat on the cover, but as far as I remember there’s no cat [ed. — oops, no, there is a cat. not a memorable one but one is present in the text]. I assume that’s another artifact of the decision to market this as a cozy mystery, which again, it does have murders and you don’t know at first who did them but it does read more as a thriller-type plot to me. Do I pick nits? Then I pick them. If you know other books you’d describe as cozy thrillers please recommend them, I LOVED THIS BOOK END OF TRANSMISSION.
CBRBingo: one, because of the firsts I mentioned in the first paragraph plus it’s still the number one book of 2026 for me.
