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3.5 stars

'We Solve Murders' turned out to be an entertaining read but, if it had been written by an author I didn't know, I'd have been thinking about setting it aside after the first hour. The start of the book put me off. The situations felt forced, the humour was brittle in a wannabe Carl Haaisen way, the people felt shallow and their world felt plastic. I was not engaged.

Because this was a Richard Osman book and the start of a new series trying something more plot-driven than 'The Thursday Murder Club' novels, I stuck with it.

Things changed, slowly. By the end of the second hour, I'd been pulled into the story by Nicola Walker's narration and I was starting to become interested in Amy, the bodyguard, and Steve, her ex-police detective father-in-law but I was still struggling with a plot that, while clever, had all the charm of a fake Doric portico stuck onto the front of an 'Executive Home'.

In the third hour, I settled into the story, which I'd now understood was a sort of fairytale with slightly subversive humour that reminded me of David Lodge. I began to enjoy the way the heist-movie-slick plot and the glitzy settings were constantly being undercut by a type of English humour that sees bling as essentially childish, and by characters whose curiosity was of the kind that would find the service tunnels in Disneyland more interesting than the rides. The plot was generating an enjoyable 'root for the underdog' vibe but the character development was still patchy.

By the halfway point, I was being swept along by the clever, original, fast-paced plot which kept me entertained until the end.

One of the things that I've enjoyed most about Richard Osman's other books is how relatable and well-observed and real his characters are. I felt this was missing for the first half of the book. Perhaps this is because I don't know any international criminals or people who choose to work in the close personal protection business and becuase many of the settings were a long way from home.

By the end of the book,, I had become engaged with most of the main characters. I thought that Steve, the widowed ex-police officer and Rosie, the top-selling thriller writer were well-drawn and easy to engage with. Amy, the bodyguard was a little different. Her character felt functional rather than engaging, like a knife or a gun or a good piece of code. Still, the three of them together had an attractive dynamic.

The humour lifts the book and often made me smile but it was the small moments of intimacy that I liked most, especially those grounded in Steve's New Forest village.

I'd like to see what Steve, Amy and Rosie do next, so I'll be back for the next 'We Solve Murders' novel.