In 'We Solve Murders,' Richard Osman introduces a new detective trio

NPR's Book of the Day

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Richard Osman is the author of the popular Thursday Murder Club book series. But despite the success of that project, Osman said he wanted to spread his wings with a fresh palette and a new cast of characters. His new novel, We Solve Murders, follows a detective trio as they try to outsmart a supervillain. In today's episode, Osman talks with NPR's Scott Simon about how he originally set out to center the story around a crime-solving duo, not trio. They also discuss Osman's interest in writing about subjects like fame, those we might underestimate, and evil people who aren't evil all the time.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's MPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Before listening to today's interview,
0:06.9	I would have told you that murder mystery books live and die by the plot, that they are
0:11.8	necessarily driven by the forward-moving beats of a story. But today's podcast is with
0:17.7	Richard Osman, the writer of the super successful Thursday Murder
0:20.9	Club series, and he spoke with Amcare Scott Simon about his latest book, We Solve Murders.
0:26.1	And he says this interesting thing about how we, quote, fetishize plots sometimes,
0:31.5	which can sound like a counterintuitive thing for someone working in his genre to say,
0:36.6	but I think his explanation
0:38.6	makes sense of it. That's ahead. A lot of short daily news podcast focus on just one story,
0:46.1	but right now you probably need more. On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's
0:52.1	top headlines every day in under 15 minutes because no one's story can capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning.
1:02.6	Listen now to the Up First podcast from NPR.
1:06.6	Richard Osmond, whose popular Thursday Murder Club books have sold millions and are being made into a movie,
1:13.3	has now rolled out a new cast of characters.
1:16.4	We sold murders, follows Amy Wheeler, a bodyguard to a star for an agency called Maximum Impact Solutions.
1:24.1	And her father-in-law, Steve Wheeler.
1:26.3	He's a former London cop and a widower living in semi-retirement
1:30.0	in a small British town with his cat, trouble, and finding lost dogs.
1:35.8	But Amy calls Steve back into the crime-fighting life
1:38.7	when several of her firm's clients are dispatched
1:42.1	by a super villain who uses chat GPT to disguise his email communications.
1:48.7	Richard Osmond joins us from the BBC in London. Thanks so much for being with us.
	...

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