If you google “Richard Osman novels–some reviews” you will get as the first entry the following, described as “AI overview”–“Richard Osman’s novels, particularly “The Thursday Murder Club” series and “We Solve Murders” are known for their charming characters, lighthearted humor, and cozy crime-solving elements,, often receiving praise for their heartwarming tone and engaging mysteries.”

This statement is a triumph of irony, presumably unintentional, as it is so very right, 100% right in many ways, but also so lacking in being a complete description of his work. I have read all four of the “Thursday” books so far published (a fifth is due later this year)and reviewed two of them. Check earlier in my blog for the reviews. I struggled with this issue of how his books come off in their effect, particularly with regard to the first one where I explained why I thought his books neither “cozy” nor “comedy mystery” though admittedly containing elements of both.

Many of the reviews and readers’ e-mails on “Solve” at times raise (and/or confuse)the same issues. So first I would like to say again, in slightly different words, that I think this is a very serious man with a great comedy talent. He has noticed the contradictions and sorrows, large and small, of the world around him and has chosen to write about them in a way that is often realistic but also slyly humorous. This is true of all the Thursday books I read and it is also true of “Solve,”

Osman often deals with matters of serious crime and even murder and sometimes with a touch of humor. But it is not the hard-nosed “black comedy” of past and present, nor is it frivolous. He can leave you laughing and weeping at the same time. He is a superb story-teller and a man of great insights into human character. I think it is the latter two traits that make him a good, perhaps great, writer, and that attract many of his fans(myself included), perhaps sometimes subconsciously.

If you read around the entries from professional critics and just plain readers on this book, you will likely get the impression that this is a fairly good book but not a match for the Thursday books. Well, there is further irony here, in that like the above quoted statement this is right and wrong at the same time. I have to agree–somewhat reluctantly–that this is not quite up to the Thursdays, but I did like it overall because of its strengths which I think clearly outweigh its weaknesses.

First of all, it is much like the Thursdays in that you have a fairly small group of main characters whom you know, or get to know well. This would be Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron in the Thursdays and Steve, Amy and Rosie in “Solve.” There there is another circle of characters whom you know fairly closely but not so much as the main ones. Outside them you will find a slew of other characters, often well described even if only on 2 or 3 pages.

All of the above fit into an overall plot which some are fomenting and some(our heroes)are trying to figure out and thwart. The plot starts out sounding as if it might be fairly simple once you get all the important facts. But it increases in complexity and breaks into different parts. The leading characters’ job then is to try to fit it all together, make sense of it and bring about some kind of justice.

This is true of all the Thursdays and of “Solve.” In the latter we have Steve, Amy and Rosie in the lead, playing the role Elizabeth and her friends do in the other books. Steve, presumably in his 60’s or 70’s is a retired detective. He is in mourning for his wife, Debbie, who was killed along with two others in a bizarre accident, and that loss never leaves him entirely. But he is determined to get on with life and he takes an occasional bit of private work to keep active. He has a cat and a favorite pub(he likes their trivia game) and a few friends and he is trying to put his life together.

The main element of Steve’s life is his daughter-in-law, Amy. Married to Steve’s son, Adam, she is tough, adventurous and contemptuous of ordinariness. She wants no family or house or garden or neighborhood, or whatever. She wants to be adventurous and effective and to enjoy herself,. She knows her job as a private company’s investigator is dangerous and is willing to take on the danger if she can have the adventure and the feelings of accomplishment.

Amy also wants Adam, and she agreed to marry him with the understanding that she is a free agent to come and go as necessary to do her job. Steve loves her back and is willing to agree. So she comes and goes and Adam waits and waits, though not impatiently. He loves her enough to put up with the separations and delays in their relationship, while he makes money.

Steve and Adam have one of those difficult parent-child relationships where they love each other but are uncomfortable in the presence of each other most of the time. Neither one knows what to say or how to act. But they now have Amy in common and this helps to bind them together. At one point Steve is asked if he has a daughter and says he does–then corrects himself, saying something like “Well, a daughter-in-law, actually, but it’s about the same.”

So take these three people(like all the main Thursday characters, all very likeable)and stick them into a mystery. Amy has been assigned by her company to protect Rosie D’Antonio, a bestselling author who writes mysteries, historical novels, etc. She is in her 70’s, still attractive, sexy and vibrant and thinking about a new book(and maybe a new man). She thinks a lot about men, having been married several times but also gone through divorces each time. She is charming and charismatic and it is impossible not to like her.

But Rosie now has a serious trouble of her own. Her most recent book satirized a Russian oligarch who didn’t think it funny. He has threatened to kill her and evidence suggests he has put people on her trail. The people posed as international money smugglers, but were after Rosie. And they were all murdered in various ways

Now things get even more interesting but more confusing and I will not, for reasons of spoilers and clarity, try to explain it all. I read a couple of reviews to see that I was getting it myself. I more or less was, but explanations were helpful. Anyhow, we meet Jeff, who is Amy’s boss, and Henk, Jeff’s former partner, now a rival and maybe an enemy; and, maybe, at the top(of something) and maybe a real person, someone who claims to be named Francois Loubet whose gender, nationality and reality are all in doubt. Loubet uses ChatGPT to communicate and commands it to take the persona of a “friendly English gentleman.” His messages, often dealing with hostile action up to and including death threats are delivered, therefore, in a manner that calls to mind a debate at Cambirdge or Oxford.

We follow most of the people I have mentioned and a few others as they dash around the world from London to the US to Ireland and Dubai. While traveling they are trying to protect the irrepressible and charming Rosie, and also to figure out what in the world is going on. As with the Thursday book style, the plot’s loose ends are (at least nearly)tied up before the book ends(Don’t you love the English language?)

I thought of one maybe inappropriate and certainly contradictory comparison to make. Many of Osman’s characters who are involved with serious crime such as money smuggling and murder often come off as almost moral and fairly good companion material when they’re not working. This reminded me in a way of Dennis Lehane’s “Small Mercies.” a great novel I reviewed in an old blog and which you might want to check out(It’s entitled “The Poet of the Mean Streets”) The two authors have very little in common other than writing about violence and showing(but not excusing)their cruelty, but also the almost hidden human that, at least in some cases, hides inside.

Much of the compulsive fun of Osman’s writing is following the characters through the story and watching them develop and interact. There is nearly always repartee of some kind, clever dialogue, irony, threats and a weird feeling that you’re getting an insight into a part of the world you don’t know but which seems plausible in some way. You also might feel you wanted to be in it more–at a distance.(As for me, I’ll just avoid it–except in good books and movies and so forth).

Once again, this book does just about everything the Thursday books do, but not quite as well. Osman invented characters in Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron that likely no one will ever quite equal–himself included. They are the main–perhaps the only– difference and this means that the Thursday books are likely a little better than “Solve” is–but only a little,