Lisa Vegan's Reviews > We Solve Murders

I read a Libby e-copy and simultaneously listened to a Libby audiobook, both borrowed from the library.

This book took a long time to grow on me but grew on me it did. The initial attempted crime made the story feel not cozy enough for me but this was more a cozy than not. Yes, there are some professionals and semi-professionals that do the detective work but most of the characters are laypeople.

I ended up loving Rosie and Steve and Amy and I’m glad that they (and some of the other interesting characters) will be back for more books. This is book one of a series. Rosie is a memorable character and might be my favorite person in the book.

There was a lot of humor, including a few lines that made me laugh out loud and, as with the Thursday Murder Club series, there is also some depth to the characters and their background stories. I hope that in the future books we go even deeper into the characterizations.

This is a clever story with many red herrings and a lot of characters, almost all of them fascinating. I did manage to keep the characters straight and I didn’t manage to guess the solution to the mystery. Both of those help make this book a win for me.

The people are endearing and their relationships are fun to read about and sometimes hilarious.

I’m sure there are many but here are just a couple of quotes I liked:

“And, despite his assiduous preparation, it had taken him by surprise. You can think something often enough, but you will never be prepared for your heart disintegrating.”

“It’s funny, across a lifetime, the people you pick up. It’s often the most unexpected ones who stick around. There are friendships, forged in fire, which end up disappearing like smoke, and other casual, nodding friendships, which will stay with you for the rest of your life.”

The author even makes the Acknowledgments section entertaining It’s amusing and informative. It looks as though the next book that might be coming out this next year is another in the Thursday Murder Club series and that there will be indeed more books in this series. I love that usually all of his characters are entirely fictional but that one character in this book, Trouble the cat, is based on his cat companion, Liesl Von Cat. Ha!

4-1/2 stars