BESIDES young adult fiction, I've read two crime noir thrillers, seeing as there are so many on the market now. These have all been ingeniously structured, with superior storylines and believable characters with whom the reader enters into a relationship. You keep turning the page to solve the mystery. There's humour, pathos and lots of suspense. There's the irresistible combination of personable characters with cosy dynamics and gravelly murder. You're never bored. In between, by the way, there is dialogue and stream of consciousness that gets you thinking and stays with you.
Richard Osman is a phenomenon who is churning out bestsellers. Judging by his photo, he is a youngish guy who is a writer, producer and TV presenter. He reportedly lives in London with his wife and his cat, Liesl. It sounds like a fairy tale: His first four novels, The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die were multimillion-dollar bestsellers around the world. I read all but stopped at the last: I felt for now I might have had enough of cantankerous elderly people solving murders. Maybe the author felt the same way, because his latest has a new set of characters, and they immediately grew on me.
Steve Wheeler is a retired cop who mourns his wife, who died in an accident. He's in a rut and living in the past. He eats all his meals at his local, participates in the pub quiz once a week and, according to his daughter-in-law, looks like someone who'd been an Iron Maiden roadie. As a private detective in a small town, he mostly searches for missing cats.
At night, he sits down on his late wife's favourite bench in the park and talks to her, into his dictaphone. His daughter-in-law, Amy, is a bodyguard: Beautiful, armed, and dangerous – addicted to adrenaline. They have an excellent relationship. Amy is currently babysitting a famous author, Rosie D'Antonio. Rosie is unstoppable. Amy thinks at first that everyone likes her because she's famous, until she realises: She's famous because everyone loves her. Rosie can hold her liquor, she's adorable, razor-sharp and libidinal. There are also some unscrupulous villains on the loose, so at least it doesn't get too cosy.
Amy works for Jeff Nolan, head of a security company that rents out private bodyguards. He sometimes looks the other way when it comes to his customers' bios. But now a few people who had been on his books have been murdered, with a bag of money found beside them. There is also a money launderer, Loubet, in the picture. It's a pseudonym and he has his email messages changed by Chat GPT to sound like a congenial English gentleman. No one knows who he is.
There are attacks on Amy's life and she asks Steve to step out of his comfort zone to come and help her. It's very difficult to leave his cat, Trouble, his pub and his bench behind and he's not a good flier, but Steve signs up for duty. Meanwhile, they have the use of Rosie D'Antonio's private jet and her money and sparkling company. She flirts with Steve, but realises that he is still in mourning for his wife. She has all sorts of amorous adventures with bodyguards and assassins. She always keeps a level head.
It's smart, funny and elegant. And highly exciting. These characters are sure to be revived in a next book. I'm looking forward to it.
This book is currently No. 3 on the local Nielsen's bestseller list.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman was published by Penguin Viking and costs R351 at Graffiti.
Laura Dave has already established herself as the author of bestsellers such as The First Husband and The Last Thing He Told Me, which is now a series on Apple. The Night We Lost Him is more than crime fiction, more than domestic noir. Something of both. It's an emotional seesaw. I was by turns upset, angry and sad. Thus the author manages to appeal to the reader's emotions.
Liam Samuel Noone is a successful businessman who has built a business empire. He lives for his job. He has been married and divorced three times and has three children with two wives. He remains close friends with his exes and is particularly close to his children. However, there is a secret obsession, other than money and success, that drives him. In the course of the book, the reader finds out what it is: The one who got away. The only woman he ever loved and still loves didn't want to marry him. Everything he does is for her. Who is she? It's not clear.
He falls to his death off the cliffs at his beloved home, Windbreak. The police do not suspect mischief – they regard it as suicide. But why?
His one son Sam and his only daughter, Nora, don't believe it was suicide at all and are determined to expose his killer. They never had much to do with each other, but a semi-reluctant bond develops between them as they follow the evidence to his vacation home and closely study his marriages and relationships.
That's all I can reveal. It's excellently written, but frustrated me at times, as if the author was hiding too much for too long. There are also red herrings and detours. It wasn't until the end that I began to suspect who his eternal lover and the object of his obsession was and things started to make sense. Yes, love can last so many years, especially if it is unfulfilled. It's sad, poignant, and suspenseful, though a little slow at times. I recommend it with reservations. If you like human drama and personality analysis, the winding paths of relationship dynamics, and the attempt to figure out the mathematics of love, along with a teasing secret and lots of suspense, this is the book for you. A tour de force of emotion, someone calls it on the back. Indeed.
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave was published by Penguin Random House and costs R342 at Graffiti.
What are we watching?
The trailer for The Last Thing He Told Me:
♦ VWB ♦
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Deborah Steinmair is an award-winning author and insatiable reader. She has been named twice as Rapport-kykNET book reviewer of the year.
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