Back together.
Back on the case.
And back to solving murders . . .

At sunrise, high in the Italian hills, a body is found on the steps of a beautiful private villa. On the body is a threatening note, signed by a mystery man.

Back at We Solve Murders HQ, Amy, Rosie, and Steve leap at the chance to take on their first proper case. So what if their new client seems to have his own reasons for avoiding the police? All they need to do is uncover who left the note, and then find them. Simple.

But once they start digging, the suspects keep piling up: there’s Sweden’s most-wanted criminal, a canny ex-wife and a fierce business rival – yet the murderer keeps evading them. And as the trio chase a villain through the shadows, danger travels closer to home . . .

Between Italy and Palm Springs, via Barcelona and Steve’s village pub, can the team catch an elusive killer who knows EXACTLY where to hide?

The awesome trio formed during the first book in this clever series (We Solve Murders) is back in action in We Chase Shadows. Rosie, an internationally bestselling mystery writer of indeterminate age, Amy, her former bodyguard, and Steve, a retired cop and Amy’s father-in-law, may seem like an odd mix, but after the events of the first book, they’ve teamed up to open a detective agency called… We Solve Murders.

That’s what makes them a great team. Rosie will sleep with you, Amy will hit you, Steve will tell you a fact about public transport. They’ve got all angles covered.

The problem is, no one has actually called upon them to solve any murders. Amy, for one, is getting bored — she hasn’t had anyone to punch in far too long. When Rosie goes on the Graham Norton Show to promote her newest book, she slips in a mention of We Solve Murders, and boom! They finally get a case.

Secretive tycoon Vern Blackwood summons them to his Tuscany villa to find the person who murdered one of his bodyguards. Conveniently, his body was found with a note in his pocket, taking responsibility for the murder and threatening Vern with further murders to come — and the note is even signed by the killer, someone who’s one of Vern’s chief competitors in their super shady and illegal business world. But, Vern insists, the note is a distraction: He’s sure that person isn’t the actual killer and he wants them to find out who is.

Globe-hopping ensues, as Rosie, Amy, and Steve use Rosie’s private jet to zoom around the world chasing leads, connecting with allies, and popping back home for Steve’s weekly pub quiz. As more bodies pile up, the list of suspects gets weird, and weirdly narrower, as the likely suspects are the people who keep turning up dead.

We Chase Shadows is a fun-filled, not terribly serious caper book. The mystery is engaging, but it’s the banter and escapades of our mismatched trio that keep the plot zipping along.

“Stevie,” says Tommy “I’ve been alive for seventy years, right? And I ain’t died yet. That can’t be a coincidence?”

“I think that’s just how life works,” says Amy. “No one dies until they die.”

“All I know is what I know,” says Tommy. “Hundred percent record of not dying. […]”

Interesting twists and red herrings come into play, and the bad guys aren’t psychopaths or darkly evil, just people with highly questionable moral compasses who’ll do anything for a profit. Yes, they’re internationally wanted criminals… but their motive is money, not cruelty, which keeps the book from ever getting too grim.

The We Solve Murders books are a bit lighter on character depth and development than the Thursday Murder Club series, but this newer series shows promise too. I might argue that no one in real life would ever talk the way these people do, but that’s okay. Their quips and ridiculousness are part of the fun, and certainly keep the atmosphere bubbly even when danger looms for the characters.

The author’s notes indicate that his next book will be a return to the Thursday Murder Club series (yay!), but that a 3rd book in We Solve Murders will be on the way after that. I’m looking forward to both!