We Solve Murders - am I just not in the mood?

[Oricolt]

I liked the Thursday Murder Club books. They were fun.

I'm struggling to get into We Solve Murders. There are so many characters and I can't keep track.

If you liked Thursday Murder, did you like We Solve Murders too?

I did but I listened to it on audible and that may have made a difference.

I didn’t! I’m not typically into crime I prefer thrillers. I liked Thursday murder club as they remind me of Miss Marple and are quite funny. We solve murders had a very different vibe and just wasn’t for me.

I also listened to We Solve Murders as an audio book and enjoyed it. I think I liked it more than Thursday Murder Club but I listened to them in that order maybe if I listened the other way round I would have thought the same as you.

I felt exactly the same - really liked The Thursday Murder Club but didn't enjoy We Solve Murders and won't be reading any more in the series.

I liked it, I listened on audible too. I’ve decided to start avoiding books that are written from multiple points of view, changing every chapter and some that go back and forth in the time line though. I want to get engrossed in the story, not constantly question who's talking’.

Maybe I'll stick a pin in it and try again when I'm not so busy. I think I needed it to be a bit brainless like Thursday MC, and it's not exactly Dostoevsky but I'm managing a chapter each evening before I fall asleep, and I have no idea what's going on. I'll save it for a beach read when I can give it more attention.

I found We solve murders much less engaging than Thursday murder club. I thought the characters were much less rounded- they felt like a quick sketch but nothing more. And rather heavy handed signalling of future plot directions. It all felt a bit flat for me. I won’t be buying any more in that series.

I felt the same as the previous posters. I finished it but the characters weren’t as well drawn so it was hard to care enough to work out what was happening.

I don’t care enough about the flimsy characters in WSM to read another one. It’s a shame - it had so much potential but it seemed to me as if RO was under a deadline and threw this one together to keep his publisher happy.

I quite like We Solve Murders, but found it took a little while to get into it. It is very different to Thursday Murder Club. I also listen on Audible rather than read. Looking forward to the new one as I felt I'd just 'got it' when the first one finished.

I read a couple of pages and gave up which is very unlike me. A friend read a couple pages and also stopped. Both of us love TMC.

I loved the TMC series but didn’t think much at all of WSM. It put me off reading the latest TMC, have I missed out?

Yes, it is less engaging. I think I felt it was far more obviously calculated than TMC — in that RO recognised that TMC realistically can’t go on indefinitely with such elderly characters based in a retirement village, so wanted to start a new series with younger characters and an international reach when TMC was still riding high, to hustle his fan base into it.

And that he wanted to cover all the same bases so as not to lose readers, so you also have a cool, very elderly woman, but this one is insanely rich (kind of Elizabeth again but with a private island and helicopters), a young, tough character with a difficult past (Amy is a combination of Donna and a young Elizabeth, with a bit of Joanna), an incredibly boring character, obsessed with pub quizzes and routine, who nonetheless does unexpected and impressive things (combination of Joyce and Ibrahim, with the police angle coming from Chris and a bit of the geezerishness of Ron) etc etc.

But nearly everyone’s younger so the books can go on indefinitely, and there’s a high net worth individual so there can be helicopters and luxury hotels and private islands and private planes and a global reach, as well as pub quizzes in the New Forest.

It felt a bit like ‘repeat success of TMC without its limitations’. And yes, characters only sketched in.

I liked it! I’m a voracious reader and use this type of novel when needing something lighter. Each to their own though.

We solve murders was a gripping audio book I kept forgetting to crochet

I've listened to all of his books as audio books and I preferred We Solve Murders. I enjoyed TMC, but the film was such a dreadful adaptation that ruined the possibility of future films. I like the way he's progressed the characters though and love that the focus is on older characters and I love them all. TMC should have been a Netflix limited series imo.

I hated it.

I totally agree with this. It was an okay film on its own but did not reflect the bond will at all. Joyce came across as airheaded and weird instead of sweet and wholesome and caring. They threw poor Bogdan under the bus. I was very disappointed.

I did enjoy We Solve Murders though. As someone above said, I do recognise the dynamics of TMC in it but I also enjoyed it for that reason. It was more serious but still had the lightness and silliness that I like in an RO book.

I liked it but it did take a bit more to get into it. It was far more fragmented and not as flowing.

I got a bit bored with the Thursday murder club series, didn't finish the third one.
Loved we solve murders, all on audio though.

I preferred We Solve Murders to Thursday Murder Club.

I also preferred We Solve Murders to the other ones!
Wish he would write another!

Like others, I listened to We Solve Murders on audible (having read all of the Thursday Murder Club books).

It's not great literature but I found it a fun, holiday listen.

There’s a sequel coming out in September!

Oohh that’s good to hear @ChessieFL
Thanks.