We Chase Shadows

Richard Osman, the celebrated British television presenter and author, returns with a mystery thriller, We Chase Shadows, the sequel to the series opener, We Solve Murders, published in 2024. Osman’s debut mystery novel, The Thursday Murder Club (2020), broke UK sales records and earned him Author of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards. Osman is known for blending warm humor with complex crime plots. In We Chase Shadows, the fledgling detective agency of retired police officer Steve Wheeler; his professional bodyguard daughter-in-law, Amy; and celebrity novelist Rosie D’Antonio lands a new case. They’re hired by Vern Blackwood, a duplicitous con artist, to solve the murder of his bodyguard. A note left at the scene implicates the notorious international criminal Jakob Eriksson, but Vern insists that Eriksson is innocent, sending the team on a global chase for a killer who may not even exist.

The novel combines the globe-trotting intrigue of a thriller with the character-driven charm of a cozy mystery. As the team travels from Tuscany to California, the investigation becomes a complex puzzle of constructed identities and betrayals. Thematically, the novel explores The Deceptive Nature of Appearances and Greed as a Corrupting Force as the team investigates a criminal underworld built on counterfeit goods. Amid the escalating violence and conspiracy, Osman grounds the story in the personal relationships between the characters, underscoring The Lingering Weight of Grief as Steve continues to navigate life through his ongoing connection to his late wife.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, physical abuse, child abuse, suicidal ideation, and substance use.

Plot Summary

In the wake of their success solving a series of murders linked to global money smuggling in the previous novel, novelist Rosie D’Antonio appears on television to promote her newly formed detective agency, We Solve Murders—a fledgling venture run by retired police officer Steve Wheeler; his bodyguard daughter-in-law, Amy Wheeler; and Rosie herself. Soon the agency receives its first major case: Vern Blackwood, a semi-legitimate criminal who sells fake health supplements from a lavish villa in Tuscany hires the trio to solve the murder of his bodyguard, Esteban, who’s been shot dead on his doorstep with a note that reads, “THIS IS A WANING [sic]. I WILL BE BACK AND YOU WILL BE NEXT” (12), signed by the notorious international criminal Jakob Eriksson. Vern insists that Eriksson is an old friend and could not be the killer. He directs their suspicion toward his American business rival, Tommy Griffin, and Vern’s ex-wife and former partner, Georgie Glazier. The team splits up: Amy remains in Tuscany to investigate the crime scene, while Steve and Rosie head to Barcelona to meet Rosie’s charismatic Interpol contact, Ernesto Manuelo Santiago de Sousa de Cuéllar.

Amy’s investigation in Tuscany takes a dark turn when another of Vern’s bodyguards, Korbin, promises to reveal a secret about the murder but is found stabbed to death before he can give Amy the information. Meanwhile, Ernesto provides Steve and Rosie with files, including airport security photos from Helsinki, Minsk, and Bratislava, showing Eriksson present in each city just before one of his rivals was murdered. Critically, the photos also show Korbin traveling with Eriksson, revealing him as a secret accomplice. The case becomes personal when the office manager for We Solve Murders, Felicity Woollaston, and Felicity’s boyfriend and Steve’s best friend, Tony Taylor, are attacked in Lymington. A man with bleached blond hair and an eagle tattoo on his neck brutally beats Tony, delivering a clear warning to stop investigating Eriksson. 

Shaken, the team intensifies their efforts. Steve and Rosie travel to Stockholm to meet Sara Lindstrat, one of Sweden’s most dangerous criminals, who assures them that she knows every major Swedish criminal and has never heard of Eriksson, suggesting that the name is an alias. Their next stop is Palm Springs, California, where they confront Tommy Griffin, who confirms their suspicion: Eriksson is not Swedish but English.

Armed with this new information, Steve contacts a retired police researcher, Dorothy Gunn, who unearths a cold case from 2001 involving Connor Brooks, an English criminal in the same line of work who’s believed to have died by suicide in Málaga. The timing and circumstances align perfectly with the first appearance of Eriksson. The team’s new theory is that Vern helped his friend Brooks fake his death, allowing him to re-emerge as the mythical Swedish kingpin. A trip to Málaga confirms it—Brooks’s old associates tell them that Vern orchestrated the entire disappearance. Just as they seem to have a handle on the case, Tommy Griffin is assassinated by a sniper in Palm Springs. An American customs contact, Carlos Moss, finds airport footage of Eriksson arriving just before the murder. The team brings Vern to Rosie’s extravagant castle in Dorset for protection, planning to lure Brooks into a trap by having Vern post his location on a secure criminal chat group.

The entire case is upended by a series of shocking revelations. Vern’s ex-wife, Georgie Glazier, who recognizes the man in Eriksson’s photo as Vern’s old gardener, Eric Jacobs, breaks into Vern’s abandoned villa to find proof of his deception. She’s discovered by Ernesto, who has also returned on a hunch. Georgie reveals the full truth: Vern killed the real Connor Brooks in 2001 and invented the “Jakob Eriksson” persona, becoming his own ghost rival, which allowed him to eliminate all his competition while maintaining a veneer of legitimacy. He used the unassuming gardener Eric as a public decoy and his bodyguard Korbin as his secret assassin. Seeing an opportunity, Ernesto agrees to help Georgie in exchange for a split of Vern’s hidden millions. Back in Dorset, the blond hitman, Mark Drury, is found shot dead in the grounds of Rosie’s castle. For his own safety, Vern is locked in the wine cellar, but when they go to check on him, he has also been shot through the heart in the sealed room.

The climax unfolds at the We Solve Murders office. Felicity, who has bought a gun to seek revenge on Brooks, confronts Rosie, believing that the captured kingpin is inside. During their struggle, the gun accidentally fires, severely wounding Rosie. In the ensuing chaos, the real captive—the terrified gardener Eric—escapes, with Ernesto in hot pursuit. Steve, however, has had a breakthrough. Comparing the airport photos from Carlos and Ernesto, he realizes that Ernesto doctored his version to edit out Mark Drury. Realizing that Ernesto is the true killer, Steve and Amy track him into the forest. They find Ernesto holding a terrified Eric at gunpoint in a bird blind, preparing to eliminate the last witness. To save Eric’s life, Steve shoots Ernesto in the leg, incapacitating him.

In the aftermath, Ernesto confesses everything. After learning the truth from Georgie, he decided to usurp Vern’s empire. He killed Mark—whom Vern had hired to silence Korbin—and then murdered Vern through the locked cellar door using Mark’s suppressed pistol. Lee, Vern’s last surviving bodyguard, also confesses his role: The entire saga began when Esteban’s spurned lover, Maria, shot him in revenge. Lee, unable to fire his weapon due to past trauma from his military service, wrote the fake Eriksson note to deflect blame from himself and Maria. Not knowing that Eriksson was Vern’s own creation, Lee inadvertently set Vern’s deadly endgame into motion.

Rosie survives the shooting, triggering a blaze of publicity for her new book, And the Devil Blinked First, which soars to number one on bestseller lists. She hires a remorseful Felicity as her new manager. Ernesto is arrested and extradited to Spain to face trial. Eric is released and, with financial help from Georgie, retires to a quiet life of gardening. Georgie, having secured half of Vern’s fortune and with all rivals eliminated, quietly takes over the entire criminal enterprise. Though bruised and betrayed, the We Solve Murders team has survived, ready for their next case.