#Review By Lou of Richard Osman in Conversation with Ian Rankin – Launching We Solve Murders @EdBookfest #WeSolveMurders @richardosman @Beathhigh #AGameCalledMalice

Richard Osman in Conversation with Ian Rankin

By Louise Cannon (Lou)

Two giants of the literary world, what a treat to have them together as they launch We Solve Murders, the beginning of a new series by Richard Osman in Edinburgh at the book festival. You can also see it today – 27/8/24 online, see link below. There’s good humour and warmth throughout.
The new series sounds wonderfully different, but as fantastic as The Thursday Murder Club, which I have loved ever since the first one, which launched in Stirling at Bloody Scotland and like this one, there wasn’t a book quite published at that time.
This time, there was a bookplate that could be signed in time for when We Solve Murders is published on 12/09/2024. Thank you so much Richard Osman.

Ian Rankin has written many intriguing books set around Edinburgh with his main character being Rebus, who also appears as a tv series and in theatre plays. He has a play called A Game Called Malice showing this Autumn 2024.

See links how to see this online, buy the book and see a piece of theatre at the bottom of this review.

They entertained and the humour and atmosphere was fantastic!
The hour zoomed by. These are people who you really could listen to and never get bored. They’re funny and interesting with great knowledge and creativity.

Richard Osman talked about previous tv productions he was involved in and currently he can be seen on House of Games.

We Solve Murders sounds distinctively different from The Thursday Club and I mean this is a good way as it separates the two well. He talked about how his main character is retired from the force. He wants a quiet life in the New Forest with his cat, Trouble. That’s it for him, or so he thinks he’s decided…
Osman talked about needing something big to happen to get him out of his comfort zone, so something happens to his daughter abroad and how it becomes a bit more global. It sounds like there’s quite a bit of action, but he reassures readers you’ll still be able to know it is him writing in style and a bit of chocolate is mentioned. For those who follow Richard Osman’s social media pages, he pleasingly talks about chocolate amongst other things.

He talked about The Thursday Murder Club film, which I have to say I am excited to see as I remember him talking excitedly, as the audience gasped, about Steven Spielberg picking up his book and seeing a film in it. He told the audience that he has been on set, but is allowing the film team involved in making it to get on with it and so doesn’t have anything to do with it, but is enjoying finding out the casting.
Amongst the casting is Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, Pierce Brosnan amongst other Brits. It was pleasing when he said about the production team etc really wanted a “Brit-Flick”.

For fans of the Thursday Murder Club, they will be returning in 2025 in book form.

There was warmth for his brother, Mat Osman, who I am also excited to hear has a new book coming soon. His previous books are The Ruins and The Ghost Theatre. He’s also the frontman for Suede, who recently toured with The Manic Street Preachers.

It would be remis of me to forget about his very cute, fun cats, Liesl and Lottie which adds to the humour with their antics and how they behave around each other. They look beautiful when shown on social media.

Richard Osman talked of wanting to write books long-term. I have to say, he has me hooked with his writing and I can only hope he pops up at another festival up here in Scotland again.

Ian Rankin, author of Rebus. He’s excellent at interviewing in a chatty, conversational style. There was definite warmth and respect between both him and Richard Osman. They had the audience in the palm of their hands.

Rebus, who’s ever ageing. Ageing characters came up in the chat, which brought much humour at how old Rebus actually would be and how they tackle having older characters, without killing them off. Richard Osman isn’t killing his core characters he reassured the audience as he talked about them being a unit.