Whitcoulls Recommends: We Solve Murders and Kingmaker

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman - more brilliant, gentle crime from the author who gave us The Thursday Murder Club. He’s taking a break from that series and has started a new one, centred around a family - Amy, who’s a bodyguard, her father in law Steve – a quiet, eccentric homebody ex cop - and his son Adam. There’s a charming wit and interplay between the characters – and a globe-hopping plot - which makes this a real pleasure to read.

Kingmaker by Sonia Purnell - Pamela Churchill Harriman was a fascinating figure – she married Winston Churchill’s son Randolph – it was not a success – but was recruited as a courtesan to secure useful information for the British government during WW2. She eventually moved to America and married twice more , eventually being appointed as the US ambassador to France. Her story is remarkable, she was a singular figure.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joan mackenzie joins us now, Good Morning, Good Morning. Last week,
Richard Osmond joined us on the Sunday Session Such a
Lovely Man. You can catch the interview if you head
to newstalksdb dot co dot nz. Joan your thoughts on
his new series, We Solve Murders.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, I love it. He's got a real trademark kind
of wit and warmth about the way that he writes,
which is why I think so many millions of people
loves the Thursday Murder Club series, but this new one,
We Solve Murders has more of that. And I know
that you know all about this book, but I will
say that there's a family at the heart of it.
Steve's a widower and a retired cop who lives a

(00:52):
really quiet life, and his son Adam, is married to Amy,
who works for a security company called Maximum Impact Solutions,
and her latest assignment's a real humdinger. She's sent off
to the private island of a world famous author. If
you think of some body on the scale of say
Lee Child. So there's a lot of money sloshing around,
and this author has received a death threat and needs

(01:13):
a bodyguard. So Amy goes off and it's a really
easy assignment. There's you know, there's sun, and there's sun
loungers and there's cocktails and it's all terrific until it
was an Instagram influencer was found dead alongside a whole
lot of cash, which has nothing to do with Amy
until it is. And she knows at that point they
need to go on the run, and she rings up Steve,

(01:34):
her father in law, and persuades him to come and
help them. As I said, he's got a really lovely touch.
His books are pure escapism and I really enjoyed hanging
out with all of these characters.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Actually, and he just nails that balance between humor and
also the crime sort of thriller aspect of the book.
Doesn't keep the story moving, and it's interesting, but it's
just as you say, got that lovely tentle wit to it, and.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
It's not cheesy, no, you know, it just rings true.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Tell me about Kingmaker, Oh.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
I love this book. King Maker is by Sonnia Perna
and it's the story of Pamela Churchill Harriman who married
Winston Churchill's son, Randolph, which was a disaster because Randolph
wasn't very good actually, But she was recruited to be
a courterzan during the Second World War so that she
could bring information back to the British government about what

(02:24):
was happening from influential famous people men obviously, and she
was very much at the heart of the war effort
with Winston. And then after the war she found herself
really cast a drift because her purpose in life really
was sort of gone. So she went to the States.
She had lots of liaisons, she's very famous for them.
Married twice more. The first guy was Leland Haywood, who

(02:48):
was a Hollywood Broadway impresario, and he was the guy
who brought South Pacific and the sound of music to
Broadway for the first time. And then she left him
and she married a guy called Amil Harriman who was
a US diplomat. And her detractors all said that she
slipped your way around, and she was a gold digger
and went after the money because there was a lot

(03:09):
of money. But actually she was a woman of extraordinary
power and power and influence, and she got very close
to the Democrats and Bill Clinton eventually sent her to
France as the US ambassador, where she had an extraordinary
ambassadorial career. I love a good biography, and this one
I thought was right up there with the best. She's

(03:31):
a singular woman, really really fascinating.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Thank you so much, Joe. In those two books, We
Solved Murders by Richard Osmond and Kingmaker by Sonya Pernell.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news talks that'd be from nine am Sunday,
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