Cozy night
We Chase ShadowsBook club questions, food & host guide
Richard Osman
#7 New York Times Fiction Bestseller
1 week on the list
A cozy book club night for We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman. Includes 8 spoiler-free discussion questions, food and drink pairings, a playlist, and a host guide, ready to print and share.
A club that wants to laugh, be a bit thrilled, and leave feeling fond of everyone at the table.
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The second outing for Richard Osman's globe-trotting trio of Amy, Rosie and Steve is a witty, warm-hearted thriller about a killer at large and the people who refuse to be frightened alone. It is the rare mystery that leaves you feeling looked after.
Why it works for clubs
- Three very different generations bumping along together gives everyone someone to root for
- Osman's humour sits right next to real danger, so the table can laugh and gasp in the same breath
- Found family and chosen loyalty are easy, feelings-first topics for any group
- Short, quick chapters mean even the busiest member will have finished it
Reading level
Easy
Warm-up questions
- 1 Before we talk about the book at all: where did you do most of your reading, and did you have a blanket, a mug, or a cat involved?
- 2 Osman's writing has a particular kind of dry kindness to it. What was the first moment in this book that made you smile out loud, and did anyone in your house ask what you were laughing at?
Digging in
- 1 Steve's whole instinct is to stay home with his quiet routines, while Amy's is to run straight at the danger. On a normal week, which of those two are you, and does the book make you wish you were the other one?
- 2 This trio is not a family by blood, they are a family by insistence. Who are the people who insist on you like that, and what does it feel like when they turn up?
- 3 Osman writes older characters as fully alive, funny, and still very much in the middle of their story rather than at the end of it. How did that land for you, and did it change anything about how you think of your own next chapter?
- 4 For a book about a killer at large, this one is oddly comforting to sit with. What do you think it does to make danger feel survivable, and did that make you read faster or slower?
Going deep
- 1 Grief sits underneath a lot of Steve's warmth and a lot of the humour in these books. How did you feel about the way the book holds sadness and jokes in the same hand, and did any of it catch you off guard?
- 2 By the time you closed the book, who did you most want to check in on the next morning, and what would you want to say to them? No details, just the feeling you were left with.
On the table
Proper sausage rolls with a pot of brown sauce
The most unglamorous, most British comfort food going, exactly the sort of thing Steve would produce without ceremony. Shop-bought pastry is entirely allowed.
A big tray of buttered crumpets and scones with jam and clotted cream
Cosy crime runs on tea-and-something. Pile it on one board, let people graze, no plating required.
Slow-cooked chicken and leek pie with mash
The one dish worth real effort: a hug in a bowl for a night about people looking after each other while the world misbehaves.
To sip
Endless pot of strong builder's tea with a tin of biscuits beside it
No alcohol
Non-alcoholic and non-negotiable. Put the biggest teapot you own on the table and refill it all night.
Hot spiced apple and honey toddy (make it with or without whisky)
Warm, fragrant, faintly medicinal in the nicest way. Set out a jug of the spiced apple base so people can choose their own ending.
A soft, easy red served slightly cool, or a cream sherry for the Steve contingent
Something you can nurse through two hours of talking without thinking about it much. That is the whole brief.
Rainy-window jazz and gentle British warmth, played low enough that nobody has to raise their voice.
Tap a track to play it. Full songs play when you're signed into Spotify.
Run of show
7:00
Kettle on, coats off
Tea poured before anyone sits down. Sausage rolls and crumpets already out so arriving late costs nobody anything.
7:20
Warm-up round
Go round the room with the two warm-up questions. No hands up, no order, just whoever speaks first.
7:45
Pie at the table
Serve the chicken and leek pie and run the four theme questions while people eat. Talking with a fork in hand keeps it loose.
8:20
Trivia and toddies
Break the mood with the trivia sheet, teams of two or three, toddy jug on the side. Prize is the last sausage roll.
8:45
The soft landing
Two deep questions by lamplight. Say out loud that passing is allowed, then let the silences sit.
9:15
Scorecards and next pick
Fill in scorecards, read a few out, hand out bookmarks, choose the next book before anyone finds their shoes.
Host tips
- Lower the lights and turn the playlist down to almost-nothing before the deep questions. The room will get quieter on its own.
- Say at the start that finishing the book was optional and spoilers are banned until the last half hour. It keeps the half-finished members talking instead of hiding.
- Do not chase every question. If one lands well and eats twenty minutes, let it, and drop two from the list without announcing it.
You're invited
Bring Your Softest Cardigan, There Is a Killer at Large
We are reading Richard Osman's We Chase Shadows, and then sitting somewhere warm with pie, crumpets and a very large pot of tea to talk about it. Low effort, low pressure, high biscuit count.
Trivia
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1
We Chase Shadows is the second book in which Richard Osman series?Answer: We Solve Murders.
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2
Which trio of characters does the We Solve Murders series follow?Answer: Amy, her father-in-law Steve, and the novelist Rosie.
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3
Before writing novels, Richard Osman was best known in the UK for creating and co-hosting which TV quiz show?Answer: Pointless.
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4
Which earlier Osman series, set in a retirement village, made him a bestseller before We Solve Murders?Answer: The Thursday Murder Club.
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5
The sub-genre Osman is most associated with, gentle mysteries with humour and low gore, is usually called what?Answer: Cosy crime (cozy mystery).
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6
Richard Osman also co-hosts a popular books and culture podcast with which fellow broadcaster?Answer: Marina Hyde (The Rest Is Entertainment).
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7
Steve is a former police officer who now works in which quieter line of work?Answer: Private security, in a small English village setting.
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8
The Thursday Murder Club was adapted in 2025 into a film released on which streaming service?Answer: Netflix.
Bookmarks
Cozy night
Warm nerve
Tea first. Then we deal with the killer.
We Chase Shadows
Cozy night
Chosen people
Some families are assembled, not inherited.
We Chase Shadows
Cozy night
Gentle courage
Danger is easier with someone saving you a biscuit.
We Chase Shadows
Rate the book
Comfort factor
Made me laugh
Characters I'd have round for dinner
Cosiness of the setting
Would happily read the next one
One word for how this book left me feeling:
The moment I want to reread on a rainy day:
Who I'd cast as Steve:
Print pack
- Question cards on kraft stock, one per card, to pass around the table
- Tea-stain-proof trivia half-sheets with a pencil taped to each
- Printed bookmarks on card, three designs, one tucked under each mug
- Scorecards small enough to fit beside a plate
- A hand-lettered 'Spoilers after 8:45' sign for the kitchen door
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