Book Club Night Kit

We Chase Shadows

Richard Osman

Cozy night

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.

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.

Reading level: Easy

Best for: A club that wants to laugh, be a bit thrilled, and leave feeling fond of everyone at the table.

Discussion

Warm-up

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 & to sip

To eat

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.