Rosie nods. ‘That’s a good answer. Does he worry about you?’
‘He doesn’t like it when I get shot at,’ says Amy. ‘And once, in Morocco, I got attacked with a sword, and he cried.’
‘Did you cry?’
‘I haven’t cried since I was twelve,’ says Amy. ‘I learnt not to.’
‘That sounds healthy,’ says Rosie. ‘Can I put you in a book? Five six, blue eyes, blonde, never cries, kills bad guys?’
‘No,’ says Amy. ‘I don’t like publicity.’
‘I promise not to mention your ears.’
Amy and her father-in-law try to talk every day. They’ve never really discussed it; it’s just become a habit important to both of them. Well, it’s a habit important to Amy, and she hopes it’s important to Steve too. Occasionally they’ll miss a day. For example, Amy had to stay completely quiet for twelve hours in that oil pipeline, on account of a hit squad, so on that day she had to make do with texting. Steve understands. The job is the job.
‘Do you get to choose what you wear?’ Rosie asks. ‘Or is it a uniform?’
Amy looks down at her combat fatigues and faded Under Armour T-shirt.
‘I choose.’
Rosie raises a questioning eyebrow. ‘Well, nobody’s perfect.’
Amy doesn’t like to leave it too long between calls, because you never knew what Steve was eating, if he was looking after himself. It is illogical, in her opinion, to eat poorly.
She should probably ring her husband too, but she worries less about Adam. And, besides, what would they talk about?
‘When you came in,’ says Rosie, ‘there was a copy of Death Pulls the Trigger at the top of your bag. Thumbed through to about halfway.’
Amy nods. Busted.
‘So you have read one of my books? You said you hadn’t?’
‘Client research.’
‘Bullshit,’ says Rosie. ‘You like it?’
‘There was nothing else to read.’
‘Course you like it, I see you. You read the bit where she shoots the guy on the plane?’
‘That’s a good bit,’ says Amy.
‘Yeah, that’s a good bit,’ says Rosie, nodding. ‘A pilot I was seeing let me shoot a gun on his plane for research. Have you ever done that?’
‘Shot a gun on a plane? No,’ lies Amy.
‘Nothing really happens,’ says Rosie. ‘They had to replace the calfskin on one of the sofas, but that was it.’
‘If it had pierced the fuselage, the cabin could have depressurized and you could all have died,’ says Amy. Amy had once parachuted out of a plane after exactly such an incident. She had spent the next five days evading rebel forces in Burkina Faso. Actually a lot of fun in the end. Amy finds adrenaline good for the soul, and very good for the skin. Sometimes she watches skincare tutorials on Instagram, but there’s not a single one that will do for your skin what being shot at and then jumping out of a plane will do. Perhaps she should do her own videos? Again, she finds that she is thinking, and so she stops.
‘Lucky it didn’t, then,’ says Rosie, knocking back the rest of whatever goop is sitting in her glass. ‘I’m getting itchy feet, Amy. Can’t we go somewhere on the mainland? Have a drink? Raise a bit of hell?’
Rosie’s troubles had started when she had included a character in her most recent novel, Dead Men & Diamonds, very clearly based on a Russian chemicals oligarch named Vasiliy Karpin. Vasiliy, it seemed, had lacked the sense of humour one usually associates with chemicals billionaires, and, after a bullet in the post and a botched abduction at a Nashville book-signing, Rosie had called in the professionals, and was confined to barracks for the foreseeable future.
People are talking to people. Jeff Nolan, Amy’s boss, has reached out to some of Vasiliy’s colleagues in London. Conversations are ongoing. Vasiliy will be persuaded to drop this particular vendetta soon enough. Maximum Impact Solutions has clients who could do him a few favours. An accommodation will be found, Vasiliy will be placated, and Rosie will be free to go about her business again. And, if not, Amy will be ready.
Until then, Amy and Rosie are stuck on this idyllic island, with their hastily trained executive chef. Amy could definitely use a few days here, probably needs the rest if she’s being honest, but she’ll have to be back on the move soon. No one is going to kill Rosie D’Antonio, so Amy is essentially just a very expensive babysitter. And where’s the fun in that for either of them?
‘We’re going nowhere for the moment,’ says Amy. ‘You might get murdered.’
Rosie rolls her eyes and starts to roll another joint. ‘Oh, Amy, I’d rather be murdered than bored.’
And on that point, Amy Wheeler, who spent so much of her childhood trying to be as quiet and as small as possible, is inclined to agree.
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
THURSDAY MURDER CLUB BOOK #1
Welcome to the Thursday Murder Club.
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?
‘So smart and funny. Deplorably good’ Ian Rankin
THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE
THURSDAY MURDER CLUB BOOK #2
It’s the following Thursday.
And this time, an old colleague of Elizabeth’s needs help from the gang with some trouble involving stolen diamonds, a violent mobster and a very real threat. Can the Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?
‘Superbly entertaining’ Guardian
THE BULLET THAT MISSED
THURSDAY MURDER CLUB BOOK #3
It is an ordinary Thursday, and things should finally be returning to normal.
Except a decade-old cold case turns white hot, leading the gang to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers. Can the gang solve the mystery before the murderer strikes again?
‘Full of Osman’s trademark charm, insight and intelligence’ Lee Child
THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE
THURSDAY MURDER CLUB BOOK #4
Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club.
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and the gang springs into action to solve the mystery of who – and why. But has their luck finally run out?
‘Deeply moving … some of his best writing yet’
Daily Telegraph
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