Richard Osman returns with his much-loved crew of unlikely sleuths in
The Impossible Fortune, a story laced with mystery, mischief, and the
kind of humour only he can deliver. This latest instalment plays with
ideas of luck, money, and the everyday quirks that make both heroes
and villains feel recognisably human – even when murder is involved.
Osman talks villains, invisible detectives, and the joy of being constantly
surprised by his characters. Here, he shares what makes his newest
mystery tick, why fortune always seems to be hiding, and how age has
become his secret weapon in storytelling.
The title, The Impossible Fortune, is wonderfully mysterious. Can you tell us a little about what it means and how it connects to the story’s core mystery?
Fortune means money of course, which is at the heart of so many great murder mysteries. But fortune also means luck; the luck you’re born with and the luck that meets us along the way. Ron’s favourite football team West Ham has a song which says, ‘Fortune’s always hiding’ and that was my initial title for the book. But I was the only person who got the reference.
We’re now several books in, and your characters have become beloved literary
figures. Are they still surprising you as a writer? Has one of them ever hijacked
the plot?
Absolutely! And that question gets to the heat of what writing is – or certainly what I think my writing is – which is getting to know a group of people, making bad things happen to them, and then seeing how they react. If I don’t know what’s going to happen in the book, I always think it’s going to be hard for readers to know what’s going to happen too. So hopefully we are all constantly taken by surprise by these four loveable troublemakers.
“Hopefully we are all constantly taken by surprise
by these four loveable troublemakers.”
From the start, this series has gently subverted expectations about ageing and retirement. Do you see your characters as a kind of quiet rebellion against how older people are usually written?
Older people in pretty much every culture in the world become invisible or are overlooked. But I’ve been able to use that to my advantage by having a crack team of very wise, invisible detectives. Who better to open doors, crack secrets and solve murders?
There’s always a larger-than-life villain in your stories. What makes this villain stand out – and did you enjoy writing them more than your heroes this time?
It’s very hard to say who the villain is in this book, certainly until you’ve read the whole thing. But I love writing villains as much as I love writing heroes. My starting point is that even serial killers need to go to the dentist, so they don’t wake up in the morning feeling evil, saying evil things, and doing evil things. They wake up in the morning and say, ‘Oh god I haven’t fed the cats’ or ‘why is someone next door using a leaf blower?’ Admittedly they will then go next door and murder the person using the leaf blower but other than that they’re just like us.
Read more from this interview in volume 38 of The Penguin Post magazine >>
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman is out now. READ AN EXTRACT >>
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