( MENAFN - The Conversation) This article contains spoilers for We Solve Murders. We Solve Murders is the latest crime novel from Richard Osman, bestselling author of The Thursday Murder Club series. The story follows Amy Wheeler, a bodyguard for the security firm Maximum Impact, and her father-in-law, Steve Wheeler, a former London detective now handling small-town investigations in rural England.
Amy's latest assignment is to protect Rosie D'Antonio, the world's most famous author (“if you don't count Lee Child”). However, what begins as a routine assignment takes a dangerous turn when Amy becomes the target of François Loubet, a dangerous criminal picking off the associates of Maximum Impact. François pulls the strings of his operation from afar via email.
He uses a unique communication method which involves running his messages through ChatGPT with the prompt:“ChatGPT, rewrite in the style of a friendly English gentleman, please.” As a result, his messages – whether they be to Maximum Impact's CEO, or his own hitmen – adopt a distinctive linguistic style, marked by old-fashioned adjectives (“jolly”,“marvellous”,“blasted”), nouns (“luncheon”), address terms (“old bean”) and sign-offs (“tally-ho”). Together, these features evoke at least a parody of the elderly, well-to-do gentleman that François seems to be aiming for.
Luckily, other characters immediately recognise the potential for linguistic traits to offer clues to François' .
