Reading playlist The Bullet That Missed

by Richard Osman

The quiet electricity of being sharper than anyone in the room, and old enough not to care who knows it.

John Barry
George Fenton
Richard Rodney Bennett
Dave Brubeck
Anne Dudley

The music stays gently alert — understated British wit expressed through breezy chamber jazz and light orchestral whimsy, the sonic equivalent of a raised eyebrow. Tension sneaks in through spare piano phrases and low strings, the way danger arrives in Osman's prose: politely, between cups of tea. It brightens for the comic moments and darkens just enough when the stakes become real.