Chap­ter 17 of We Solve Mur­ders finds Rosie D’Antonio in an unex­pect­ed scenario—racing across the water in a speed­boat, help­ing a fugi­tive while entan­gled in a mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion. Though she has been the tar­get of mul­ti­ple death threats from Vasiliy Karpin, a wealthy chem­i­cals tycoon, she remains unfazed, view­ing the cur­rent adven­ture as a tem­po­rary escape from her usu­al rou­tine. Rosie’s past is filled with high soci­ety events, media atten­tion, and whirl­wind romances, but as time pro­gress­es, she finds her­self set­tling into a qui­eter existence—one that lacks the exhil­a­rat­ing chaos of her ear­li­er years. The thrill of solv­ing crimes along­side Amy Wheel­er offers a sur­pris­ing change of pace, and despite the immi­nent dan­ger, Rosie wel­comes the chal­lenge with her char­ac­ter­is­tic wit and charm.

As she watch­es Amy strug­gle to keep their aging boat from sink­ing, Rosie reflects on some of her own ques­tion­able invest­ments. One of her most dis­as­trous ven­tures was pur­chas­ing a racehorse—an impul­sive deci­sion that back­fired spec­tac­u­lar­ly when she dis­cov­ered that the ani­mal was linked to the Mafia. She humor­ous­ly com­pares this mis­take to their cur­rent predica­ment, acknowl­edg­ing that life often presents chal­lenges that demand quick think­ing and resilience. Rosie’s can­did sto­ry­telling pro­vides a momen­tary dis­trac­tion from the fact that they are fugi­tives nav­i­gat­ing treach­er­ous waters, both lit­er­al­ly and fig­u­ra­tive­ly.

Despite their pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion, Rosie remains opti­mistic, reas­sur­ing Amy that they will make it to safe­ty. Their goal is to reach Sher­iff Justin Scrog­gie, who they hope can offer guid­ance regard­ing the mur­der they are inves­ti­gat­ing. Rosie, ever the uncon­ven­tion­al prob­lem solver, sug­gests they aban­don the sink­ing boat and swim to shore, point­ing out that their real dan­ger isn’t the water but the peo­ple who might be wait­ing for them on land. Amy, how­ev­er, isn’t as eager to test her sur­vival skills in the open sea, espe­cial­ly giv­en the uncer­tain­ties that lie ahead.

As they approach their des­ti­na­tion, Rosie con­sid­ers the absur­di­ty of her cur­rent sit­u­a­tion. She nev­er imag­ined that a qui­et peri­od in her life would lead her to evade dan­ger with a young inves­ti­ga­tor by her side. While most peo­ple her age are con­cerned with book clubs and char­i­ty events, she is steer­ing a fail­ing speed­boat with bul­lets poten­tial­ly fly­ing over­head. The con­trast between her past and present is stark, but she acknowl­edges that this adven­ture, despite its risks, is far more exhil­a­rat­ing than her pre­vi­ous encoun­ters with super­fi­cial social cir­cles.

The jour­ney becomes more chal­leng­ing as they near the shore, and Rosie real­izes that their pur­suers may already be antic­i­pat­ing their arrival. Their boat, now bare­ly stay­ing afloat, is no longer a viable option for escape, leav­ing them with few choic­es. As they debate their next move, Rosie spots an approach­ing fig­ure on the shore­line, though it’s unclear whether this per­son is friend or foe. The ten­sion thick­ens, rein­forc­ing the urgency of their sit­u­a­tion and their need to act fast.

Rosie’s unwa­ver­ing humor and abil­i­ty to remain calm under pres­sure con­trast with the high stakes of the moment. While Amy remains focused on their pri­ma­ry goal—unraveling the mur­der case—Rosie views their predica­ment as yet anoth­er unpre­dictable chap­ter in her already col­or­ful life. Even in the face of dan­ger, she embraces the absur­di­ty of it all, find­ing amuse­ment in the chaos that con­stant­ly seems to fol­low her.

With the shore­line with­in reach and their options run­ning thin, the chap­ter leaves read­ers won­der­ing whether Rosie and Amy will be able to out­ma­neu­ver their ene­mies or if their luck is about to run out. Rosie, ever the opti­mist, believes they’ll find a way through, while Amy remains skep­ti­cal but deter­mined. Their con­trast­ing per­spec­tives cre­ate a com­pelling dynam­ic that con­tin­ues to dri­ve the nar­ra­tive for­ward, ensur­ing that their jour­ney is as enter­tain­ing as it is dan­ger­ous.