In Chap­ter 60 of We Solve Mur­ders, the focus shifts to Tony Tay­lor, who reflects on the last time he had a date, which was in 1987 dur­ing the Thatch­er era. Though it’s been many years since he ven­tured into the world of dat­ing, Tony has a pleas­ant evening with Felic­i­ty, whose con­ver­sa­tion touch­es on light top­ics such as tele­vi­sion shows and famous actors. Tony, on the oth­er hand, dis­cuss­es more per­son­al sub­jects, such as his Ford Sier­ra Cos­worth and local park­ing issues, which con­trasts with the more gen­er­al nature of Felic­i­ty’s talk. The cou­ple enjoys their time at The Pig in Brock­en­hurst, a restau­rant known for its high prices and equal­ly high-qual­i­ty food. The date itself is love­ly, and although Tony has been out of prac­tice in the dat­ing world, he appre­ci­ates the ease of the con­ver­sa­tion and the over­all pleas­ant­ness of the evening.

After their meal, Tony and Felic­i­ty take a stroll through the gar­dens of the restau­rant, where they share a kiss beneath a sycamore tree. Felic­i­ty, who had planned to stay at Steve’s emp­ty house that night, is excit­ed about the next day’s plans. Tony has arranged a pic­turesque tour of the New For­est for them, with stops in Lyming­ton, Beaulieu, and Buckler’s Hard, even con­sid­er­ing a stop to buy some fudge. The future seems bright for Tony and Felic­i­ty, with the promise of more shared adven­tures and mem­o­ries in the mak­ing. Their time togeth­er feels com­fort­able, and Tony can’t help but feel a sense of con­nec­tion with her. How­ev­er, the bud­ding romance is con­trast­ed with the dark­er under­cur­rent of the sto­ry, as their lives are still touched by the specter of crime and mys­tery that is nev­er far from their minds.

The evening takes a dif­fer­ent turn when Tony steps away briefly to use the restroom at The Brass Mon­key pub. Upon his return, he finds Felic­i­ty deep in con­ver­sa­tion with John and Jyoti, who are dis­cussing a recent mur­der. Tony over­hears the con­ver­sa­tion and feels uneasy, unsure of how to han­dle the dis­cus­sion of crime on what was sup­posed to be a light­heart­ed evening. He doesn’t want to share too much with Felic­i­ty so soon, espe­cial­ly about some­thing so grim, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to seem out of touch with the peo­ple around him. Try­ing to steer the con­ver­sa­tion away from the dark­er sub­ject mat­ter, Tony focus­es on dis­cussing the beau­ty of the local area, hop­ing to shift the mood back to some­thing more pleas­ant. Through­out the evening, Felicity’s easy­go­ing nature con­tin­ues to sur­prise Tony, and he begins to feel a deep­er con­nec­tion to her. Even as the group talks about a mys­te­ri­ous woman in prison, Tony plays along, feign­ing con­fu­sion so as not to com­pli­cate mat­ters with too many per­son­al or dan­ger­ous details.

As the night pro­gress­es, Tony decides to walk Felic­i­ty home, feel­ing con­tent with the evening and the time spent with her. The warmth of their con­nec­tion is evi­dent as they con­tin­ue their walk, and Felic­i­ty express­es inter­est in return­ing to see Tony again. At Steve’s cot­tage, Felic­i­ty invites Tony inside for cof­fee, some­thing he typ­i­cal­ly avoids, but he agrees nonethe­less, intrigued by the grow­ing bond between them. How­ev­er, just as they enter the house, Tony is star­tled by a sud­den noise—only to find it’s Steve’s black cat, Trou­ble, mak­ing the noise. The unex­pect­ed sound adds a touch of humor to the oth­er­wise serene atmos­phere, but it also serves as a reminder of the unpre­dictable nature of life. This chap­ter high­lights Tony’s ten­ta­tive steps back into romance, set against a back­drop of local intrigue and the loom­ing shad­ow of crime. It blends both comedic and sus­pense­ful ele­ments, estab­lish­ing the dynam­ic between Tony and Felic­i­ty while keep­ing the ten­sion of the sur­round­ing mys­tery alive. The chap­ter serves as a piv­otal moment in Tony’s jour­ney, as his per­son­al life begins to inter­twine with the larg­er, dark­er forces at play in the sto­ry.