The Tea Ladies
Amanda Hampson
The Tea Ladies
Amanda Hampson
A wickedly witty cosy crime novel set in Sydney in the swinging sixties, ideal for fans of Richard Osman and Bonnie Garmus.
They keep everyone's secrets, until there's a murder...
Sydney, 1965- After a chance encounter with a stranger, tea ladies Hazel, Betty and Irene become accidental sleuths, stumbling into a world of ruthless crooks and racketeers in search of a young woman believed to be in danger.
In the meantime, Hazel's job at Empire Fashionwear is in jeopardy. The firm has turned out the same frocks and blouses for the past twenty years and when the mini-skirt bursts onto the scene, it rocks the rag trade to its foundations. War breaks out between departments and it falls to Hazel, the quiet diplomat, to broker peace and save the firm.
When there is a murder in the building, the tea ladies draw on their wider network and put themselves in danger as they piece together clues that connect the murder to a nearby arson and a kidnapping. But if there's one thing tea ladies can handle, it's hot water.
Review
Lian Hingee
It’s 1965. The western world is gripped by anti-communism; Jean Shrimpton has scandalised society by wearing a minidress to the Melbourne Cup; and in Sydney’s Surry Hills garment district, a professional tea lady named Hazel Bates has just discovered a dead body.
For her first foray into crime fiction, writer Amanda Hampson has thrown her cap into the increasingly crowded cosy crime ring with a novel that thoroughly deserves to find itself in the upper echelons of the genre alongside The Thursday Murder Club and the Rowland Sinclair series. The Tea Ladies is the story of Hazel and her friends, who venture fearlessly into Sydney’s seedy underbelly to uncover the link between a murdered accountant, a missing Russian acrobat, and a warehouse that has been destroyed in an arson attack.
A twisty mystery with short, pacy chapters, The Tea Ladies has everything: embezzlement, a private eye, police corruption, Russian gangsters – and perhaps more importantly, a charming cast of characters. Not the least of these is Hazel herself, who – in addition to being able to make a good, strong cup of tea – has an excellent memory, an analytical mind, and a talent for sniffing out lies.
The Tea Ladies provides readers with a satisfying mystery, a trio of intrepid older women discovering their own strengths, and a window into a vanished past. I give it five TimTams.
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