The Tea Ladies

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.