With the current state of the world right now, it’s no wonder that the cosy crime genre is having a real moment. From Richard Osman’s bestselling Thursday Murder Club series to Sulari Gentill’s self-referential The Woman in the Library, it seems as if readers are finding that the best way to take their minds off their troubles is with a few (improbably) dead bodies. Elizabeth Coleman’s A Routine Infidelity fits the bill nicely.
Ted (short for Edwina) is a feelings-phobic private investigator with a troubled childhood, a miniature schnauzer named Miss Marple, and a friends-with-benefits arrangement with a handsome young man who clearly longs for more. She’s making a living through the time-honoured PI tradition of sniffing out cheating spouses, when she discovers that one of the philandering husbands is embezzling millions from his business partner. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Ted decides to crack the case herself and lands smack dab in the middle of a murder investigation. Meanwhile, her beloved older sister Bob (short for Roberta) has fallen prey to a catfisher who’s pretending to be an Australian soldier in Afghanistan, and her enormous family is starting to crack under the strain of a decades-old secret that weighs heavily on Ted’s shoulders. Can Ted keep it together, save her sister, solve the crime, and still have time to make it to her favourite pastime – a medieval battle game called Swordcraft?
Coleman is a former screenwriter for Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, and A Routine Infidelity has all the same winning ingredients: a hedonistic lady sleuth with a nose for trouble, a taciturn homicide detective with whom she enjoys a snarky frisson, and an unabashedly Melbourne-centric setting that name-drops such iconic neighbourhood locations as Dights Falls and the Collingwood Children’s Farm. It’s full of a diverse cast of characters including a teenage computer hacker, a LARPer, and an empty-nesting spiritual medium who unexpectedly discovers that her powers might be a bit more genuine than she thought.
A Routine Infidelity is the first in a new series that is perfect for fans of classic crime dramas.
