Amanda Hampson

A successful, and at times surprisingly tense, mystery set in Sydney in 1965. Hazel Bates, tea lady for a women’s fashionware house, notices a distressed woman standing in an upper window of the abandoned store across the lane.

As the mystery unfolds to include arson and murder, it’s Hazel’s desire to help this unknown woman which motivates Hazel to keep investigating. Hazel herself is a huge part of why I enjoyed this book so much. She’s kind and resourceful, a skilled peacemaker show more with a gift for recognising when someone isn’t telling the truth, but she’s not infallible in a way which makes her feel very believable.

Another factor which makes the story compelling is that it is set during a pivotal moment in women’s fashion. Things are tense at Empire Fashionware not just because there’s a murder, but because the employees have different ideas about what women want to wear, and there’s the looming threat of the business closing if it doesn’t adapt to the changing times. Moreover, the way Hampson captures the personalities and concerns of her characters is both amusing and insightful.

I also enjoyed Hazel’s friendships with the other tea ladies, especially with her loyal old friend Betty (who really enjoys playing detective and taking notes) and with the rough-mannered Irene (who enjoys taking risks and isn’t opposed to breaking the law).

“None of our business, anyway,” says Irene, who has firm but contradictory views about who can mind whose business, especially when it comes to her own business.
“Irene dear, we’re tea ladies -- everything is our business,” says Hazel with a smile.

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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 show more 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. show less

To be fair here, I picked this up because the cover design matches The Thursday Murder Club series designs closely enough to catch my attention; I bought it because the mystery was set in Sydney, and I was very much looking forward to reading a story set somewhere that I recognise.

Given that I've read it pretty much in one sitting (allowing for errand running, eating dinner, and the like), this was the right choice. There are so many fabulous details about the timing which I found strongly show more placed the story in time and place. The fashion details fit so beautifully with the photos I remember of family from that time (and almost that place).

The character voices are exquisite. Betty and Hazel have a long history of friendship, and a large number of characteristics in common--not least that they are tea ladies at neighbouring garment factories--and so I had a little trouble keeping track at the beginning, because I hadn't got the names fixed right. But after that, it was all good. The differences are subtle, but fascinating.

There is a slightly fantastical element, which when introduced (fairly early on) I was suspicious of. It seems a little contrived, a little too pat. But the way it was handled was so very clever, the way that it contributed to the development of Hazel's character, was very important.

In terms of the mystery? It gets a bit overwrought. There are so many moving parts! What started out more like a cosy mystery got half-way to thriller. Which, given the previous comparison to the Thursday Murder Club books, I probably should have expected. show less

Sixty Summers is a charming, astute and moving novel about friendship, love, and being true to yourself, no matter your age.

In their youth, Maggie, Rose, and Fran imagined bright futures filled with love, adventure, and success. Now, approaching their sixtieth birthdays, the three friends wonder what happened to those dreams. Maggie is overworked and under appreciated by her large family, Rose is bored, and frustrated by her needy husband, and Fran is disappointed with both her lacklustre show more career and love life.

Hoping to revive the spirit of joie de vivre they have lost, Maggie, Rose and Fran decide to relive a European tour they took in their early twenties. It’s a journey that will challenge and ultimately redefine who they are, and what they want.

“And here they were, forty years later. They had changed beyond recognition. And not changed at all.”

Hampson’s characterisation in Sixty Summers is thoughtful and feels authentic. Each of Hampson’s characters are unsatisfied with their lives at the outset of the trip. Fran perhaps only mildly, Rose a little more so, but Maggie is emotionally exhausted and near her breaking point. These women are closer to my mothers age than mine, yet I can empathise with each of them in some manner.

“She was struck by the horrible thought that this well-intentioned adventure could end up costing the three of them their friendship”

Despite retracing the route they took as young women, inspiring some joyful reminisces, it becomes clear that the lack of spontaneity in their comfortable itinerary is stifling the experience they hoped for, and Hampson thoughtfully portrays the women’s increasing frustration with the situation, and each other.

“So the upshot of this disaster is that it’s cheered us all up..”

An impulsive purchase, a theft, a near death experience, and a long held secret one of the women is keeping, all eventually conspire to throw their carefully planned schedule off track. Circumstances finally allows Maggie and Rose some freedom from their family’s transatlantic interruptions, so when they reach the Grecian Coast they are all ready to take a risk and be honest with each other, and themselves.

“Anyone who saw them would assume they were three old hens on a cosy holiday, never suspecting that they had met their younger selves, witnessed their lives from a different angle, and changed in ways even they couldn’t yet know.”

While I enjoyed the vicarious tour of Europe, visiting Paris, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, through Italy and over to Greece, richly described by the author, (and whose real life tour I will be featuring on the blog later this week), it’s really the emotional journey’s of Hampson’s characters that kept me engrossed in this novel.

In Sixty Summers, Hampson reminds us that the ‘third act’ need not be the final act, change is still possible, though it will take honesty and courage. show less