A delightful cosy mystery about a group of tea ladies who work for fashion industry companies. These canny ladies work together to solve the mystery of the death of one of their company's accountants, and the involvement of a mysterious Russian woman. Good fun. ( )

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 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.

( )

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. ( )

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 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. ( )