
Murder and Mayhem on the waterfront.
It’s time for the Tea Ladies!
1967: Hazel’s new job at the docks quickly turns perilous when she stumbles into the criminal underworld that lurks beneath the surface. A million in gold coins has vanished from a cargo ship and a dead body washed up. Suddenly, she’s in over her head.
Disillusioned with her life, Betty is led astray by a charismatic new friend and finds herself exposed in more ways than one – until a crisis drags her back to reality.
Living in a high-class brothel, Irene gets wind of a threat that could destroy her livelihood. She takes on the Maltese mafia and becomes involved in a dangerously sticky situation.
When one of the tea ladies disappears, they face their greatest challenge yet, pushing their detective skills to the limit. It will take more than a glass of Hazel’s homemade wine to solve this one.
The Deadly Dispute, Amanda Hampson
The third book in The Tea Ladies Mystery Series, sees Hazel, Betty and Irene take on one of their most dangerous challenges yet, with a real threat to Hazel's life on more than one occasion, Betty finding herself naked in front of a lot of strangers, and Irene hoicking a Molotov Cocktail straight back to where it came from.
All of which might come as a bit of a surprise, even to followers of this lovely series of books, because these three are tea ladies after all. I mean who tries to drown or truss up tea ladies and shove them in wardrobes. Or pitch Molotov Cocktails at them (okay well that's Irene and you could be forgiven ...).
But it's 1967, Hazel has a new job as a part time tea lady at the docks, and there's been a million gold coins vanish from a cargo ship, and a young man whose mother is very worried about him. Meanwhile back where Hazel used to work, at Empire Fashions, Pixie's had enough of her mother's ridiculous interference and she's looking to spread her wings. At the same time the Tea Ladies Guild has a fundraising challenge on their hand's and Merl's behaving like a prat again.
Needless to say readers will probably have to have read the earlier books (THE TEA LADIES and THE CRYPTIC CLUE) to have any chance of knowing who is who and what's going on. That shouldn't be much of a trial though - take it from somebody who spent a fair bit of time thinking this series probably wasn't for me - only to find myself rapidly hooked - this is a lot of fun. The characters are wonderful women on the slightly older side, they have had their trials and tribulations, jobs that aren't seen as much but they value, and do well, friendships that go back or are newly formed, husband's who are regretted or cherished, and some nicely eccentric behaviours. Unlikely friends all of them, they rub along, as Hazel reflects on at the end of THE DEADLY DISPUTE:
As they sit in companionable silence, Hazel experiences a moment of the breathless panic she felt trapped in the blackness of that wardrobe. It's the memory of loneliness, more than the fear, that comes back to her vividly in the night, and occasionally in the day. She takes a deep breath and calms herself.
They are books about crime and investigation, they are also books about female friendship and companionship in good, hard and downright dangerous times. They are also light, fun and populated by vivid and very engaging women.
Glancing up from her jigsaw, she looks across the room at Irene stretched out on the sofa, puffing away on her cigar, and Betty, busy knitting for the orphans. She takes a moment to appreciate the ordinary loveliness of this time together and feels a sense of contentment settle on her. She is home in the truest sense of the word.