Author: Kate Solly
Publisher: Affirm Press (Simon & Schuster)
Reviewer: Narrelle Harris
Young mums from Melbourne seem to be the flavour of the amateur-sleuthing month, and I’m all here for it. Kate Solly’s Fleck Parker, puzzle-solver and mother of three small children, makes her second outing in The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Bust-up. Fleck has discovered her passion for detective work: her only problem is finding new puzzles to solve, until her husband Matthew provides one. Random supplies seem to be going missing from the miniature railway at which he volunteers, and he needs Fleck to confirm if anything is really going on before he takes it to the committee.
So, while wrangling kids and helping her friend Trixie at the Many Hands Society Craft Shop (a community enterprise), Fleck begins to unravel the mystery. Along the way she deals with a glad-handing politician, an over-enthusiastic direct marketer, artists and railway volunteers with varying social skills, and an issue or two she’s dealing with as a result of a previous case. This book is a standalone story, so sufficient details of that case are provided at the perfect place and time as the story unfolds.
The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Bust-up is a lot of fun, but also deals with some of the difficulties of motherhood, community endeavours and group dynamics, and the aftermath of distressing events. Fleck and her family and friendships are appealing and engaging, and Trixie’s own subtle subplot involving accountant Ranveer is nicely done. References to other sleuths (from Batman to Phryne Fisher) are scattered throughout, and many smaller mysteries are revealed along the way to the denouement with the railway thief. I’m looking forward to seeing what Fleck, Trixie and the rest get up to next!
Publisher blurb
A cosy crime/mystery novel from the beloved author of Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance and The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up.
Something is amiss at the Paradise Heights Miniature Railway. And this suits Fleck Parker just fine – she’s on the hunt for a new puzzle to solve. Expensive equipment and supplies have disappeared and nobody knows why. Who could possibly wish harm on a community group delivering Sunday afternoon fun on a fleet of jolly little engines?
Fleck is frenetic as ever as she feeds a hungry baby, placates a cranky toddler, executes an (almost) on-time school run and investigates crime – all without losing her Wordle streak. Meanwhile, her best friend, Trixie, is scrambling to manage the Many Hands Society Craft Shop, where volatile volunteers are becoming a real problem.
Fleck has never met a puzzle she didn’t want to solve, and this one is just the ticket. Nobody suspects the cheerful mum asking questions at the railway as she tries to untangle the conundrum. But idyllic bushland and miniature villages hide a sinister mystery, darker and more complex than anyone imagined. Will Fleck’s attempts to derail the thief land her on the wrong side of the tracks?