The Dinner Lady Detectives by Hannah Hendy
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Three Stars
Best for:
Those looking for a bit of a cozy mystery.
In a nutshell:
Margery and Clementine are a couple who work together as dinner ladies at the local school. The kitchen manager is found dead in a walk-in freezer, and while everyone else writes it off as an accident, Margery and Clementine aren’t so sure…
Worth quoting:
N/A
Why I chose it:
I like the idea of a sort of simple, cozy little mystery, and it was available from my library.
Review:
I had no idea what to expect from this book but I was mostly pleasantly surprised, though I do have some issues with the characters.
As I said above, the book focuses on Margery and Clementine, a couple who have been together for 30 years, and who work together doing the same job at a local school. After their work colleague dies, they decide to look into it further, and find themselves in all sorts of hijinks and silly situations, while also being a bit at risk. No one takes them seriously – not the police, nor other staff at the school, and this does seem to be a bit of a commentary both on how certain jobs are not respected (along with the holders of those jobs), as well as how middle-aged women are generally invisible.
The plot is fine; there are twists and I guess one could see some of them coming but others are sort of out of nowhere, which I found a bit annoying. I was also frustrated by how cruel pretty much every character is to their work colleagues. So much teasing, unpleasantness, and just generally meanness. I’m not a fan of that in general, and it was running throughout this book.
I did, however, enjoy the detail author Hendy put into developing Margery and Clementine. They have such specific ways of going through life, and such a set routine, it’s believable that it would have developed over so many years being together. Some of it feels a bit absurd, but it also works for them, and they are clearly in a loving relationship, so that was nice.
This is apparently the first in a serious of five books – I’m sure I’ll read the rest as they become available from the library.
