Fleck Parker is back in this second volume of the ‘Paradise Heights’ series. Although this book can be read as a stand-alone, references are made back to her first crime-solving adventure in The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-up.

Fleck is a very busy stay-at-home mum wrangling a baby, a three-year-old and a school-age son. After the successful resolution of the crime in Book 1, she also successfully works out who is responsible for some graffiti on her favourite café but is feeling restless that she has nothing more to solve. Her husband, Matthew, tells her that he suspects someone is stealing supplies from the local miniature railway, where he volunteers as the ‘quartermaster’, so Fleck sets out to work out what is happening.

With her involvement with the Many Hands charity shop and her close circle of friends there, including Trixie from Book 1, Fleck worries away at several sub-plots as well as the issues at the miniature railway. When she eventually works out that there is an active saboteur, her life is in danger.

There are cultural references to Thomas the Tank Engine characters, including the Fat Controller, and the Get Smart TV series but the plot is firmly set in the present day with one storyline following catfishing – and Fleck’s mental health issues with PTSD are also addressed. This is a good follow-on episode in the series.

Reviewed by Lynne Babbage

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Solly writes funny, feel-good fiction with an eye for the profound within the domestic. Her latest novel, The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up is a cosy crime adventure with a young mum protagonist. Her first novel, Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance, is a hilarious and heartwarming read about community, bigotry and the power of grassroots craftivism. Kate is married and has six children. When she’s not writing, she spends her days saying ‘put that stick down’ in a firm voice and divesting her kitchen table of its cemented weetbix glaze.

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