As someone partial to a video game or two, I’m often bewildered by the world of books. Words like cosy and wholesome are often used to describe quaint, calm and placid games. Action is usually limited to farming or exploring a non-threatening forest, with the most drama seemingly limited to finding a lost scarf. That’s not the case in the world of literature, where the term cosy murder mystery is a genre all to itself. The phrase first made itself known to me with Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, a light and breezy novel starring four ageing people in a care home who set out to solve a murder.
The genre has become a firm favourite of mine, particularly ones that wrap a gruesome killing with a nosy, amateur detective who keeps getting in the way, often with hilarious results. When I saw The Campervan Detectives by Maeve Haran, I thought this would be a great addition to the collection of easy-going murder mysteries I seem to be collecting.
As the name suggests, The Campervan Detectives revolves around a group of women brought together by their love of the portable hotel rooms and solving crimes. Known as the Vintage Vanettes, the rag-tag crew of experienced women consists of Amanda, an old thespian planning her retirement, Rose a cleaner who knows everyone’s business, and ex-detective Tina. The group welcome Sadie into the fold when she finds the body of her old headmistress in a popular spot in town and a hooded figure fleeing from the crime scene.
With the police seemingly as useless as a fart in a thunderstorm, the Vanettes set about investigating the murder and quickly draw up a large list of suspects. As the team works to find whodunnit, we get to learn more about the Vanettes themselves. With four main characters to juggle and a murder to solve, The Campervan Detectives could have been overbloated with backstory, but Haran expertly balances plot with character development, leaving us with a slick novel that is easy to devour.
Despite the label of murder mystery, The Campervan Detectives is distinctly British with most characters being apologetically polite. If the book is ever adapted into a film, everyone could easily be played by Hugh Grant. It might sound like a criticism, but the result made me feel like The Campervan Detectives is a cosy and easy going experience and could be the British version of Murder, She Wrote.
To further this point, The Campervan Detectives leans heavily into the ‘meddling old woman’ trope. The Vanettes get away with their investigations because they are disregarded by most of the village as nosy women. In a time where ageism is very prevalent, I can understand why the book chooses to highlight this, but the frequency that this is mentioned threatens to put a dampener on the lively book. Fortunately, the Vanettes do call out the behaviour, often accompanied by a sarcastic comment by Amanda.
Haran’s writings were brilliantly brought to life with Fenella Fudge’s narration. Each character was distinct and a pleasure to listen to, especially when the characters got together for their nightly debrief. A particular highlight was listening to Amanda’s dry and pointed wit take aim at each suspect. The performance reminded me of Joanna Lumley’s Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous, the aging character concerned about where the next glass of wine is coming from. There were a few incidents when I confused Sadie with Tina as their voices were a little too similar but thankfully this only happened once or twice over the course of the book and didn’t detract from any of the action taking place.
The Campervan Detectives is as cosy as it gets, especially when it comes to murder mysteries. The easy-breezy novel has a well-paced plot, a list of fleshed-out suspects and characters that oozes charm and charisma. The quaint setting and polite characters might be a little twee for some, but the combination of Maeve Haran’s words and Fenella Fudge’s narration left me wanting more of the Vintage Vanettes.