Affirm Press, Australia 2026
Cover design Nada Backovic
Cover images Nada Backovic; iStock.com: Fourleaflover, moonnoon, svetolk, tassel78, YURII ZASIMOV; Shutterstock.com: Vladimir Grigoriev
Kate Solly has mastered the art of plumbing the depths of contemporary society, whilst simultaneously telling a rollicking good fun story, full of the gamut of real people we recognise from our world and some loveable and/or quirky ones from her imagination.
In this book we once again adventure with amateur detective Fleck and her best pal Trixie in a seemingly mundane mystery.
Fleck’s husband Matthew plays a greater role in this story as his interest in the local Miniature Railway Society provides the setting for Fleck’s investigations.
Pleasingly, too, we see a little more of the charming Ranveer, whose accountancy skills come in very handy in shedding light when random stocks keep disappearing from the Society’s stores. This problem is causing delays with planned track work for the group.
However, there is much more at stake in this story, and thanks to Fleck’s persistence and her need to escape the tedium of peg shop and other mothering tasks, we are taken on a journey into human darkness.
Along the way to the nail-biting climax, where we fear for Fleck’s life and wish she hadn’t so blithely put herself in harm’s way, we are party to the author’s interest in coercive control, pyramid selling/Ponzi schemes, online trolling and cyber crime. There is also a good hard look at politicians and disinformation/misinformation via social and mainstream media.
That so much can be boxed in entertaining packaging is testament to Kate Solly’s capacity as a storyteller and a canny observer of the world we live in. Fleck’s daily domestic routines and the difficulties of keeping up with school newsletters for dress up days and the like are more than a distraction, however.
They also carry weight here and will strike a chord with many readers who have parented small children. Who hasn’t felt the need to set up a crime board in their laundry, for instance?
The structuring of the plot is clever, tightly winding the investigation and the domestic rather than presenting them in isolation from one another. All of this is Fleck’s life and all of it matters. Problem solving is something she needs to feed her soul and satisfy her intellect. The care for her family is important, but so is the search for answers and the finding of justice for the silent or less powerful.
No problem is insignificant, including that of her own PTSD from previous life-threatening situations. Her acceptance that she needs to seek help for this and that it is normal to need it is one of the key ‘messages’ we also take form this work. And the subtlety with which it drops into the story is yet another mark of this author’s command of her craft.
Thank you to Affirm Press for my review copy and to Kate for a cheery and frank discussion of the art of writing and of the serious issues covered in this story. Keep Fleck safe please.