The Domestic Detectives
Harry Armfield
The Domestic Detectives
Synopsis
The Domestic Detectives is a light-hearted murder mystery set in East Sheen, a wealthy, middle class suburb of South West London, and recently voted one of Britain’s happiest towns
Andrea Dawson, the ex-model wife of a wealthy businessman, has been found stabbed to death in their ‘beautiful home’ up on ‘Millionaire Mile’, the prime residential location adjacent to Richmond Park.
The story is narrated by Nick Young, an advertising copywriter in his late thirties. Having lost his job in the recession, he has taken over his family’s domestic and child rearing responsibilities, whilst his wife Janey has reluctantly returned to work. Nick joins forces with his young, bored, wealthy, ex-scientist neighbour Angela to solve the mystery.
As Nick juggles his role as a househusband, and Angela her desire to shop and be a good wife and mother, they quickly realise that nothing is what it seems in their respectable neighbourhood, and together gradually uncover a web of sexual blackmail, art fraud and financial corruption at the highest level.
Full of sparkling humour and crackling dialogue between the two main protagonists, The Domestic Detectives is also full of witty observations on the life of a young man separated from his career and reduced to marshalling his creativity in the execution of domestic chores, the school run and coffee mornings.
As the book’s subtitle (‘Nick and Angela’s first case’) suggests, the book leaves plenty of potential for future instalments of amateur sleuthing in respectable, middle-class East Sheen, by the co-partners in crime.