Debut
This charming, funny book is set in present day London and follows the adventures of Jane Pye and Simon Mash, who are taking a detective class at their local learning center. (To a US reader, this will seem like a community college class.) Jane is between jobs, aka unemployed, and Simon is employed but willing to go along with Jane on her lark. She’s started with a book on detection and gone from there.
As a final assignment, the teacher (and working private eye) Gavin, assigns each team in the class a case to be solved. He gives the only unsolved case to Jane and Simon, and as it later becomes clear, it’s a case he himself has been frustrated by for decades. Jane and Simon plunge in, going to interview Dev, whose girlfriend has vanished. The thing is, the police don’t believe she exists as not only does Dev not possess a photo of her, she doesn’t seem to be a voter or be on National Health or have a passport or a driver’s license.
Jane and Simon do the best they can though, but as they are learning on the job, they really aren’t very good at detecting. However, Jane is finding it preferable to a series of job interviews she has with a gambling app company. Their interview with Dev and later stakeout in the woods yield little result, as does a meeting with a local ghosthunter. It turns out that Dev’s missing girlfriend has the same name (and appearance) of several women with the same name through the decades. The missing women would form an attachment, vanish, and would never be seen again.
Jane is more than determined, and she and Simon begin to edge closer to a solution, to the astonishment of Gavin. He’s working a parallel path but never seriously expected Jane and Simon to find the answer to the mystery.
The solution, when it comes, is achieved through genuine detective work and deduction on Jane’s part, and the story adds on some delightful sidebar characters – a retired policeman, a goth librarian, Simon’s mum and her cougar pals, and Dev himself, who seems to ultimately be moving past his now assumed breakup with the missing woman.
This is more of a detecting adventure story than a murder mystery (there’s no murder) and a humorous take on the private eye novel, millennial style. I came to be fond of Jane and Simon, worried about their relationship, and hopeful for them that they would find a solution before Gavin does. All ends well in Adventureland, with a nice set up for the next case. I can only imagine that Jane and Simon will get better at detecting – but I hope not too much better. Watching them try to figure things out is way more fun. — Robin Agnew