The tea ladies return and they're fighting crime and for their jobs

The Cryptic Clue is the second cosy mystery book by Australian author Amanda Hampson featuring Hazel, Betty and Irene, who have already proved they can take on the crims and win.

It's 1966 and the tea ladies' jobs are threatened by a machine that makes tea and coffee.

Meanwhile, Hazel meets a charming foreigner involved in the construction of the Sydney Opera House and the tea ladies find themselves helping the police with a plot that threatens national security. To add to the intrigue, Irene gets a coded message directing her to the spoils of a bank robbery.

The first book The Tea Ladies published in 2023 spent 12 consecutive weeks in the Australian fiction top 10 and fans will be happy to know that the author has plans for a total of five books in the series with number three due for release in 2025.

According to Amanda the three lead character all have a little of herself in them. "You find a little bit of yourself and you exaggerate that and then you give it to a character," she said.

"Once you get into the characters and you put them together, they they become not you but their own people." Amanda told The Senior.

The idea for the first book came about from a post on social media discussing tea ladies in the workplace where one person wrote, "the tea ladies knew where the bodies were buried".

"It was a lightbulb moment for me," Amanda said. "I'm interested in the social aspects of history and back in the '60s companies were all in the one building and there was very much a class system - the girls who worked in the factory would never step foot on the top floor where the director was. But the tea ladies would know everything that was happening. They could move with impunity through the building."

Amanda also loves setting her books in the 60s. "It's different writing about a period you've researched to writing about a period you've lived."

"I also really love empowering older woman," said Amanda who is approaching 70.

"We (older woman) are very poorly depicted in films and books. We're nosy neighbours, we're horrible mothers-in-law, we're interfering mothers."

Amanda said she wanted her tea ladies to be a little bit ahead of their time in their thinking, not shying away from anything and being very collaborative in their friendships.

Speaking of the success of the first tea ladies book, Amanda said "We are living in a second golden age of crime, people are soaking up crime literature. People like the idea of the crime, of the twists, it's very involving, but the bad guys will be brought to justice."

Amanda, who has published seven books, recently relocated from Sydney to Melbourne, a move which she said had been an absolute refresher. She describes herself as a person with too many hobbies and things to do but in particular she has been learning Spanish for four years, does urban sketching and is learning the tango.

The Cryptic Clue, A Tea Ladies Mystery by Amanda Hampson, Penguin Random House Australia. $34.99