Published by Penguin Random House and reviewed for Journal Magazine
I couldn’t wait to dive into the fourth instalment of Sally Andrew’s Tannie Maria Mystery Series, The Milk Tart Murders. And when I did get my hands on it, it was like coming home to a home-cooked meal or seeing a long-lost companion and picking up the friendship right where you left off.
I met Sally Andrew in September 2019 at Pippa Smith’s The Book Revue launch of her first three books in the series: The Recipes for Love and Murder (2015), Tannie Maria & the Satanic Mechanic (2016) and Death on the Limpopo (2019). After listening to Andrew introducing her protagonist, the delectable Tannie Maria, and describing the wonderfully quaint setting of Ladismith in the Karoo, I promptly bought the whole series and devoured them, one after the other. And it seems I wasn’t alone in my enthusiasm for Andrew’s novels, as they have since been translated into 14 languages across five continents.
Andrew writes the kind of crime thriller that can best be described as a ‘cosy mystery’, a gentler subset of the genre, which celebrates suspense and intrigue but forgoes the grit and violence of typical crime novels. Resultantly, it makes for enough excitement, but instead of sleepless nights (which I’m prone to after a bout with the likes of Nesbo), it leaves readers mostly warm and fuzzy.
Andrew further tempers the suspense with great wit and sweet moments, like when Tannie Maria, cursed with short legs, gets wedged on a low garden wall in the midst of a life-threatening situation. But Andrew also manages to create an inviting, comforting space for the reader to just switch off and enjoy the simple pleasures of small-town living, joining Tannie Maria in her kitchen as she bakes and prepares delicious meals, or sitting down with her on her stoep with a slice of red velvet cake to watch her chickens peck the lawn.
She paints a brilliant portrait of a quintessential Karoo village, and waxes lyrical about the vast plains, big skies and intricate desert fauna and flora (‘vygies in full bloom, bobbejaantjies, orange aloes with white prickles and blue leaves’). She has a cast of stereotypically quirky small-town characters to match: all bona fide small-talk specialists, bakery frequenters and coffee shop loiterers. Andrew draws the reader into their little world and lulls us into the same sense of security that inhabitants of such a dorpie must enjoy; a feeling of ‘why on earth would anything remotely extraordinary happen in a one-horse town such as ours?' Alas, not all is as it seems; just below the surface simmers something sinister…
During a screening of a Marilyn Monroe film at Oom Frik’s Fantastiques, where Tannie Maria and her policeman boyfriend Henk happen to be in attendance, the proprietor, the very Oom Frik, is found dead in the projection room. Oom Frik had been old and had suffered from heart disease, so his death may well have been natural, but when family members start crawling out of the woodwork, squabbling about grumpy Oom Frik’s frequently-altered will, suspicions of foul play arise.
After a second body is discovered at Oom Frik’s house, Tannie Maria (who also happens to be the local gazette’s agony aunt and recipe expert) receives a letter via the paper, which plunges both Tannie Maria and her journalist colleague Jessie headlong into the case. Naturally, this dynamic duo embark on their own investigation, aided and assisted by Tannie Maria’s famous Karoo zoo biscuits to help loosen the town’s gossip tongues.
It’s a complex case, replete with a sophisticated code left behind by Oom Frik that wouldn’t look out of place in a Dan Brown novel; a conspiracy theory surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death and her connection with Oom Frik; a family feud about inheritance; love triangles; not to mention rumours about a hidden treasure in Oom Frik’s shop worth millions.
A lot of fun, in other words. Andrew maintains the suspense masterfully throughout and adds evocative vignettes of life in the Karoo, interactions between the various cultures that call the town home, and wonderful bites of the colloquial language.
Food plays a central role and it’s clear that Andrew is a true foodie at heart. Apart from the eccentric and delicious recipes that Tannie Maria recommends in her popular column in The Gazette, she spends hours in the kitchen churning out new and original cakes, dishes and treats (all of which come with full recipes at the back of the book).
In amongst all the fun, the author does tackle a few serious themes. Tannie Maria suffers from post-traumatic stress due to a long abusive marriage, trust issues, intimacy difficulties, and a complicated relationship with food, all of which Andrew explores and dissects skilfully and empathically against a backdrop of South Africa’s own complicated history and ongoing gender-based-violence issues.
The Milk Tart Murders is spellbinding, amusing and an absolute feast that will leave you smacking your lips.
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