Review: The Cast Aways of Harewood Hall, Karen Herbert

Two months with COVID then pneumonia has destroyed my perfect once a month record for book reviews this year, alas! But I am happy to be back firing on most cylinders and able to emerge from hiding to review Perth author Karen Herbert’s new novel.

Her debut crime release The River Mouth came out in 2021 and readers rejoice: Fremantle Press has already released her second! An altogether cosier read than The River Mouth – more armchair mystery than actual crime-crime – its action is sparked by a moment of madness from Josh, a uni student working part-time in aged care in Perth's posh western suburbs. The sweet, well-meaning Josh on impulse one night "rescues" two research mice from a campus laboratory. But he decides to hide them in the retirement village basement, an act that by no means solves the problem. Enter a curious cat called Harley, a devilish dog called Bobby, the arrival of some mysterious packing boxes and a strange spike in the village’s water bill and you've got the kind of mystery only a bunch of oldies with too much time on their hands can solve.

I usually like my mysteries littered with bloodied corpses, yet I was soon right into this. It is not The River Mouth. It is not dark and menacing, rather cheerful and quirky. But it is a perfect match in readability and tantalising clue-dropping terms.

Apart from the mystery element, it is a keenly accurate portrayal of western suburbs privilege. I'd say it's lampooning, but of such a kind, understanding sort. Every one of a wide (and capably managed) array of characters is lovable despite their flaws: their obtuseness, their taken-for-granted privilege. The humour reveals their essential humanity, rather than taking it away. And the decision to include animal characters and their fly-on-the-wall observations of the comings and goings at the village is a narrative stroke of genius.

This is another novel begging to be adapted for the screen (Herbert's first novel is already optioned). It could easily be done; even though it evokes Perth's landmarks and character so pleasurably for local readers, the story could be easily transposed into any first-world, gentrified, leafy enclave. Fans of Alexander McCall-Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin or Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series will love this charming read that reveals the richness of subject matter to be found in a retirement home for the (well-entitled) well-off.

Herbert must be some kind of machine, because her third book, Vertigo, will be released next year! So hurry up, cos you’ll get left behind and this is an author you want to watch.