Summerview Secondary School is where the youth of Dewstow go to get their education for life – and most importantly, from Margery and Clementine’s point of view, to get a well-cooked sensible lunch. Life is all pretty straightforward for the pair until the kitchen manager is found dead inside the walk-in freezer.

The police are more than happy to declare it an accidental death, but Margery and Clementine are certain something nefarious is going on, especially when they too are “accidentally” locked in the freezer. As no one else seems inclined to find the truth, they take it on themselves to investigate – but it’s very clear that somebody doesn’t want the truth coming out…

As you may be aware, there is a resurgence of the cosy genre at the moment, but as with any genre label, it covers a wide range of books. Inside Number 9 and Mrs Brown’s Boys are both comedies for example, one of which is compulsive viewing and one of which risks me hurling things at the TV if I see so much as an advert for it.

Similarly, the label cosy covers a multitude of titles. Basically, if the walls aren’t dripping bloody, you can probably call it a cosy. And there’s nothing really wrong with being a cosy mystery, but you do have to cross your fingers for the “mystery” element. Take Robert Thorogood’s Marlow mysteries – they have clues and have mysteries that are solved. Similarly, Rosemary Shrager’s Prudence Bulstrode novels, Richard Coles’ books… and there are some titles in the genre, for example The Thursday Murder Club, where we are basically told what happened, or asked to guess rather than engage in the Grandest Game In The World.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing – I enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club a lot – but it does mean that the reader doesn’t always get what they might be expecting from a mystery novel. And that’s the case here.

First of all, I should be clear, I really enjoyed the book. I loved the central characters; I thought their relationship was extremely well done and touching in places. The school canteen at times seemed a bit of a throwback to about ten/fifteen years ago – they’re all run by catering agencies these days – but once I’d put my grumpy teacher hat away, I really enjoyed the set-up and the situation, and the escapades of Margery and Clementine, not being out-and-out played for laughs but still being gently amusing and putting a smile on my face.

But if you’re coming here via the “for fans of Robert Thorogood” tag on the Amazon blurb, you might be disappointed by the mystery. There’s not much detection here, just general sniffing around and then being told or shown chunks of the solution – but I guess “The Dinner Ladies Who Are Told Who The Murderer Is” isn’t quite as catchy a title. There are a few plot holes too – did the pathologist not examine the body? – and the behaviour of one character is rather odd given the situation that they are in.

Usually, this sort of thing might be a deal-breaker for me, but this is the first in a series, and what’s more, I really enjoyed the book despite this. I enjoyed the writer’s sense of humour and I do want to revisit Margery and Clementine in the near future.