A Mystery Fiction series by Elliot Hay starring the Deptford Crafter's Cirle: a group of queer elderly women who work to keep their community safer... by murdering the people who are making it worse.
Madge, Peggy, Carole, and Baz meet every morning at Wellbeloved Cafe in Deptford, London. While there, they drink tea and coffee, work on their crafting projects, and discuss events going on around town. Deptford has its share of small-town problems that the police aren't always willing to spend time pursuing. These little old ladies take on these cases: questioning witnesses, pursuing suspects, and eventually murdering the guilty parties if it is clear that they will continue their behavior.
The series consists of:
- Friends in Need (June 2023): Peggy, Carole, and Madge help one of their friends who is married to an abusive husband
- A Bit of Murder Between Friends (July 2023): Baz joins the circle as they deal with a con artist and a serial rapist.
This series provides examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Used by the BBC when naming the Goldsmiths Groper.
- Attempted Rape: Daisy, Baz's granddaughter manages to fight off her would-be rapist before he can complete his attack.
- Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: When Baz, a trans woman, first meets Madge, Madge begins with, "In my day, men were men and women were women..." Her friends are quick to jump in and explain that Madge isn't transphobic - she just wasn't sure what pronouns to use for Baz since Baz hadn't stated her gender. Madge accepts newcomer Baz into the women's crafting circle and does not do anything else potentially transphobic.
- Big Friendly Dog: Cookie, Peggy and Carole's dog, is big enough to deter people at night and incredibly friendly to almost everyone.
- Blaming the Victim: The police refuse to investigate the rapes and say it's because many of the victims were drunk when it happened. When Daisy reports her Attempted Rape, the police ask her when she first met the rapist, what she was wearing, how much she had drunk that night, and how far it went before she changed her mind.
- Career-Ending Injury: Baz is forced to retire from her job as a civilian consultant to the police after she fractures her patella and tears a meniscus in her knee.
- Cleanup Crew: Carole calls one to clean up the scene after the group murders a con artist.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Carole speaks almost entirely in phrases that seem barely, if at all, applicable to the current conversaton. She also puts clean glasses in the oven when cleaning the kitchen, enjoys making cakes that look like realistic organs, and wears a dinosaur onesie when investigating at night.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Peggy translates for Carole and keeps her on-track when she strays too far from the conversation.
- Conversation Casualty: Every one of the Deptford Crafting Cirle's victims are killed while the circle talks to them. The crafting circle uses these conversations to confirm whether their indended victim is guilty and intends to continue their crimes.
- Discriminate and Switch: The crafting circle is approached by a young woman who immediately refuses to talk while Baz is present. Baz assumes it's because she's trans, but the woman explains that it's because she thinks Baz is a cop.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Baz has one about the identity of the Goldsmiths Groper when Daisy describes the Signature Scent of her attacker.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Zig-zagged. Cookie's barking alerts Peggy to the Goldsmiths Groper in her courtyard and Cookie chases the rapist off, but Cookie later allows the Groper to pet him when the ladies unknowingly meet him in public.
- Handicapped Badass: Peggy and Baz use canes and mobility scooters to get around, but they can still investigate crimes and commit murders.
- Hereditary Homosexuality: Baz and her granddaughter Daisy are both trans women.
- Late Coming Out: Baz, an elderly trans woman, came out as trans a few months before the start of A Bit of Murder Between Friends.
- Little Old Lady Investigates: The Deptford crafting cirle is a group of elderly women who investigate crimes that happen in their commmunity. They wouldn't want to murder someone innocent, after all.
- Never Suicide: The Goldsmiths Groper's murder is made to look like a suicide from remorse.
- One-Hit Kill: The con artist is murdered with a knitting needle through the ear and into the brain.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: The guiding principle of how the crafting circle chooses their victims. They have killed an animal abuser, an abusive husband, a con artist, and a serial rapist, and are implied to have killed several more before that.
- Police Are Useless: The police engage in victim blaming and never make any progress in the serial rapist case.
- Pun-Based Title: The series title is a play on "vigilante justice" and "aunties". What else would you call a series about eldery women who commit murders to help their community?
- Serial Rapist: The Goldsmiths Groper, who rapes several young women in southeast London.
- Signature Scent: Daisy identifies the rapist because she recognizes the scent of her attacker.
- These Gloves Are Made for Killin': Madge hands out purple nitrile gloves to the other women as the Goldsmiths Groper is dying.
- Trans Relationship Troubles: Baz's husband divorces her after she comes out as a trans woman.
- Trans Tribulations: Daisy is kicked out of her parents' house when she comes out as trans. Fortunately, her grandmother Baz is able to take her in.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The Goldsmiths Groper. He thinks the investigating grannies are trying to make him confess, when they are actually waiting for the poison to kick in.
- You Are Already Dead: Told to the Goldsmiths Groper after he begins feeling the effects of the fentanyl he was poisoned with.
