The Fan Who Knew Too Much

Cozy crime comes in all sizes, but it still has an odd name. The characters may be eccentric, the setting twee, but when it comes down to it, there is still a dead person lying on the carpet. Marple had her village with its higher crime rate than Gotham, Poirot had various summer vacation spots, Jessica Fletcher had any unfortunate who happened to sit next to her. Kit Pelham has Vixens of the Void, an 80s BBC science fiction series where one of the supporting cast died. Fast forward 40 years and Kit and her crew hope to solve the mystery in Nev Fountain’s The Fan Who Knew Too Much. 

The nerdsphere loves detail and fans of Vixens reckon they know everything about the cast and filming of the cult classic. However, obnoxious podcaster Wolf Tyler has new information that fans would kill for. Unfortunately, someone did. Wolf’s killer appears to be linked to location shooting back in the 80s. Wolf’s friends, including Kit, use the guise of a Blu-ray extra filming to gather the original cast and crew to discover if a young extra did killer herself in the 80s and whether the killer struck again more recently to cover their tracks. 

I love science fiction and crime novels, and Fan has both, but not like the many science fiction novels that have a crime storyline. This book concentrates on another aspect of what makes sci fi so good, not the books, games, shows and films themselves, but all the hype and community that surrounds it. This is a crime novel that has the setting of fandom, no actual science fiction occurred in the making of this book. 

With that in mind you have a crime book that embraces its inner nerd – fully. The characters are all massive fans, and they speak in the way that geeks would. There are references to characters, situations and fan bases that will go over the casual's head, but a geek will notice. Not knowing who a Browncoat is will not hurt a reader, but if you do, it adds to the enjoyment (although it appears they are called Firebronies now). That said, the science fiction fans in the book are eccentric. Fountain leans into stereotypes, but that is not just the geeks. The actors are caricatures as well. This leads to the book having that ‘cozy’ feel. It is a book about murder that does not want to be taken too seriously. 

There is a solid crime story at the centre of Fan that would easily grace any 9pm ITV prime time crime spot. The book has that feel. It has a structure that you can recognise and beats that regular crime readers will notice, but Fountain also adds more in terms of the humour. The characters and the situations are eccentric, so Fountain plays with that to give the book a different feel than your average crime tale. 

Within the lightness, there is a darker core. The murder itself, but also the tragic tale of the young wannabe actor from the 80s who fell/jumped from Brighton Pier. There is also an almost unspoken brokenness within the character of Kit. To the outside world a passionate fan of genre fiction who knows their stuff, but we get to see deeper. Kit works with her behavior to survive in the world. Throwaway remarks about calorie counting and anxiety hint at deeper issues. 

Coming in at over 400 pages, Fan is a chonky novel. For crime fiction, it is a touch longer than required, but there are twists and turns that keep the pace up as well as a few ridiculous scenarios that are satirical, but also feel a little true. The book is a cozy crime story with a science fiction fandom setting. Fans of crime can read it just for the murder mystery, but genre fans will get a little more out of the references. I enjoyed the book, although I cannot see me watching re-runs of Vixens of the Void anytime soon.