The Fan Who Knew Too Much: The Kit Pelham mysteries

by Nev Fountain

Launching a new series, a podcaster and cult science fiction superfan stages a documentary to solve her friend’s murder, and a 40-year-old disappearance, in this riotous and fiendishly twisty mystery.

Perfect for fans of classic TV such as Doctor Who and Star Trek, wobbly cardboard sets and spandex costumes, and sharp-witted amateur detective crime such as Richard Osman, J. M. Hall and Andrew Cartmel.

Kit Pelham is a professional fan, interviewer, host of the podcast The First Cult is the Deepest, and occasional obituary writer. Except this time the obituary is for her friend, maverick podcaster Wolf Tyler, who is murdered in his shed during a live broadcast, moments before revealing a huge secret about the cult TV show Vixens from the Void.

Kit and her group of friends and fellow superfans soon realise Wolf had discovered something about the disappearance of Lily Sparkes, an extra on Vixens from the Void, back in 1986. And it was a secret worth killing for…

To find justice for their friend, and much more importantly, new trivia about their favourite TV show, the gang decide to put together a ‘Then and Now’ Blu-Ray documentary that will reunite the original cast and crew. Armed with only a shoestring budget, an occasionally soggy drone, action figures (in the original packaging) and encyclopaedic knowledge of 1980s sci-fi TV, they have just four days to discover Wolf’s secret, and solve his murder.

• ISBN10: 1803365528
• ISBN13: 9781803365527
• Publish Date: 23 July 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Titan Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 464
• Language: English
• URL: https://titanbooks.com/FIC050000

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Fan Who Knew Too Much is a madcap nerdy sci-fi mystery series opener by Nev Fountain. Released 23rd July by Titan Books, it's 504 (!!) pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. 

This is a nerdy, action driven murder mystery absolutely packed full of silly puns, SF fandom sendups, trivia, and cultural in-jokes. It's very funny in places, and honestly tries a bit too hard in some places. For fans of Dr. Who (and you better bring your series 1 knowledge to the table), STTOS + NG + STV +++, Blake's 7, and others, you will feel right at home here. Fair warning, there's very little hand holding to get you up to speed. If you've never quoted whole scenes from Red Dwarf and didn't know Logan's Run had a short (blessedly short) run as a TV show, then you're going to have to bring a significant amount of patience to the read, -and- be prepared to miss a lot of context, -and- potentially be willing to phone-a-genuine-nerd for help.

For those of us who have been to more cons that we can remember, who possibly spent 45 minutes stuck in an elevator with James Doohan at worldcon a million years ago (he was a perfect gentleman and wonderfully funny), who know what filking is and can sing a few without breaking a sweat, this book is a treat. 

There's a LOT of poking fun at the stereotypes. If it were written by someone who doesn't get it, it would be over the top mean, but as it is, Mr. Fountain seems to be one of us. 

Four stars. Genuinely funny, a bit frenetic in places, and with an outlandish mystery plot resolution. Worth a look for the nostalgia and in-jokes. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.