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lallis_follyAunt Dimity was dead, to begin with. Yes, the title character of the Aunt Dimity mystery series is a ghost. Well...actually, she's not a ghost, technically, she's a haunted journal. When main character Lori Shepherd speaks to the leatherbound journal, Aunt Dimity replies in a neat copperplate hand.
Aunt Dimity: Snowbound is the ninth or tenth book in series -- I can't keep track, anymore, and the titles aren't listed in the book. This deep in the series, a pattern for the stories has become apparent: Lori will go off somewhere without her husband (or if he does go with her, he will spend most of his time offstage), but with Aunt Dimity's journal and her stuffed rabbit Reginald (a gift from Aunt Dimity while she was still alive). She will meet a few new people and run into a mystery. She will be tempted by a handsome man, but will do her best to remember that she is married and has twin sons waiting for her at home. She will manage to humiliate or embarrass herself around the middle of the book because of her suspicions, but it will all turn out right in the end. But just because there's a formula doesn't mean that the book isn't entertaining.
In this entry in the series, Lori, with Aunt Dimity and Reg in her pack, goes for a day hike. However, she manages to miss her trail and get lost. Then an unforecast blizzard sets in, forcing her to take shelter along with two other lost hikers in Ladythorne Abbey. The Abbey is fully furnished, though not inhabited, and her suspicions are immediately roused by the fact that Wendy, one of her fellow hikers, carries a pry bar and lied about trying the abbey's front door. It's a good thing the caretaker's on the grounds and that Jamie, the third hiker, is such a nice, strapping fellow, because it's clear that Wendy is up to no good.
It is an interesting coincidence that three Americans hiking in England all sought shelter in the home of Lucasta DeClerke, though. Especially when Miss DeClerke so violently loathed Americans right up to her death. Or so says the caretaker.
Things are not, of course, what they seem and by the end of the novel, Lori's preconceived notions have been turned upside down, helped along by Mr. Catchpole the caretaker and Aunt Dimity
Aunt Dimity: Snowbound is the ninth or tenth book in series -- I can't keep track, anymore, and the titles aren't listed in the book. This deep in the series, a pattern for the stories has become apparent: Lori will go off somewhere without her husband (or if he does go with her, he will spend most of his time offstage), but with Aunt Dimity's journal and her stuffed rabbit Reginald (a gift from Aunt Dimity while she was still alive). She will meet a few new people and run into a mystery. She will be tempted by a handsome man, but will do her best to remember that she is married and has twin sons waiting for her at home. She will manage to humiliate or embarrass herself around the middle of the book because of her suspicions, but it will all turn out right in the end. But just because there's a formula doesn't mean that the book isn't entertaining.
In this entry in the series, Lori, with Aunt Dimity and Reg in her pack, goes for a day hike. However, she manages to miss her trail and get lost. Then an unforecast blizzard sets in, forcing her to take shelter along with two other lost hikers in Ladythorne Abbey. The Abbey is fully furnished, though not inhabited, and her suspicions are immediately roused by the fact that Wendy, one of her fellow hikers, carries a pry bar and lied about trying the abbey's front door. It's a good thing the caretaker's on the grounds and that Jamie, the third hiker, is such a nice, strapping fellow, because it's clear that Wendy is up to no good.
It is an interesting coincidence that three Americans hiking in England all sought shelter in the home of Lucasta DeClerke, though. Especially when Miss DeClerke so violently loathed Americans right up to her death. Or so says the caretaker.
Things are not, of course, what they seem and by the end of the novel, Lori's preconceived notions have been turned upside down, helped along by Mr. Catchpole the caretaker and Aunt Dimity
