Started 12-4-09. The beginning is certainly evocative of Young Frankenstein. Simply silly. :-)It's really three and a half stars, rounded. An enjoyable book and good enough it will lead me to read at least the first of the series. I thought the ending was fairly weak, but.... Loved the line: ...
This is my first Dorothy Cannell book for me. My dream place to retire has always been Maine and this is what attracted me to this book. Much to my surprise I was disappointed with this book. I felt this book went on and on and on!! I only finished this book because it was audio and I was walking...
An enjoyable, humorous and very cozy mystery. The first half of the book got off a bit slow for me--we didn't seem to be making any progress, or finding many clues, to the "mystery." However, I enjoyed the cozy and easygoing writing style, all the details and little character traits (especially...
Another in the Ellie Haskell mystery series. In this one, Ellie is pregnant, moody, and travels to the U.S. with her husband for a chance for him to be admitted to a secret society of chefs. Story is set in a mansion on an island in Illinois, and invloves disappearing people and a possible murd...
Admittedly, I've found that the so-called "cozy mystery" isn't my cuppa. Particularly in a series. Agatha Christie is so clever in plotting, I can forgive that her Miss Marple stumbles into one homicide after another. I'm less forgiving with other books featuring amateur detectives and including ...
The Importance of Being Ernestine by Dorothy Cannell is book 10 of the Ellie Haskell cozy mystery series set in contemporary England. Ellie and her housekeeper Mrs. Malloy have been solving mysteries all through the series, so it’s no surprise they’re teamed up to solve another; this time however...
Ellie Haskell and husband Ben need a holiday, and France beckons. But a chain-smoking Gypsy warns "Take that trip at your peril!" Ellie loses the funeral urn ashes of her prodigal father Morley's platinum blond lady love, Harriet. Morley is a suspect in another accident, and Ellie questions wheth...
Ellie Haskell, nee Simons, newly wed and thin in charming Chitterton Fells, helps Misses Hyacinth and Primrose Tramwell of Flowers Detection Agency investigate the high number of dead unfaithful husbands. To uncover the mastermind in the social Widows Club, Ellie poses as an unhappy and betrayed ...
This is a light, silly romance-mystery. Its OK but I like my lead characters to be a bit smarter and not so ditzy. I guess you could say that this is a sort of "Lucy" book but Tessa isn't as funny as Lucille Ball.A baby found on the door step of a vicarage is raised to adulthood in a loving home ...
Spring Cleaning MurdersDorothy CannellMystery275 pagescopyright: 1998isbn: 0-670-87511-6Spring cleaning fever almost has the inimitable Ellie Haskell scrubbing the Merlin's Court chandeliers with a toothbrush, turning the entire household topsy-turvy. But when members of the Chitterton Fells Char...
This is the 5th book in a series of mysteries by Dorothy Cannell. Ellie Haskell is an insecure, self deprecating interior designer. Ellie is married to Ben who is her drop-dead gorgeous husband and father to her recently born twins. Ellie, feeling less than attractive finds herself joining a gr...
I have a love/hate relationship with Cannell's books. On the one hand, I don't want to like these books. I don't want to read about someone as social-status-conscious as Ellie Haskell, I don't want to enjoy reading about her latest adventures. Yet, somehow, Cannell draws me in.Maybe, this time...
"Rosemary, Thora, and Jane lived at the end of the lane, one was thin, one was fat, and one was very plain." The three "bridesmaids" were best friends to Ellie Haskell's late grandmother Sophia, and hold a seance for Ellie to make contact. The life-changing journey includes a seance, a hidden dia...
Another in the Ellie Haskell of Chitterton Falls, a small English coastal town, mystery. This one deals with the 100th anniversary of the death of a townsman who cursed the town's library because of readers of romantic novels. Romantic novels serve as the basis of the plot as Ellie and other to...
Cousin Sophie’s crooning voice came at Lady Gossinger through a thick fog. “I think you have been quite astonishingly brave. Lie back on the sofa, dear, and give your poor head a rest, while I pour you a nice cup of lukewarm tea.” “Is he gone?” Her Ladyship cracked open an eye before remembering ...
Once past the initial shock, George Bird’s thoughts concentrated on Florence, as conversations buzzed around him. What would she make of His Lordship marrying again? Was she worrying that the new Lady Stodmarsh would insist on changes that would turn Mullings inside out? Despite the passage of ti...