This episode in Finch was a little different, in that there really was a crime to be solved. In this story Lori, our intrepid detective, is looking for several things, but again is on her own, with only her instincts and nose for trouble helping her out. Unfortunately her nose might smell trouble...
The descriptions of New Zealand both make we want to travel there and to stay home. What a country of contrasts! I had to laugh since I had watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy in its uncut version just a few weeks ago and in the process saw a number of the appendices which talked about how th...
#17 in the Aunt Dimity mystery series. American Lori Shepard lives with her American husband and family in the small Cotswold village of Finch. Aunt Dimity is a ghost who Lori can communicate with and helps her solve mysteries. This mystery involves a famous artist who settles in Finch on a qu...
Now that he has retired, Lori Shepherd's father-in-law is moving to the little village of Finch to be closer to his grandsons. As the story begins, he has just finished refurbishing an old home and is preparing to settle in to a quiet life. However, Finch is rarely a quiet place and soon he finds...
This interesting tale relates what can happen when an imaginative child pulls a super inquisitive adult into her fantasy world. As I read, a small part of my thought process kept harping back to the tales of the lost Princess, Anastasia, and how supposedly she escaped from Russia and fled to the ...
Introducing Aunt Dimity, Paranormal Detective is really 2 books, the 1st 2 in a series. In Aunt Dimity's Death, the 1st book, Aunt Dimity's American niece, Lori Shepherd, had long thought her mother's childhood tales of Aunt Dimity were merely comforting bedtime stories. But when a pair of lawye...
When this book came up in a reading group, I was sure that I had read it, I love this series so when I went looking for my review, I could not find it anywhere. I was beginning to wonder if I had unwittingly skipped it. As soon as I finished the first chapter I knew the story, well, I thought I ...
A proper murder! In Finch, of all places! Aunt Dimity: Detective veers away from the normal pattern of the series by focusing on recent murder. However, the occasion is still a catalyst for stunning revelations about the townspeople.The rumor mill of Finch is as industrious as any. Atherton lets ...
Threatening notes and family drama take precedence when Lori and Bill stay at Derek's family estate for a week. We finally get the lowdown on Derek's background. It's far-fetched that the family's extremely high social standing might have escaped Emma's notice over the years - after all, Nell and...
I just love the Aunt Dimity books! They are sweet, and charming, quirky and fun. They're like the comfort food of books.In this book, our intrepid and trouble-finding heroine, Lori, decides to head out alone for a 5-hour hike, on a path her friend Emma tells her is "simple, and without risk" - we...
We are blessed to have an author who achieves storyline disparity and characters as familiar as friends. “Aunt Dimity’s Christmas” is volume V but on this occasion, it’s worth reiterating the original premise. Chicago native, Lori Shepard ceased to be destitute when her Mom’s lifelong friend be...
I’m such a fan of Nancy Atherton’s, I savour ‘Lori et al’ but must concede a mellower rating. “Aunt Dimity Digs In” treated me to the usual eloquence and whimsy, although I felt left out, to meet the twins at four months. Nancy evoked understanding as colourfully as always; a parent too bedrag...
Everyone's favorite sleuth heads to the Rocky Mountains in the twelfth installment of Nancy Atherton's cozy mystery series Lori Sheppard barely survived her last adventure in Scotland before she's off on her next. This time in the mountain town of Bluebird, Colorado. No sooner than she's arrived ...
I really enjoyed this book. I think it's more about my desperation to find and read good books with female protagonists, than a statement about this book. Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea breaks all the rules, and does it badly. It's filled with telling instead of showing. What this means is it'...
The original paranormal detective returns in the latest installment of a beloved mystery series Lori Shepherd’s life in England couldn’t be more tranquil or more satisfying— except for one thing. Her five- year-old twins have started school, and Lori fears they’ll catch everything from the flu t...
The study was dark and silent. I lit the mantel lamps, then knelt to light a fire in the hearth. The somber gleam in Reginald’s black button eyes seemed to soften in the firelight. I took it as a sign of encouragement, reached for the blue journal, and carried the slender volume with me to the ar...
This was a storybook hedgehog, the jolly sort who wore big green shoes and strode jauntily across flower-spangled meadows, humming a merry tune and waving cheerfully to his woodland chums. “Highland chums,” I corrected, eyeing the kilt. The kilt was made of red, black, and blue tartan, and fairly...
By the time it lumbered past me on its way out of the village, the tearoom had emptied and small knots of chattering villagers had formed on the green. I knew for a fact that my neighbors were discussing Mrs. Thistle’s furnishings, and though I longed to hear every delicious detail, I resisted th...
The shriveled stalks that shivered in the breeze held no bright petals or sweet scents, and the withered vines that stretched like cobwebs across the walls would never blossom again. The chapel garden was a tangle of decay and desiccation, yet it held within it the sweet sadness of a place once l...
Bree and I delivered Will and Rob to the stables after breakfast for an entire day of horsey fun, then took off for Tappan Hall. I was fueled by a flood of optimistic energy, but Bree looked as though she could have used a few more hours in the sack. “Did you get any sleep...
I look like Rudolph. I woke up the next morning with a headache and a shiny nose, and promptly blamed Bill for both. I took a long, hot shower, then pulled on some jeans and a Fair Isle sweater I’d bought in London. When I slid open the door to the deck, a blast of wind nearly knocked me back ins...
Well-fed, dry-diapered, and sheltered from the sun by the crabapple tree that had given the cottage its name, Bess dozed in the pram’s bassinet, waking occasionally to chew on her toes or to watch Goya, Charles’s golden Pomeranian, and Matisse, Grant’s lively Maltese, prowl around our ankles. The...
As Nell and I followed Lucy Willis to her office at the rear of the building, I caught a glimpse of Arthur standing at the top of the stairs, chatting with two women who might, in very dim light, have been mistaken for Nell and me. One was blond, at any rate, and the other was brunette, and the b...