Vane Pursuit by Charlotte MacLeod is one of my loosely contrued academic mysteries. MacLeod has two sets of series characters: Professor Peter Shandy & his lovely librarian wife Helen and Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn. Both series are very literate and very funny and feature an eccentric cast of supporting characters.Peter Shandy teaches at the fictional Balaclava College and Helen is one of the college's librarians. They manage to get into all kinds of non-academic scrapes and Vane Pursuit is no different. Helen has been asked by the Balaclava Historical Society to document and photograph all of the remaining weathervanes designed by the county's very own Praxiteles Lumpkin. She is also to write up a report for the Smithsonian Institute. However, Helen's job becomes dangerous when a gang of ruthless robbers decide to steal the priceless antiques. It seems that Praxiteles's handiwork has become a hot commodity among collectors--collectors who don't care how they acquire the desired object. It soon becomes apparent that somebody has been using Helen's researches to lead them to the valuable vanes. After a local weathervane which used to grace the Lumpkin Soap Factory is stolen and the factory is burned to the ground, Helen travels to Maine to get a photograph one of the last remaining vanes. Once the photos have been taken, she and her friends decide to relax with a bit of whale-watching--only to have their boat commandeered by the vane-snatchers. Meanwhile, back on the farm (almost quite literally--Balaclava College is an agricultural institution), Peter is getting into trouble of his own. In an effort to get to the bottom of the factory arson and the local vane thefts, he and Cronkite Swope have a run-in with a group of shaggy and demented survivalists. He manages to escape their clutches, rush off to rescue Helen, and then finger the mastermind behind the thefts and arson.Just so you know, this isn't meant to be a serious, life-like mystery. This is meant as good clean fun and will need a good dose of belief suspension....but it's well worth it. Lots of extraordinary circumstances paired with delightful literary references and witty interactions. Some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny. I love the doings of Peter Shandy and the rest of the Balaclava county residents. The only thing missing in this one is President Svenson wading in and taking on the bad guys single-handily--Svenson loves nothing so much as a good brawl with a group of ruffians. Three and a half stars.
This is supposed to be a Peter Shandy Mystery. (Peter is a professor who is married to Helen, a librarian.) However, I really think the protagonist is more his wife Helen than Peter himself. She seems to be more of the sleuth. Peter, when he finally begins to put two and two together, comes up with the answer but only after Helen has found all the pieces of the puzzle.I enjoyed the book despite that draw back. It was a nice fun read with each of them (Peter and Helen) getting into separate trouble but ultimately finding their way back to each other. I thought the most interesting side character of this book was Miss Binks. I would like to see more of her in other books.
What do You think about Vane Pursuit (1990)?
Helen Shandy is roaming the Balaclava County countryside in search of antique weather vanes created by Praxiteles Lumpkin for a pamphlet to be issued by the area's historical society. Sadly one vane, atop the soap factory, is lost when the building burns. So Helen decides to travel to Sasquamahoc, Maine, the site of another priceless Praxiteles that may still be photographed for the pamphlet. Here Helen meets friends for a whale watching excursion only to have the boat hijacked by the arsonists of the soap factory who are also thieves of more than excursion boats.
—Nicole
a Peter Shandy mystery--an older version of cosy--weird characters. Should say caricatures.In fact, the STUPIDEST book I've read in Years! Called a "screwball mystery," but the screwball is the publisher. Not badly written (dialogue, grammar, etc), but the most implausible scenarios--and names. Calling the Swope brothers Huntly, Brinkley, and Cronkite, for starters, she adds a villain named Roland Childe.I should have tossed it half-way, but I'm stubborn enough to finish even bad books--and this one is.
—LDuchess
