Not My Thing

Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is totally a not-me sort of book. Although a fan of cozy mysteries, this type of magical fluff just makes me mad. It has several annoying points - the Cinderella factor and the ghost being the major ones.  But the invasion of Americans into my precious British landscape (and I am speaking AS an American), while smoothly handled, ... it's just wrong.  Other folks have done it, notably Martha Grimes and Laurie King, and have done it well enough to not annoy me.  This just rankles. 

I am not as annoyed about the part of the story that takes place in Boston - where I lived for six years and hung out with Harvard-educated lawyers.  I was also a temp employee and moved around, sharing apartments.  I think I would rather have read about that instead of the fairy tale/romance/ghost story.
That said, the story is quite touching and brought me to tears a few times, which only made me angrier.

The lead character has lost her marriage, her mother, her livelihood and then gets a letter from an attorney that will turn her life around.  There is, if not a Prince Charming, at least a Prince Tries-Too-Hard.  Lawyers are not only scrupulously honest, but they take you into their palatial home and squire you around in their Rolls.  England and Scotland seem to be populated with only the most helpful cast members and the mystery isn't much of one.  It is, however, the introduction to a series and the successive books (one of which I have read) get more to the mystery, which Dimity's ghost helps solve.  In fact, I will probably read more of them ... occasionally ... when I'm absolutely desperate.



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