On the eve of visiting her newly inherited cottage, in the (fictious) English coastal village of Plummergen, Miss Seeton stumbles upon a London murder in progress. She confronts the murderer by poking him with her umbrella. Thus, Miss Seeton becomes embroiled in her first murder mystery.
Her country cottage is everything it should be, including a cupboard under the stairs, a twisty staircase, and a quiet bedroom facing the rear garden. As all of her new village neighbors cluck, with "seed borne on the breath of a scandal," about Miss Seeton's very recent run-in with a murder in London, (which, of course, was in all of the newspapers), Miss Seeton tries to settle into what may become her permanent new home. Peace, however, is not what she finds. After befriending a young resident of the village, she approaches the police detective on "her" murder case, and innocently passes along information on another crime from her young friend. The detective is then sure that Miss Seeton has the soul of a crime solver and admonishes his aide de camp that until he can understand Miss Seeton, he will "get nowhere as a detective."
Although Miss Seeton appears to be a subtle parody of Miss Marple, the gentleness with which Carvic depicts her, combined with his obvious admiration for the toughness of his "old bird," belies any notion that he intended her to be the object of ridicule. This book is a great introduction to the Miss Seeton cozy mystery series. Those readers who like a good cozy mystery, with a touch of grit and a gallon of very funny humor, will be very glad it is back in print.
(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Print Length: 209 pages
Publisher: Farrago; 3 edition (May 5, 2016)
Publication Date: May 5, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
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