Few writers have been able to capture the dynamic and humor of a small village in rural England as well as Heron Carvic. In his skillful hands, Miss Seeton's village, Plummergen, comes to life with all of its warmth and hysterical lunacy.
In this third book of the series, retired art teacher and sometime sleuth, Miss Seeton, unknowingly has caused the village busybodies to conclude that she is practicing witchcraft, which practice, coincidentally is on the rise in England. More than that, however, the police are concerned over a fraudulent but growing cult called Nuscience, which claims, among other things, that true believers can travel to other planets at will.
Scotland Yard Superintendent Delphick, known as the Oracle, wants to shut down this cult, and he suspects that the rise of witchcraft and the growth of Nuscience are connected. He believes that only Miss Seeton, because of her unrelenting belief in the goodness of others, and her uncanny ability to suss out the truth in her drawings, can determine the true intent of the cult.
After he sends Miss Seeton to a Nuscience event to take notes and report back, the head of the cult, called the Master, orders his young male followers to steal Miss Seeton's notes as she leaves the meeting. But the Master has not counted on Miss Seeton's famous umbrella, which once stopped a murderer. As the young men descend on her, Miss Seeton believes her purse is being pulled by the exiting crowd and, unwittingly, she dispatches her umbrella. As her victims nurse broken noses and bruised ribs, Miss Seeton innocently wanders away, purse in hand.
Despite the humorous situations she often finds herself in, Carvic never allows his reader to believe that Miss Seeton is truly dotty. Instead, Miss Seeton often is depicted as the only person able to see the truth, including the true talent, of those around her, and it is her naive but always insightful honesty that makes the Miss Seeton novels so attractive and long-lived.
(In return for an honest review, I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Print Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Farrago; 3 edition (June 2, 2016)
Publication Date: June 2, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
