Average cozy mystery. Much ado about nothing, I thought at the end of it. What is offered to the readers as mystery or suspense didn't feel like a mystery to me. What lacks is the suspense or any real excitement.

The history info in it was more fun than the characters or their little romp in solving the mystery of the lives of people who lived during the 1900s, although the narration of who married who and who had a romantic affair in the olden days was gossip-like.

The story takes place in Finch, an English town during Christmas time. There is an ice storm and Lori Shepherd goes to her friend Emma’s party. During the party, a car accident brings Tilly Trout into the group. With nowhere else to go, Tilly becomes the house guest for Emma, and eventually, she solves the puzzle of a closet-like space hidden behind artfully carved panels. Tilly says it is a priest-hole belonging to priests hiding from prosecution. Inside that place, Lori and Emma find a golden heart, a true treasure, but the mystery of the golden heart lies in the far past and they have to investigate.

However privileged and totally unaware of life beyond their little circle, I found the characters to be lackluster, although the author gave them a few credible characteristics, as if filling out their character sheets. They dished out info as if highly educated or sophisticated, but from their actions and their daily lives, I gathered they were like air-pumped balloons just reciting the information.

What was another startling development was, in this realistic story, when almost halfway through, Lori started to talk to her long-dead aunt who answered her by writing in a book. The aunt wasn’t visible but the writing showed up as soon as Lori asked a question or said something. This development was a shock to me since I had accepted this book to be a stand-alone. It may be possible that the otherworldly conversation with Aunt Dimity might have been established in the other books of the series. Still, the supernatural part should have been introduced much earlier in the story.

The construction of the story was all right. The flow of the actions and the scenes were smooth enough.

The language used and the quality of narration, however, was very good, which might have been the only thing that made me keep on reading this book.

the characterization and what the story was about.

not get another book like this one.

is Nancy Atherton, an American writer and author of the Aunt Dimity mystery novel series, which is in twenty-one volumes.

Read at your own risk.

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Created Oct 07, 2019 at 2:20pm • Submit your own review...