Review by Booklist Review
Although the genre is cozy English mystery, Atherton gives it breadth and depth with terrific characters and an intriguing plot involving psychic phenomena. Aunt Dimity barely plays a role in this second of the series, though reports of her demise in Aunt Dimity's Death (1992) were exaggerated. The heroine here is fat-ish, forty-ish Emma, who falls into a position at Penford Hall in Cornwall. Although the duke of Penford seems charming enough, there are rumors he was involved in the murder of pop star Lex Rex several years earlier. Together with Derek, who is restoring the stately home's chapel, Emma sets out to discover if the injury of another well-known guest has anything to do with Lex Rex's demise. One of the nicest bits about the story is Emma and Derek's burgeoning relationship. Despite death and double-dealing, Emma is able to see (with the help of Derek's two children) that Derek is the man of her dreams. Romance and intrigue--you still can't beat that combination. ~--Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Atherton's second novel proves more amusing than her first (Aunt Dimity's Death) as it recycles several characters from that mystery/ghost story. Bostonian Emma Porter-a 39-year-old computer analyst and ardent gardener recently jilted by her longtime lover-is on her own in England, exploring Cornwall's gardens. A seemingly chance encounter leads her to Penford Hall, a name prominent in the tabloids five years earlier when a rock star's death peripherally involved Grayson Alexander, the 14th duke of Penford. At the Hall, Emma is greeted by Grayson as the savior of his ruined chapel garden, waiting to be restored in time for the village ``Fête'' that occurs once every 100 years to celebrate a legendary local supernatural event. That act is memorialized in a chapel window being examined by restorer Derek Harris, a widower who soon becomes Emma's romantic interest. Also present is a fading supermodel whose acerbic tongue cuts the story's high sugar level until she is rendered unconscious by a blow to the head. The source of Grayson's largesse and the identity of the model's attacker, when revealed, leave some questions unanswered, but romance runs rampant, happy endings abound and most readers will be smiling at book's end. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Atherton follows Aunt Dimity's Death (LJ 10/1/92) with a lightly Gothic-flavored forerunner set in a Cornwall mansion. Emma Porter, fortyish computer nerd and gardener, becomes entangled in a mystery involving the Duke of Penford. Aunt Dimity herself appears only in name-but no matter. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The most unusual continuing character in contemporary mystery fiction--the late Dimity Westwood, universal aunt and presiding spirit of British home and garden (Aunt Dimity's Death, 1992)--is at it again. This time, she's determined to bring forlorn, 40ish American computer executive Emma Porter, on a visit to Cornwall she'd hoped to take with her live-in lover until he dumped her for a trophy twit, to Penford Hall, where Grayson Alexander, the 14th duke, needs her to help unearth a storied lantern Aunt Dimity had charged him to recover. Speeded on her way to Penford Hall by a pair of earthbound spirits who arrange for her to be offered a job as gardener (!), Emma falls hard for the well-bred love-in among the Duke's adoring household--especially the conveniently widowed Derek Harris, the historian who's restoring an important stained- glass window. But there are awkward questions to answer before she can find the lantern and take Derek's delightful children in hand. How has the Duke raised the money to begin restoring long-neglected Penford Hall? Did he somehow make off with the missing fortune of Lex Rex, the head-banging rock star who drowned while joyriding in the ducal yacht five years before? And who shoved supermodel Susannah Ashley-Woods, the cousin the Duke gently says was raised by wolves, down the garden steps? All the ingredients of the feminine gothic--one ghost, one relic, three mysteries, a second chance at love--at their most jolly and toothless. Even the crooks are nice.
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