Aunt Dimity and the deep blue sea

The eleventh Aunt Dimity mystery is testament to the staying power of Atherton's cozier-than-cozy premise: American Lori Shepherd, who lives in an idyllic Midlands cottage with her five-year-old twins and doting husband, communicates with Aunt Dimity, a deceased friend who speaks through a mysterious journal. When Lori stumbles upon a mystery, Aunt Dimity is Holmes to her Watson. This time husband Bill begins receiving death threats, and Lori and the twins are sent to an island off the coast of Scotland, where Lori becomes intrigued by how the islanders afford their affluent lifestyles. Aunt Dimity kibitzes as required. --Jenny McLarin Copyright 2006 Booklist

In Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea, her soothing 11th cozy starring U.S. ex-pat Lori Shepherd (after 2005's Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin), Lori and her twin sons, Will and Rob, retreat to the scenic Scottish isle of Erinskil after Lori's lawyer husband, Bill Willis, receives death threats via e-mail. The ideal refuge, however, soon becomes a hotbed of trouble, and Lori's forced to depend more on her own instincts than the advice of the ghostly Aunt Dimity, who communicates through journal entries, to protect her sons' lives as well as her own. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A death threat sends a family fleeing from the West Midlands to the western isles of Scotland. When attorney Bill Willis is threatened, he packs off his sleuthing wife Lori Shepherd (Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday, 2003, etc.) and their twin sons to the remote island of Erinskil, where old family friend Sir Percy Pelham is the laird. While her husband works with Scotland Yard to track down the source of the threats, Lori enjoys the island, with its quaint legends of the past. The twins romp on the beach with their bodyguard Andrew Ross; Lori's minded by enigmatic bodyguard Damian Hunter. A trip to the pub reveals Peter Harris, a West Midlands neighbor, and his friend Cassie, masquerading as bird watchers to escape tabloid reporters. Noting on their birding expeditions a prosperity the island's farming and its tweed mill can't explain, they wonder if the mysterious lights they see at night are evidence of drug smuggling. After Peter vanishes, the search leads Lori and Damian to the hiding place of ancient treasures and modern cash. Barely escaping death when the stalker tracks them down, Lori learns all in the dénouement. Lori's soothing familiar, Aunt Dimity, has little to do in this unmysterious tale. Fans will have to settle for the trip to Erinskil and the recipe for lemon sticky cake. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.