Customer Reviews

Aunt Dimity Digs In (An Aunt Dimity Mystery)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Imagine a contemporary mystery sans bodies, blood or bludgeoning with a sleuthing heroine who is not a former forensic expert and you're getting close to Aunt Dimity Digs In, the fourth in a series of gentle, pleasant mysteries replete with quaint cottages, pots of tea, and a cast of eccentrics.

Lori Shepard lives in a cozy English country cottage with her lawyer husband and infant twin sons. Worn to a frazzle by the babies' demands, she is rescued by the unexpected appearance of an expert nanny, Francesca Sciaparelli - think a statuesque, voluptuous Mary Poppins. But Lori's new found moments of relaxation are cut short by a cry for help from the local vicar. He fears an outbreak of civil war in the village of Finch due to a rancorous dispute involving the use of the schoolhouse. Peggy Kitchen, self-crowned queen of Finch, wants the building for her vaunted Harvest Festival but it has been assigned to a visiting archaeologist, Dr. Adam Culver, as headquarters for his dig.

Although it seems that any combat in a place as benign as Finch would be waged with popcorn, Lori promises the worried vicar that she will try to find a copy of a pamphlet stolen from his desk. It seems that this mysterious document would prove there is no reason to dig near Finch and solve the squabble. Obviously, the thief entered through never-locked French doors, but who could have taken the pamphlet?

With the aid of the late Aunt Dimity, who communicates with Lori by writing in a magic blue notebook, the mystery is eventually solved. But what a rare time is had along the way as Lori meets a witch who lives near the vicarage, and assists her followers via email. She swears she saw two other witches worshiping the moon the night the pamphlet was stolen. The local pub owners, logical suspects since a famous dig might put Finch on the map and bring them additional revenue, are convinced that the figures seen that night were actually aliens.

Along the way romance blossoms between the comely, capable Francesca and Dr. Culver. What does it matter if Lori needs a little hocus-pocus from dear departed Aunt Dimity to bring the lovers together and peace to Finch? All's fair in love and war.

Aunt Dimity Digs In is good fun and good reading, best done with lemon bars and piping hot tea at the ready.

The beauty of the Dimity series is watching the characters development from book to book. Reading this books feels like a visit with your dearest friend that you only get to see once a year. You can pick right up where you left off without skipping a beat.

If you read this one first the earlier books will loose a little something but please do read them all!

I thought that this was a fabulous book. I really enjoyed the way the author wove the story, I think she did a great job. This was the first book I read in the series, and I plan to read all of the other books that she has written about Dimity.

What a wonderful book! Of course, I liked the entire series ... but I have to say I loved this one the best. A real page - turner, without being horrific. Atherton's charectors are charming and true; you want to spend time with them! Fantasy, mystery, and storytelling are intertwined seemlessly. One of Atherton's finest!

I just found these books and I really enjoyed them. I do think that Aunt Dimity and the Duke should be first in the series, because I was looking for Lori Shepherd when I got to the 2nd in the series, but then she and Bill were back in 3 and 4 and all was right with the world. So I recommend reading them 2, 1, 3 and then 4 and hopefully twenty or thirty more before the series is done.

Most of my friends won't enjoy the supernatural element supplied by Dear Aunt Dimity, Reginald, and all of the wonderful characters, but they don't know what they are missing.

I recommend these for a rainy day curled up on the couch with a cup of tea, an afghan and a cat or two purring away.

Get the whole series and enjoy!

So call me cryptic. I think the feeling that remained with me after I finished this book last week was that Atherton's Dimity series shows us human nature--not pasteboard icons, for the most part--and honest characters. She does *not* rely on stereotypes, unless she's pitting them against each other to see what will happen.

In most of her books in this series, I see actual character development and growth--characters learning from their mistakes and human failings. In many of the books, you see people who've been hurt in some way: some of them get stuck in a victim role, and wallow in their hate/fear, and others triumph over their pain, and choose to love and to live. Without being preachy, she quietly demonstrates that you don't have to wallow, but that you can choose to leave the past pain behind and make a new path. When you are caught in the grips of a major depression, it's a beacon, a demonstration that it can be done when the time is right.

Enough of that. This was a ripping good read. I don't know where Ms. Atherton did her research on the plight of the Modern Mother in Western Civilization, but she sure has the isolation in a crowd aspect down right. I adored learning more about the village in this book; I can't speak for the archaeology, but the witch felt right (speaking from experience), and the idea that this was a traditional village of ... incomers hoping to find a home of their own, well, that was really sweet and unexpected.

I had a lot of fun watching events play out, plots get more complicated and then resolved, and you really ought to stop reading this and order it.

I continue to enjoy the way Aunt Dimity manages to communicate, and while I don't think I ever had a similar relationship with any of *my* stuffed animals (what few I had--I was an odd child), I see that relationship in my son and his toys/substitute siblings (his brother is a T. Rex, you know (and glad I am not to have carried THAT to term!)). I also enjoy the culinary overtones in the book.

I look forward to the next one; and to being able to share impressions with other F2F friends who've read it.

My husband and I really enjoy the escapades of the characters in the Aunt Dimity books. Love them. I am 71 my husband is 83. Lydia Angell

Lori Shepard and her husband Bill are new parents of twin boys. Lori is finding motherhood more difficult than expected as she trys to make the entire house child proof but it's only adult proof. Aunt Dimity steps in and in her ghostly way finds a nanny for the boys and a case to be solved by Lori. This time the mystery is a stolen booklet from the vicarage. All while the town is in an up roar since an archelogist has taken over the church school hall and they may not be able to have the faire.

As usual, Aunt Dimity helps Lori to understand herself and others and leads the way to a better understanding for all. However, this doesn't solve the mystery of the stolen booklet, the witches in the dell, the alien landing craft, or the Roman craze among the villagers.

It's romping good fun. Light and refreshingly comfortable to believe in a town of true neighbors.

Finch is an isolated village in the English Cotswold area. The village is a place where magic is an everyday occurrence because of the benevolent spirit of Aunt Dimitry. No one is more grateful to Aunt Dimitry than Lori Shepard, who married her Prince Charming due to the matchmaking skills of the kind otherworldly being. Currently, Lori is the proud mother of twin four month old boys. Aunt Dimity helps arrange for the perfect nanny to help with the kids and allow Lori to reclaim part of her former lifestyle.

When a document is stolen from the local vicarage, Lori indulges in her favorite pastime: sleuthing. The villagers are divided over whether they should pursue turning their remote town into a tourist spot. The stolen document proves the hamlet is not a prime archeological locale and, in fact, a deliberate fraud has been committed. The vicar wants the strife to end, but someone else has different plans for the village.

AUNT DIMITRY DIGS IN, like the other books in the series, is the quintessential cozy that adds some supernatural elements to soothe the soul while delighting its fans with magic. The cast of continual characters from both sides of the beyond are charming and add much to the serenity of the novel. Nancy Atherton is clearly a talented story teller, who has the ability to get her readers to believe that the world can be a better place for you and me if everyone only tries. Any fan of English cozies who has not tried this series is depriving themselves of some of the sub-genre's best works.

Harriet Klausner

In this series of very cozy mysteries there are two featured living characters. Emma and Lori are next-door neighbors and very close friends and they seem to take turns being the featured character in each entry so far. The character that isn't featured will often show up in the story but not always. The title character is always a looming presence in each story but she is quite dead but still very wise. In this particular book Lori Shepherd is the featured character along with her husband Bill and their two newborn twins Rob and Will.

The twins are just four months old as the story begins and a haggard Lori is trying to be super mom. Aunt Dimity and Bill decide that she needs help and Dimity sees to finding the perfect nanny to help her out. No sooner does she start to relax though than a major dispute breaks out in the village of Finch and she is drawn into it before she knows what is happening. It seems that the Vicar has allowed a visiting archeologist to store his equipment in the old school building and that raises the ire of fall festival coordinator Peggy Kitchen. The very outspoken Miss Kitchen is determined to drive the unwanted visitor out because she needs that school for her festival and before she is finished all of Finch has taken sides in the dispute. Not only does Peggy expect Lori to help her in her campaign but to add to her predicament the Vicar whom Kitchen is campaigning against finds that something has been stolen from the Vicarage and asks Lori to help him locate the item. As she tries to solve the mystery of the Vicarage burglary Lori runs into a ghost (besides Dimity), a witch, moon worshipers, space aliens and an archeologist who is smitten with her new nanny.

This series is the coziest of cozies because there is seldom a murder to be found and this book is no exception. Fans of more hardcore mysteries really won't like this series or this book at all but as for me I loved it. This author has a real talent for bringing her characters to life and the quirky villagers are a blast right down to the pub owners who have a dog named Grog. Despite the lack of dead bodies at every turn this mystery is very engaging and entertaining and you just never know what you might come across next. It is kind of a nice change of pace to come across a series where the characters aren't killed off just as soon as you start to get attached to them and you will get attached to these characters. Once again Nancy Atherton has given us a fun story and has allowed me to visit with old friends and meet some new ones.