Customer Reviews

Aunt Dimity Down Under (Thorndike Mystery)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Call me old fashioned, but I'm of the opinion that a book classified as a "mystery" should, oh I don't know, have a mystery as an intergral part of the plot. Given that Atherton is a "cozy" mystery writer I don't expect a huge body count and gruesome bloody scenes, nor do I expect a twisted, convoluted plot that keeps me guessing until the very end... but I do expect for there to at least BE a murder to solve. From what I can tell, this book is nothing more than a way for the author to write off a trip to New Zealand as a business tax expense.
Is it sad when the stuffed rabbit side-kick of the protagonist actually has more of a personality than the protagonist herself?

There's a wedding and a funeral, but before those can happen Lori must go to New Zealand. She's on the trail of family for the Pym sisters and ends up traveling across the country to find who she's looking for. Amusingly, it's during the time that the Lord of the Rings movies were being filmed that the book is set so there's a bit of that included in this novel as well. Plus, there's very little Peggy (I really don't like that character!) This is another solid entry in the life of Lori Shepherd that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Lori and the rest of the village are all frantically getting ready for THE wedding, Chris and Nell are finally tying the knot, all the arrangements have been made and then everything came to a halt. The much loved Pym sisters were ill, probably dying. The charming, eccentric twins were by far the oldest members of the village, no one could remember a time without them, not even the long deceased Aunt Dimity. The twins had a last wish, to be reunited with their long lost older brother Aubrey who had been sent away in disgrace decades before. They asked Lori to locate him, not realizing that he had traveled, not to the a different village, but to the other side of the world. In short order Lori was sent off to New Zealand where an old school friend of Bill's joined her in search of the long missing family black sheep.

Now if you have no idea who any of these people are that is because this is the fifteenth in a series of cozy mysteries featuring young mother Lori, her family and friends and her Aunt Dimity, the long deceased friend of Lori's mother. This series is quite heavy on the 'cozy' and light on the 'mystery', particularly in this entry. This latest adventure is not so much a 'who done it' but a 'where is and can we find them in time'. A task that would have been made much simpler if anyone had just done an internet search and made a few phone calls. Still fans if the series will not want to miss this opportunity to catch up with old friends and those cozy enthusiasts who are unfamiliar to this series will want to begin at the beginning, AUNT DIMITY'S DEATH and proceed in order to this one.

To me the Aunt Dimity series is one of those rare gems that should go on and on forever. I love coming back to Finch each year and meeting up with old friends and just peeking in on what Lori and her family are up to. You really have to read these books in order to see Lori for all her flaws and loyalties. She loves her family and friends and will do anything for them. Even if it means traipsing to the end of the earth to bring a final happiness to two dearly loved friends.

Devastating news has hit Lori Shepherd. The Pym sisters have taken ill and are not expected to live much longer. In their need to finish their last requests, they have asked Lori to find Aubrey Pym their scandalous brother who was run off by their father decades before. Apparently, Aubrey was a bit of a cad and coming from a religious family, this action was not tolerated.

After meeting with the Pym family solicitor, Fortescue Makepeace, Lori heads off to New Zealand to begin this sacrosanct journey. With the help of Cameron Mackenzie, a dashing but unavailable friend of Lori's husband Bill, the duo travel throughout New Zealand being one-step behind the beneficiary of the Pym family fortune - a fortune that has an interesting history of its own.

Aunt Dimity Down Under reads more like a travelogue then a mystery. There really is no "who-done-it" to figure out, just a wild romp through a country with breathtaking lands and welcoming people.

The ending has a nice lead into the next book, Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree, where Lori's now retired father-in-law moves to town and is renovating the Fairworth House.

New Zealand should promote this book as a tourist attraction! It is so well written and describes the country's attractions so well that any reader would want to visit!

Nancy Atherton's "Aunt Dimity" series of mysteries have always been light and fluffy, but her latest, Aunt Dimity Down Under makes the previous books I've read feel like Stephen King novels. Instead, the book reads like a New Zealand travelogue with just a touch of vanilla spice. If this is your cup of tea, you'll enjoy it. But other readers should stay far away.

Love is in the air in the sleepy English village of Finch, as Lori Shepherd and the rest of the townspeople prepare for the wedding of the town's Romeo & Juliet (without the harsh ending). Yes, it's finally time for Kit Smith and Nell Harris to have the wedding of the century. Unfortunately, all this preparation goes for naught when it's announced that Ruth and Louise Pym, the village's eldest residents, are dying. They have an unusual request for Lori: track down their long-lost brother Aubrey before death claims them. Lori's search will lead her to New Zealand, and a trek that will span the entire country before she finally finds what she's looking for. But will what she finds want anything to do with the Pyms?

Aunt Dimity Down Under seems to have been written to either showcase Atherton's knowledge of New Zealand or to give her an excuse to go down there and do some research, as the New Zealand Travel Bureau couldn't have written a better advertisement for the country. Lori gets whisked north and south, east and west, to the southern island and then back again, visiting Auckland, Wellington, along with many natural wonders and resorts (must be nice to be independently wealthy along with having all of your expenses paid).

Lori's aided by her husband's best friend, Cameron Mackenzie, a native Kiwi who relishes showing her the sites as well as scaring her half to death with tales of volcanoes erupting, earthquakes, and flying his personal plane into the teeth of a harsh weather system. He also delights in using, and explaining, a bunch of Kiwi terms that Atherton seems to like to indulge in. Even dear old Aunt Dimity gets into the act, telling Lori that she simply must see certain sites that she had heard about when she was in the war and helping some Kiwi soldiers (Aunt Dimity is long dead, but communicates with Lori through a journal, where Lori talks and Dimity's words appear in glowing ink).

I understand wanting to show off your research, and I don't begrudge Atherton the opportunity to do so, but usually it's not quite as blatant as it is in Aunt Dimity Down Under. I've said before that the Aunt Dimity universe is cursed with everybody being "nice," with even the villains often just misunderstood. This book actually has somebody be a bad apple through and through. Unfortunately, he's not a character in the book, but instead somebody who has just died and has made Lori's job harder by forcing his daughter to run away from him.

Another problem with this book is that most of the characters would have to work very diligently to even achieve a second dimension, much less a third one. Lori is, of course, the person readers know and identify with, though even she's coming close to losing that third dimension. She never achieves any insight or changes in any way. She's stubborn and nosy at the beginning of the book, and she is at the end too. Cameron isn't even three-dimensional, with nothing more to his character than his past with Lori's husband and his being a workaholic (hence why his wife encouraged him to help Lori and to stay away from his business for a few days). The other characters they meet, even their ultimate prey, aren't any better.

My final complaint, and maybe long-time readers of the series can correct me on this, is that for some strange reason, Atherton has decided that this entire series takes place before 2003. Atherton uses to a great extent the fact that Peter Jackson is "currently" making the Lord of the Rings films in New Zealand. It even becomes a bit of a plot point. All this time, I thought the series took place in the present, so to have this thrust upon me was quite the rude awakening.

One good thing I will say about this book, however, is that Atherton has made a couple of big changes in the mythology of the series, namely the village of Finch. I am glad that she's willing to modify some things to keep the series a bit fresher. The new addition to the village cast gave me a good feeling, as long as Atherton handles her right. No, she's not any more three-dimensional than the others, but I do like what I see so far. Let's hope Atherton develops her more.

Sadly, Aunt Dimity Down Under only works for the true Dimity fan. All others should avoid it like the plague.

Originally published on Curled Up With a Good Book © David Roy, 2010

I have read a few of the Aunt Dimity mysteries and liked them, but this is not one of my favorites. I agree with the reviewer who said that there is too much travelogue. True, New Zealand is an interesting and beautiful country, but this story needs more plot and substance. I also thought that the wedding theme was too sentimental, and it was unclear who those "angelic lovers" were and why their wedding was so important for the local community. I presume they are characters from another book in the series, but some background information should have been provided. Finally, I was shocked at Lori's (the heroine) ignorance with regard to geography. I suppose I can forgive her for not having heard of Gallipoli, but not knowing where New Zealand is?! Really! My granddaughter knew that in first grade!

This is pretty dreadful. I have most of the AD books and loved them for a long time. The last one wasn't fantastic, and this one is pretty dreadful. The main character, Lori, seems to have turned into a complete idiot: she doesn't seem to know where New Zealand is; she seems shocked that it's a "civilized" country, and then she keeps commenting on how "dangerous" it is. Good grief. How stupid is she? Having her wax romantic on Kit and Nell's relationship is pretty nauseating as well at this point (it's sort of a sweet relationship, sure, but come on...). The book also suffers from all the absurd travelogue stuff other reviewers have commented on, as well as a painfully thin plot. The early books in the series are a joy. This one is almost bad enough to make me avoid any future ones.

I'm an Aunt Dimity lover and was so anticipating this latest that I finally could no longer wait its arrival in paperback. I should have. While New Zealand may be interesting, I did not appreciate what amounted to a travel guide. The story itself was not as interesting as usual either. I so loved the Pym twins, that more about them would have been nice, as would have more about Lori's family back home. Bill's calls could have provided some sort of secondary plot to give this more of the going's on at home. I don't know what happened here, but if I had to rank the books in the series, this would not only be last one written, but last in terms of enjoyment. And the wedding, well I was expecting more depth of feeling there.

I've been a purchaser and fan of Atherton's books on Aunt Dimity since the beginning - BUT, all good things must come to an end. The last book was ho hum and this book is just plain BORING. It is a travelogue of New Zealand and a cuisine book of their food - but NO story line. Atherton must be tired of writing about Aunt Dimity - who has become biting and irritating in her entries in the journal - or like all good Rocky movies it is time to quit. Don't bother and hesitate on the next one.