Aunt Dimity's Death (Aunt Dimity Mystery) [Hardcover]

Nancy Atherton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1992 | Series: Aunt Dimity Mystery

Summoned from her latest dreadful temp job by her lawyers, Lori Shephard discovers that Aunt Dimity--her mother's favorite bedtime story heroine--was a real person who has left her millions and the challenge to solve an eerie mystery. A first novel. 12,500 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite its buoyant tone, this blend of fairy tale, ghost story, romance and mystery proves a disappointment. First novelist Atherton creates a potentially appealing heroine in bewitched and bewildered Lori Shepherd, but never places her in danger, thus sacrificing suspense. Recently divorced and newly bereaved by her beloved mother's death, Lori is scraping by as an office temp in Boston when she receives a letter from a Boston law firm informing her of the death in England of Miss Dimity Westwood. Lori is shocked because she had thought adventurous Dimity was her mother's fictional creation, the star of made-up bedtime stories. Courtly lawyer William Willis and his attentive son Bill inform Lori that Dimity left instructions that she and Bill go to her Cotswolds cottage to prepare a collection of "Aunt Dimity" stories for publication. They find the cottage haunted by the ghost of Dimity, who blocks their efforts to trace the secret of her WW II romance with a gallant flier. That all ends happily comes as a surprise to none but Lori.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Atherton's first mystery combines a strong sense of traditional English fare with an insistent gothic spirit. Suffering from her recent divorce, her mother's death, and an erratic income, Lori Shepherd receives notice from a prestigious Boston law firm that she must travel to England in order to meet the requirements of a will. While visiting her benefactor's "haunted" cottage with lawyer friend Bill, she uncovers important clues relating to a World War II mystery. Lightweight, nicely written material complete with a few heart palpitations.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (November 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670844497
• ISBN-13: 978-0670844494
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming and Cozy with a Touch of Mystery and Romance, December 19, 2004

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aunt Dimity's Death (Aunt Dimity Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first in the delightful Aunt Dimity series and the reader's introduction to series heroine Lori Shepherd. Most of life's major crises have hit poor Lori---a divorce, the death of her beloved mother, and the dissolution of her job. If ever a heroine was down-on-her-luck, Lori is. But all that is about to change when she learns of the death of Aunt Dimity.

Lori is stunned, not because Dimity is dead but because Lori never knew she existed. To her, Dimity was a lively character in the stories her mother told her. But when Lori is summoned to the reading of Dimity's will, her whole life begins to change. A trip to England, a charming travelling companion, an elderly man with a dark secret, helpful neighbors, and an ivy-covered cottage with a garden of lilacs are all in Lori's future.

If you like to suspend reality, you will be delighted to meet Dimity's ghost, read along with Lori in the amazing blue journal, and you may even want a stuffed pink Reginald of your own.

Words like delighful, charming, and cozy may seem trite and overused but are the only way to describe this story about a lovable ghost and the young woman whose life she changes.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Series to Read and Enjoy, June 7, 2002

By 

Evin "Writer, Photographer, Traveler & Food E... (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aunt Dimity's Death (Aunt Dimity Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

Cherish the Aunt Dimity series for its simple sweetness and nostalgic way of weaving the characters together into the adventures and the life (er, afterlife) of the ghost of Aunt Dimity. The first in this series sets off to explain much of the main character's life before encountering Dimity and the evolution of her character as she gets to know herself and her mother's friendship with theDimity. I don't want to give anything away, but if you liked Nancy Drew as a child, you might want to give this series a try as a grown-up.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'A Little Princess' meets Stephanie Plum, September 10, 2001

By 

J. Hilles "city_girl" (the northeastern United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aunt Dimity's Death (Aunt Dimity Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is what you need when the noir world of Kinsey Milhone is weighing you down and you've read one too many quick come-backs in the Janet Evanovich books. Poor (and I do mean poor) Lori, cruelly dumped by her ex, has landed in Boston in reduced circumstances. Depressed by her mother's death and a string of soul-numbing temp jobs, she's astounded to learn a storybook character her mother created was indeed an actual person. Lori's circumstances begin to change. She moves briefly into a lush and lovely mansion and from there into a lilac-sheltered cottage in the Cotswolds. All is idyllic, but there are (natch) mysteries she has to solve - who was Aunt Dimity? Why was she wandering the London Zoo one miserable afternoon during the Blitz? And who is haunting her cottage?
Put a kettle on. Bake a batch of oatmeal cookies - recipe's on the back page. This book is a balm for a rattled and weary soul.