From Publishers Weekly
In their sixth engaging and literate adventure, following Dude on Arrival , Sarah Deane, English teacher and Ph.D. candidate at Maine's Bowmouth College, and her fiance, physician Alex McKenzie, are distracted from wedding plans when Sarah's widowed Aunt Julia begins receiving threatening notes. Crusty, independent Julia, owner of High Hope Farm, is initially untroubled by the hand-delivered nursery rhymes rewritten with unnerving twists, e.g., "Julia Clancy sat on a wall / Julia Clancy had a great fall." The list of possible culprits includes neighbor Colonel Harvey Dodge, a persistent suitor who thinks he and Julia should marry, blending their farms and their lives; librarian Tilly Martin, who says that she has learned from the stars and runes that each person in the area should take over a neighbor's property; a mining company that has shown a recent interest in local mineral rights. The threats continue, leading finally, during Sarah and Alex's reception at Julia's beloved horse farm, to a suspicious death. In this character-oriented mystery, Borthwick makes the suspects, Julia's neighbors and the mining company seem largely, though not entirely, innocent, giving Sarah and Alex a challenging puzzle to solve--as though pulling off a wedding were a piece of cake.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Nice but nosy English teacher Sarah Deane (Dude on Arrival, etc.), newly married to Dr. Alex McKenzie, is embroiled in the problems of her neighbors in Union, Maine. Her Aunt Julia, aging but feisty owner of High Hope horse farm, is beleaguered by threatening unsigned letters; the persistent marriage proposals of Colonel Harvey Dodge, owner of the going-to-seed farm next door; rumors of farm sales to Norminco, a mining conglomerate; and, finally, the disappearance of skilled but erratic workers Sean and Rafe and the murder of the Colonel's right-hand man, Farney Thompson, while on loan to Julia. Complicating all this are the ravings of ditsy Tilly Martin, of Appleyard farm; the cool calculating of Winka and Neil Wentworth, owners of Highfeather summer camp; and the resistance to the mining company of Merrilark Camp's Brad Pfeifer. Meanwhile, there are endless details of horse meets, races, jumping competitions, riding lessons, etc.--along with characters who belie, one and all, the Maine reputation for terseness of speech. A windy bore, overstuffed with plot twists, horse lore, and talky but (with the exception of Tilly) uncompelling characters. No joy, except for dedicated horse-lovers. --
Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
