Customer Reviews

Death of an Obnoxious Tourist (A Dotsy Lamb Mystery)

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

 

 

Death of an Obnoxious Tourist (2006) introduces Dotsy Lamb, a recently divorced empty nester from Virginia, traveling with her friend Lettie in Italy. The tour group includes a very annoying woman who manages to alienate everyone in the group, including her two sisters, by the second day. When she is murdered in Florence, Dotsy and Lettie decide to help find the killer. They form a perfect amateur team: Dotsy is logical and persistent while the scatterbrained Lettie has a near photographic memory. The suspect list quickly narrows down to the eclectic tour group. which includes a Canadian dairy farmer who carries pictures of his favorite cows and an Englishman who speaks in incomprehensible bursts. Traditional mystery fans will enjoy this humorous book.

[...]

Dotsy Lamb, history professor and recent empty nester, and her best friend Lettie decide to go on a tour of Italy.

When they arrive, they find everyone is pleasant except for Meg Bauer, a very obnoxious woman. She is such a contract from her two younger sisters who are also on the tour. When Meg is found murdered, everyone is a suspect, especially her sister Beth.

The attractive carabinieri captain, Marco Quattrocchi, is in charge of the investigation. Dotsy hooks up with him to try to help solve the murder. She also enlists the aid of Lettie who is very observant.

Dotsy uncovers lots of motives since she insulted almost everyone in the tour group. The sisters and brother, who is back home, have inherited a nice sum of money.

When another tour member dies, it appears to be an accident. Dotsy believes it is another murder and sets out to prove it. Can she prove it before anyone else dies, namely herself?

I really enjoyed this book. Dotsy and Lettie are such great characters. I can't wait to see where they go in their next adventure. I hope there will be many books in this series. I loved the Italy setting as well as I've never been there, but I felt I had been there by the time I finished reading this book.

The author did a great job with the characters, setting and plot. I highly recommend this book!

After their five children left the nest, her husband dumped History professor Dotsy Lamb; to feel good about herself and to move on; she and her friend Lettie join a tour group visiting Italy. The tourists are an eclectic mix with all being very pleasant except Meg Bauer who, unlike her two sisters, is a harridan tearing into everyone even her kind siblings.

When Meg is found murdered in her room by a knife that her sister Beth recently purchased, the police arrest gypsy street peddler Ivo Ramovic. Earlier he stole Beth and Meg's room key along with Beth's credit card and traveler's checks. When confronted he had both plus a large sum of cash. When evidence proves his innocence, suspicion shifts to Beth. Dotsy believes Beth is innocent so she plans to uncover the real culprit, but not before another group member is murdered.

Readers will have no sympathy towards the culprit who took immense pleasure hurting others, but will feel for Beth, a nice person caught up in circumstances that make her look guilty as she had the motive and the opportunity and owned the means. The protagonist is an independent energetic senior citizen who shows her obstinacy with the trip to start her life anew and with the investigation. Maria Hudgins writes a delightful amateur sleuth tale and armchair detectives will enjoy seeing Italy through Dotsy's eyes.

Harriet Klausner

This was a fun little mystery with great location. I have been on a group travel tour similar to the one described in the book, so I especially enjoyed it how real it all felt. But even if I had not, it would have been fun following these characters around Italy and following Dotsy unravel the mystery. I will look forward to additional books in the series.

Who wouldn't like to travel to Florence? But if you can't go yourself, read this marvelous book by someone who went there... and then made up a fascinating tale of the murder of a tourist. In this case, the tourist is someone everyone would like to kill and so the suspects are numerous. I thoroughly enjoyed traveling vicariously with "Dotsy Lamb" who decided it was up to her to solve the mystery of who did it.

The author either hasn't spent much time in Italy or hasn't been in a long time. There are a lot of errors. Smoking isn't allowed in Italian restaurants. Travelers checks aren't accepted there (or anywhere in Europe). One Italian sandwich is a panino, not a panini, which is the plural, and so on. Florence is jam-packed with tourists, even out of the high season, yet the characters just walk in and out of restaurants and attractions as if they were the only ones there. The setting doesn't feel at all like Italy, but more like a cliched version of it. Without Italy, that leaves us with a limp formula mystery, with the obligatory romantic possibility for the main character. There are absolutely no sparks between them. There is a lot of recapping of who was where, when, and what all the motives might be. Yawwwnnnnnn...

This fun mystery contains a lots of interesting characters and a few Italian guys that you can't trust --but have to love. The connections between all the people on the tour are like a gordian knot and the untangling is well done.
I would even pay for another book in the series.

This is the first book in the Dotsy Lamb Travel Mysteries.
The book is well written. The characters and fun and interesting.
The story takes place in Italy and the author brings the sights to life.

I picked this up as a freebie a few days ago and have just purchased the second book in the series.

This is a fun, cozy, light read.

I enjoyed this mystery; it was interesting to the end. Dotsy's amateur detective methods added an amusing twist to the story. I look forward to reading more mysteries by Maria Hudgins