Customer Reviews

Do Not Disturb

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

 

 

This is just not a great mystery. Nor is it a great historical. I had such hopes when seeing the era chosen and the setting. It was Duchess of Dukes Street becomes a detective, with the characters of just such a hotel as the Bentinck Hotel but set in southern england, most likely on the dover coast.

Well perhaps watching an episode or two of Upstairs Downstairs is all we need for period detail. Not that having so little period detail is cause for this tale to fail. But with so little, why set it in this period at all. Why not just have us with the murders and the mystery take place in modern times?

The author grew up in England and came to the US in the sixties, but that does not show in the writing. Certainly a thin veneer of the mores of the time is overlaid for a motive for the murders but stretch credulity with the murderer and the murder weapon.

This is the second in the series. I do hope that they will get better but I am not hopeful at this time. Not a reread, and perhaps not worthy of being added to a collection.

The second book in the Pennyfoot Hotel series brings in a few more characters and "beefs" up the ones who were introduced in the first book "Room With a Clue". Having read all the Christmas "in betweens" it is exciting to me to be able to see how all the situations developed. Cecily and Baxter, when you read the beginning of their relationship, would seem to be an odd couple! In fact there are frequently "odd couplings" in Ms Kingsbury's Pennyfoot series. These add to the fun. The graphic descriptions of life in the fastlane, turn of the century seaside hotels is both amusing and informative. I think I would have liked to be a little fly on the wall in this
locale and time period. I wish I had started this series when it was first published and followed the inhabitants of the hotel from the beginning. Second best is having an opportunity to go back to the beginning to see the changes in people and social situations. I would highly recommend anyone interested in this time period and/or viewing a small section of post Victorian England with all its do's and don'ts, begin this series of light mysteries, personality plus characters and a fun evening of escapist reading.

I was excited to find a series in this time period, but the execution of the story was lacking in every way. There was so much repetition of dialog that at least 75 pages of a 202 page book could have been eliminated. The characters were one-dimensional stereotypes at best and flat-out annoying at worst (usually both).

There is a sub-plot about a possibly pregant, unmarried maid that took up a huge portion of the story while having nothing to do with the murders. This character is so annoying that I was hoping she would be a victim. I understand that being unmarried and pregant was a terrible thing for a young woman in 1906, but with illegal gambling in the hotel basement and unquestioned sexual liaisons in the guest rooms my impression is that the Pennyfoot Hotel is only one step above a brothel so surely an unplanned pregancy is not an uncommon occurance and would not result in her being dismissed and disgraced.

The main character, hotel owner Cecily Sinclair, talks alot about solving the mysterious murders, but really does very little. Her time is mostly spent flirting with her very proper manager Baxter, being overwhelmed with sadness at the thought of her poor dead husband (often talking to his portait) and having tea with friends. I thought that if I had to read on more scene of Cecily getting a cigar from Baxter I would scream. If she is so smart that she can solve the murders where the police can't surely she can come up with a way to have cigars delivered to the hotel so that she doesn't have to rely on Baxter and his disapproval of her smoking. For that matter, why does Baxter continue to keep cigars with him, knowing that she is going to ask for one?

The only character in the book I could tolerate was Cecily's friend Madeline, but her part in the book was very small.

I will look elsewhere for good period mysteries. I dislike the characters so much that I have no desire to try another book in the series.

Cecily Sinclair, a recent widow and the proprietress of the the fashionable Pennyfoot Hotel in Badgers End finds her small seaside village is the location for numerous unexplained deaths which turn out to be murders. With the help of the faithful Baxter she determines to find out who is on a rampage in her small village. The year is 1906, and Ms. Kingsbury does a good job of painting life on a seacoast village at the turn of the century. The book moves along quickly, and the characters are a delight. All the makings of a wonderful cozy series. I am looking forward to reading more about Cecily and her friends.

Kate Kingsbury's first entry is a winner. The characters are endearing, the locale is a luxury resort on the beach, and the mystery is engrossing. I like this series because it allows the reader to peek into the world of the upper class in Edwardian England. Patty Habersberge