Customer Reviews

Down the Garden Path

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I've read this book a couple of times because I enjoy the story and the way it's written. I also like the Misses Tramwell. I know they have been in Ellie Haskel books and also in "God Save the Queen". I wish Dorothy Cannell would bring back the characters from "Down The Garden Path" in one book, and also the characters from "God Save The Queen" in another. They were interesting and very likeable.

I'm not sure what happened here. I actually wanted to rate this two stars and a half, but that's not possible, so I've decided to be generous. For the characters in this book were likable enough but the plot and story was slow and awkward, and frankly, I became very bored halfway through the book and had to put it down for a few days before I could finish it. The strange thing is that when I read Ms. Cannell's next book, a second Ellie Haskell mystery, it was so good, exactly the quality I had been expecting from Down The Garden Path. I think Ms. Cannell's Ellie Haskell books are her best and there her talent shows. But as for the others...quite frankly, God Save the Queen was even worse than this one in it's way.

she's very good indeed, but sadly, this is not the best example of that! It's still readable, however, at least in my opinion.

A standard device in fiction is that of the baby left on a doorstep, who, upon reaching adulthood, or something reasonably approaching that state, sets out to find the birth parents.

The author hangs a 'Pastoral Mystery" (the sub-title of the book) on this premise. Set in rural modern-day England at a country house, Cloisters, (once a monastery, of course), the past is nearly as important as the present, with generations of the same family and/or townspeople laying the groundwork for the secrecy surrounding the parentage of the heroine, Tessa Fields.

Left on the doorstep of a vicarage, Tessa is told just such an engaging story throughout her life. Her adoptive 'Mum' dies when Tessa is just 11, and she is cared for thereafter by her 'Dad', the vicar, and his housekeeper, Fergy. A short stint in London as a career girl includes time spent at The Heritage, an antique shop run by the large and shambling Angus Hunt. All is for naught, however, in the face of the increasing pressure Tessa puts on herself to discover her real parentage. A closet romantic, she makes frequent references to such unrelated Regency-period staples as highwaymen and Lord Byron.

Cannell is a master (mistress?) at inventing eccentric characters; the Tramwell sisters, Primrose and Hyacinth, loom large in Tessa's story, as does Butler (the not-quite reformed burglar who stays on as the butler); Chantal, the beautiful and clairvoyant young gypsy woman, who is in love with Tessa's own love, Harry, and who supports herself as cook at Cloisters while earning her master's degree; Harry himself, (the missing unidentified heir); Bertie, another adopted youngster who has an imaginary friend, Fred, who nearly gets them all killed, and so on. In other words, your typical English house-party guest list.

At times, Tessa is a bit much, and you may wish for the end of the book to please hurry up and get to you, but overall, this is still an engaging and witty book. It could have used better editing; if misspellings get on your nerves, you'll find yourself becoming more aggravated than most readers. Nevertheless, all does end reasonably well, for Tessa does discover her birth mum and her own real love, almost simultaneously. They also discover a secret treasure which guarantees the continuance--for years to come--of Cloisters, but with the roof finally mended.

I love her books, but this was boring, hard to follow or "get into." You may love it, but I didn't even finish reading the book.

I found this book almost impossible to read:the characters were either weird for weird's sake or just silly. The "heroine" was forever speculating on people's characters without a clue as to what makes people do what they do; she kept doing stupid things to further the (nearly non-existent) plot. I read and rather enjoyed The Thin Woman, but this book was not only a terrible mystery; it was a terrible book. For really excellent British mysteries read anything by Elizabeth George or Martha Grimes.