Customer Reviews

The Tale of Holly How (Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries)

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This second title in the Cottage Tales series is just as charming as the first, "The Tale of Hill Top Farm." Set in England's Lake District in the early 1900s, each episode centers on the pastoral lifestyle found in Near and Far Sawrey. But even in a rural landscape, bad things can happen. Children's author Beatrix Potter, now a farm owner and part-time Lake District resident, helps to solve the mysteries that confound the people of her new hometown. She's aided by animals -- her own pets, the other domesticated animals of the community, and the wild ones who live nearby. The result is the kind of book Potter herself might have written for adults, if she had had the time and inclination.

After reading the first book, I realized I didn't know much about Beatrix and her children's books, so I read "Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman" by Judy Taylor. (Another book that I highly recommend.) Now I can see that Susan Wittig Albert is tackling and mastering three tasks at once: weaving a ficticious mystery; setting it closely against biographical and historical fact; and sprinkling the story with the kind of animal insight and "dialogue" found in Potter's original tales. The result is a wonderful and engaging narrative that is simply a joy a read. Yes, it's "cozy," but it's also more comfortable and familiar than others of that genre.

Though she's been gone for more than 60 years, Beatrix Potter's spirit lives today: not only in the reprints of her own work, but also in this new series by Albert. How lucky for us!

2nd in the series featuring Beatrix Potter and her pets, this story returns to Swaney, England, where Beatrix has purchased Hill Top Farm with the proceeds of her children's books, much to the dismay of her parents. Hill Top is under renovations when the body of Ben Hornby, a local sheep farmer, is discovered. Beatrix involves herself in the investigation, along with the local police and solicitor, despite her depression from the death of her fiance. I love the way the mysteries intertwine - between the humans and the animals - unbeknownst to the humans, of course. These are definitely cozies - well-written and entertaining stories that I look forward to each time, in all three of the series the author writes.

The Cottage Tales, all three to date, are wonderful, beautifully researched, exciting, detailed, well-written, and a pure JOY to read. I have been familiar since childhood with all of Beatrix Potter's books, her home, her biography, have visited her farms in the UK, and own first editions of the actual Tales and the accompanying figurines. The Cottage Tales by Albert complement these books perfectly in every way. Susan Wittig Albert has struck the perfect tone in creating this magical and satisfying series. The animals are so fun! The characters speak the dialects so well. Everything is PERFECT. I love these three books and am recommending them to everyone I know. I cannot wait to see the new one!

This book is categorized as a mystery, but is actually just general fiction. Sure, there happens to be a light mystery/death in the book but this definitely isn't a whodunit with clues everywhere and townspeople clammering to solve the case. The writing is beautiful - very gentle and easy to read - and it is odd too, to read a half-fiction half-realistic account of Beatrix Potter's life. Much of the book is fictionalized, but Beatrix and her gentle nature, kindness, and spirit all come through. I feel, through the stories of Albert, that I am coming to know Beatrix Potter very well. The exact same cast of characters from the first book, The Tale of Hill Top Farm, are back and it was great fun to read about them again and to continue their stories. This book can stand alone, but would be more enjoyable if it was read after the first book. In this story, the main plot is about finding the new teacher for Sawrey School, and the mystery surrounding the potential candidate. I was lulled into a sense of peace and happiness reading this book and look forward to reading even more about these characters in the next installment.

After the death of her fiancé, children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter buys Hill Top Farm in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey. After a period of adjustment, Miss Potter and the villagers accommodate one another as she has the farmhouse renovated so she can live there when she isn't needed by her parents in London, particularly her mother who is always demands Beatrix help her with her "nothing" crisis.

Miss Potter buys sheep from local shepherd Ben Hornby, but when she arrives to collect them, she finds him dead with evidence proving he was murdered. Miss Potter also befriends sad Caroline, whose grandmother, Lady Longford doesn't want to know her since she disowned her granddaughter's father (her son) for not marrying the women she had picked for him. Caroline overhears the governess Ms. Marline plotting to pull a stunt with a person applying for the head school teacher position against her grandmother. Remembering Miss Potter's kindness on a previous excursion, she goes to her for help and she along with some of the locals set a trap to catch two very clever villains.

THE TALE OF THE HOLLY HOW is a charming adorable amateur sleuth tale set in a village where animals talk to help one another in the tradition of Sneaky Pie Brown. There is a sub-plot involving villagers sponsoring badger baiting (forcing badgers to fight with money bet on the outcome) until all the animals work together to break up this vile practice. Susan Witting Albert enables readers to see the world threw the magical eyes of Miss Beatrix Potter.

Harriet Klausner

If you do not have the wherewithal to visit the Lake Country in England this year, The Tale of Holly How will bring you the breezes, the sky, the hills [or hows], the people and the villages. Within this mostly gentle setting, we find Miss Potter continuing to refurbish and to restock Hill Top Farm amidst the drama of the death of Ben Hornby, the selection of a new head teacher for the tiny school, and the sad situation of Caroline, who has come to live with her grandmother at the manor.

Other smaller dramas take place not only in the human venue, but in that of the animals of the area as well. In spite of the humans [Big Ones] not understanding the universal animal language, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, horses and others talk among themselves and to the most understanding humans, who seem to catch on--sometimes. Bosworth Badger XVII, scholarly patriarch of Holly How, and Tuppenny, Beatrix Potter's self-effacing guinea pig, join forces to help resolve one of the mini-plots throughout the book. Rascal the dog finds an important clue leading to the apprehension of Ben's murderer.

My daughter and I share some of our more sophisticated books. She, my oldest granddaughter and I all read the Harry Potter series. I also exchange books with Audry, the oldest granddaughter. She has shared her Owl adventure series with me and more recently, her Warriors cat series. I'll be passing on The Tale of Holly How to her shortly since she enjoyed The Tale of Hill Top Farm. We have good discussions about plots, characters and, often, the folly of humans. We both agree that animals certainly do talk among themselves.

In the cottage tales genre, one can be assured that all will turn out right. Albert's give me pleasure and comfort for a few hours. However, do not for a moment assume that these stories are maudlin and insipid. Albert is a skillful writer who has created stories in a lovely setting that magically appeal to adults and young girls.

by Judith Helburn
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I love all the books in this series. Wish she would write faster.

I have enjoyed reading all of Susan Albert's books for years , but the new series based
on Beatrix Potter is a special delight. I love the characters and gentle picture of that time and place, and the animals are simply delightful. I especially like her imaginative creation of so many different kind of creatures. This is as good as Wind in the Willows, which is also a favorite of mine. I can hardly wait for the third book!

This book was completely satisfying and enjoyable from beginning to end. The previous reviewer has done an excellent job of summarizing the plot, so happily, I need not repeat that here. Suffice it to say that author Susan Wittig Albert hits, (and maintains) exactly the write tone for this gentle mystery. The selection of Beatrix Potter as the main character is an interesting choice, and I learned a lot more about her through reading this book. The other characters seem like real people, and although there are a number of them, I did not have any difficulty keeping track of them. What I really loved about this book is that it gave me the same kind of engrossed, enjoyable reading experience that I remember when reading children's books as a child, yet this book was written with adults in mind (though older children would no doubt enjoy it as well). Lovely descriptions of the English countryside, echoes of a more innocent time (yet with surprisingly contemporary relevance). I just loved reading this, and now look forward to reading the first book in the series. Apparently the author plans an eight-book series--great!!

THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW by Susan Wittig Albert is set after Beatrix Potter purchases Hill Top Farm. Few in the village understand that this quiet shy woman can manage her own affairs without a gentleman controlling her action.
Beatrix buys two ewes with their kids and goes to look them over before bring them to the farm, but while searching for the missing sheep she discovers the body of the old shepherd lying at the foot of a cliff.
Ben Hornby was not well like, but he was fair and well respected. It is soon evident that this death was no accident.
Though the villagers have their doubts about her, she manages to secure their cooperation to solve this terrible crime, while aiding the recovery of missing badgers that were kidnapped for a deadly game.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS.