Natural Enemy. [Hardcover]

JANE. LANGTON (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Ticknor & Fields, New York; 1St Edition edition (1982)
• ASIN: B001IKOO1C
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

More About the Author

I've written an awful lot of books. There are eleven for middle-aged children, mostly fantasies. The ones that have hung around the longest are "The Diamond in the Window" and "The Fledgling." The seventh in the series called "The Hall Family Chronicles" came out last spring, "The Mysterious Circus," and I've just finished writing an eighth, "The Dragon Tree."

All eighteen mysteries for adults have the same protagonists, Homer and Mary Kelly. Mary is the sensible one, but I confess I like Homer's rhapsodic flights of fancy. Most of their adventures happen in Massachusetts, but I've also sent them to farflung places I wanted to visit myself, like Florence, Oxford and Venice. Most of the novels are illustrated with my own drawings, but "The Escher Twist" has ten prints by the mysterious Dutch artist M. C. Escher, and the two historical mysteries are illustrated with nineteenth-century photographs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Series!, August 12, 2007

By 

N. Cantwell (Ewing, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Natural Enemy: A Homer Kelly Mystery (Paperback)

I just finished rereading this book and I think I enjoyed it even more the second time. I absolutely adore Jane Langton's books. I have every one, including her series for children. I find the books enjoyable on so many levels. There's the mystery and you want to find out how the "bad guy" will finally be exposed. But then there is this whole other level. The books make you see the world in a different way. This book reminded me on "Charloote's Web", in that a spider's life is examined throughout the story. I just loved it. If you do too, read "Dark Nantucket Noon". That is my favorite!

4.0 out of 5 stars My first Homer Kelly mystery, July 29, 2006

By 

J. Burge "mystery lover" (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Natural Enemy: A Homer Kelly Mystery (Paperback)

I chose this book at the Library many years ago and liked it so much that I always look for a new Jane Langdon mystery and I am never disappointed when I find one. I have enjoyed following Homer and Mary as they grow older with me living life with humor and tolerance. I have loved the drawings found in each novel. May there be many more in this series in the future.

1 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time on this one., August 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Natural Enemy (Audio Cassette)

I am an avid fan of murder mystery books on tape so I looked forward eagerly to listening to my unabridged copy of "Natural Enemy".

From the beginning, the story was sluggish....so much so that the only reason I kept listening to it was that I'd paid for it and I didn't want to have wasted my money! Unfortunately, I am now finished with the book and find that I have wasted my time AND my money.

Some of the characters in the book are interesting and the "idea" of the story has some merit but it is way too drawn out and convoluted for my taste. Since the main character of the book is fascinated with entymology and the like, there are tedious descriptions of spiders, webs, flowers, trees in the nearby meadow, ad nauseum, that are related to situations in the story but are too contrived to be interesting.

I could have stopped reading at any moment and would not have cared what happened to any of the book's characters.
To be honest, I stopped just short of the end of the book. I couldn't take any more.

I don't usually leave negative reviews but this book has really earned it.