Sins Out of School (Dorothy Martin Mysteries, No. 8) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jeanne M. Dams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2003

An Agatha Award-winning author

A missing schoolteacher, a murdered man, a troubled child, and a call for help were difficulties Dorothy Martin most definitely hadn't foreseen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A traditional American Thanksgiving dinner unexpectedly leads Dorothy Martin, now nearly 70 and settled in the medieval town of Sherebury with her retired police constable husband, Alan Nesbit, into a murder case as chilling as the British weather. This is Agatha-winner Dams's seventh mystery to feature the gutsy and intuitive amateur sleuth (after 2001's To Perish in Penzance). On Thanksgiving day, Dorothy takes nine-year-old Miriam Doyle into her home and heart after the girl's mother, a teacher, is accused of stabbing the girl's father to death. Encouraged by the police and advised by Alan, Dorothy investigates the murder. The local cathedral, quirky characters, erratic trains and lots of tea all figure in this traditional British cozy with a unique twist-an American Miss Marple as heroine.and other mysteries in her Hilda Johannson series.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

"When people see a gray-haired woman in a silly hat, they tend to dismiss her as a harmless crank," says sixtyish Dorothy Martin, an American who has lived for years in the ancient British hamlet of Sherebury, most recently with her retired detective husband. A day spent as a substitute teacher's aide leads her to Amanda, the teacher: closed, terrified, and soon accused of the murder of her monstrously repressive husband. Dorothy cannot keep out of it, especially when she meets the couple' s intense nine-year-old daughter. An estranged father who is a major public figure; a religious sect leached of all kindness; and a lot of bad accounting keep Dorothy on track, even as she tries to produce an American Thanksgiving in England and not tread too heavily on the toes of the investigating officers, erstwhile colleagues of her spouse. Dorothy may feel--and act--her age, but she is energetic and forthright, and an attractive and interesting companion even when the threads of the mystery unravel a bit. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 389 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (April 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786250933
• ISBN-13: 978-0786250936
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,030,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost 4 Stars, February 5, 2004

By 

Louis M. Perdue (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sins Out of School (Dorothy Martin Mysteries, No. 8) (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoy this light mystery series. I find Dorothy Martin interesting - mature, yet sometimes silly enough to make her not stuffy. This is the eighth in the series and one of the better ones. A schoolteacher's husband is killed and she, along with her young daughter, are having trouble coping with all the pressures that would go along with that. In steps Dorothy to help her both with the coping and with the solving of the mystery. Her investigation takes her a few times to London, which provides a break from the smalltown descriptions that normally accompany a book in this series. There were two reasons I did not give this book 4 stars: I was able to figure out the culprit long before the end of the book and I find the character of Dorothy's husband, Alan, a 2-dimensional character and wish he would be fleshed out a bit. But, this is a quite enjoyable read and I would recommend it, particularly to those that have read the earlier books in the series.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant cozy, November 20, 2003

By 

Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sins Out of School (Dorothy Martin Mysteries, No. 8) (Mass Market Paperback)

This seemed to me to be one of the better books in this Dorothy Martin series. The plotting and characters were well done and the story moved along quickly and evenly. The plot opens with a totally submissive mother and young daughter, one or both of whom appear to have murdered the domineering husband/father. They don't ask for Dorothy Martin's help but they get it anyway. She and her ex-Chief Constable husband work on the case, tracking it through a self-righteous religious sect and almost to the British parliament.

The writer does two tricky things well. She manages to write reasonably accurately about life in an small English cathedral town from the point of view of an American, and she has two people working as a detective team without turning one of them into a buffoon (as in the Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot novels). She has also presented a fairly long series without becoming formulaic.

If you enjoy this genre, you'll probably like this book, so curl up beside the fire and enjoy, and share it with a friend.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Clever Diversion, April 5, 2003

By 

Mamalinde "mamalinde" (Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sins Out of School (Dorothy Martin Mysteries, No. 8) (Hardcover)

The story begins with a Thanksgiving Celebration in the heart of a British Cathedral town. Dorothy Martin, American Chatterbox with arthritic knees and the new wife of former Chief Constable Alan Nesbit, is begged to fill in for a teacher during a flu epidemic. While doing an admirable job as a substitute teacher, she becomes aware of bit of oddness and suddenly finds herself in the midst of a very unusual murder case. Jeanne Dams does an EXCELLENT sense of setting in her cozy mysteries, and the detective work is plausible. The Dorothy Martin character with her wacky hats and nosy questions does get on my nerves just a bit, but I like her anyway. The religious angle to the book was well set out and quite interesting and the characters were ones the reader could care about.