Customer Reviews

The Tale of Hawthorn House: The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter

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This series of Susan Wittig Albert's is charming and sweet. It is definitely a cozy mystery and one that you will enjoy, although not the type that will keep you up at night to finish it. The entire series has ran much the same. While the characters are a lot of fun, the plot tends to be a bit slow and gets sidetracked on a lot of other little things. The use of the talking animals is not badly done (in fact it was one of the issues that original worried me about this series, but I found I actually enjoyed), but some of the animal sidelines get a little lengthly and irrelevant (Jemima Puddle-duck and the fox, for instance). This story involves no murder, rather an abandoned baby. These are a great starter series for a young mystery reader - there is absolutely nothing shocking in the story and it is all very clean. Albert certainly has fun alluding to the eventual marriage of Beatrix Potter to Will Heelis in this book as well. There is plenty here to enjoy, but it is definitely a warm mystery, not a scary or thrilling one. The plot does have an interesting twist at the end to add to the story, though, as throughout most of the book, you think you know who did what, but it turns out to be something different.

If you are a fan of Beatrix Potter you have already read the first 3 books in this series AND have seen the film "Miss Potter"! If not I would suggest you begin with the open mind and heart of a child and read this book with the abandonment of conventional ideas. Animals speak, humans listen, mysteries occur, mouth-watering desserts are served and the villages will become home. I have reluctantly left the last book and wish to return. Jan Karon and Susan Albert have both created a haven for readers to dwell in and forget 9-11, Iran and money problems. You will love this style of writing if you remember to "let go and enjoy". Start with the first book - and when you are finished this series move on to the mystery series Ms. Albert has written. She is a writer worth the time and money.

This is Susan Wittig Albert's fourth Beatrix Potter mystery (after 2006's The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood) and it's a charming addition to the series. Beatrix, to her profound surprise, finds a lovely baby girl left on at doorstep of her Tree Top Farm. Unbeknownest to all, Baby Flora was stolen from her teenage mother, Emily, by a stange old lady, Mrs. Underthewall. Emily, agast at the theft of her baby, and a bit muddled in the head, takes this as an omen, and decides to leave her life as a maid and runs off to London to begin a new and exciting life. Beatrix suspects the child of having gypsy origins and proceeds to investigate the abandonment of the baby. Capt. Miles Woodcock and his sister, Dimity, temporarily give Flora a new home, while leaving Beatrix to solve the mystery of her old one. Meanwhile, the animal characters also have issues and problems to solve. Jemima Puddleduck broods over a nest of long overdue eggs; Reynard the Fox, smitten by Jemima, struggles with his unnatural and unforseen love for Jemima; and the whole village is talking about a marriage between Beatrix and the highly eligible Captain Woodcock, and his sister, Dimity, and the highly unsuitable Major Kittdrige. Meanwhile, on a business trip to London, Beatrix accidently meets Emily and gets to the bottom of the mystery of the stolen baby. This charming book with its whimsical blend of mystery, romance and the cozy descriptions of English village life and Beatrix Potter's Tree Top Farm, will delight all cozy mystery lovers. I suggest that if you haven't read the other 3 books in the series, you begin with the first one and proceed happily through to the present volume.

That's an oh-so-polite way of saying that the residents of the Land Between the Lakes have a tendency to gossip. But they have a lot to talk about.

The theme of this fourth episode of The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter is motherhood. A foundling, Baby Flora, is deposited on Miss Potter's stoop by one of the Hawthorn Folk, who have an affection for young bairns. Where did she come from? Whose daughter is she? Why was she abandoned? How can the errant mother be located? Who will take care of her in the meantime? At Hill Top Farm, Jemima Puddle-duck has been sitting on a nest for several months. Are those eggs hers? If not, where did she get them? What will happen when her ducklings finally hatch? And whatever became of that fox who was trying to seduce her a while back? Something must be in the air in that part of England in 1908, for several individuals who are not part of a pairing are beginning to look around at the options, making decisions about whom they might like to spend more time with. Who will propose marriage in this book? Will everyone find a chair before the music stops?

As in the previous books in this series, Susan Wittig Albert shows her adeptness at weaving plotlines between the humans and the animals. The story is told in the all-knowing view of an omniscient narrator, who uses "I" and the royal "we" in asides to the readership, just as Beatrix herself did in her own tales. Fans who have grown disgruntled with Rita Mae Brown's mysteries would do well to make the leap to this strong series.

Family. It's all about family. Beatrix Potter can only have short visits to her farm because her parents don't approve and they need her to run their home in London. Her brother Bertram Potter has escaped to his own farm but he can't escape all the demands of his parents either. Jemima Puddle-duck wants to hatch her own eggs and have children to cherish. Dimity Woodcock has put her chance of love out of her mind because she knows her brother won't approve. A woman made a mistake and a baby is left on Beatrix Potter's doorstep, needing a home. But in August 1908, women didn't always have the freedom to do choose their own path, pick their own mates, or have a career. The Tale of Hawthorn House is a tale of an abandoned child and the impact it has on the residents of New Sawrey.

Once again Albert has crafted a tale that lets us enjoy the English countryside of the Beatrix Potter paintings and the inhabitants of Near Sawrey and its environs. The omniscient point of view allows us to enjoy observing everyone in town and yet be outside the story. This viewpoint can annoy some people but I find it, when used as here as a guide to the story with occasional asides to fill us in, to be amusing and in a way adding to the comfort of the story. There's the story of the humans and that of the animals that populate a village surrounded by farms. Sometimes the threads of their stories cross and affect each other but only the readers get to see how these two tales interact with each other.

The central mystery of who is the baby's mother and why was the child abandoned would normally be moot as the child would be placed in a work house and raised there. Luckily, this child was left on Beatrix Potter's doorstep and thus has an advocate. This is a look at the times, putting faces to the beliefs and prejudices of those times -- that some of those beliefs haven't changed much in the intervening years, or at least not for some people.

Families are something all of us can relate to in one way or another and in The Tale of Hawthorn House. There are the families we're born into, the families that we make for ourselves, and the families that we hope to achieve. Ideals, idealism, roles, and attitudes are important but, at heart, it's all about families.

I have truly enjoyed all the stories in this particular series. The characters (both human and animal) are all likeable and well-developed. The mysteries are gentle, and a pleasant change from the stress, blood, and guts of the average new mystery produced. The only other author who I have found to have written anything in a similar vein is Van Reid in his "Moosepath League" novels (also excellent). I hope Ms. Albert keeps these coming, and often! True quality!

The Tale of Hawthorn House: The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter (Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries)

Albert and the Folk score one for the grownups. This "tale" is a melt-in-the-mouth, high-class bon-bon that has one reaching for the next one out of the box. It is genteel excitement with a few catch-on-quick puzzles. Enjoy.

During the time of the Summer Fete, deep and riveting descriptions abound related to the community and countryside in the cozy English Lake District village of Sawrey. Someone must account for romance, mystery, gypsies, a haunted manor house, the Thorn Folk, animals, and a baby. None does it better than Beatrix Potter, who is cast into the roll of amateur sleuth when the aforesaid baby Flora is left on her doorstep.

The basket left on Beatrix's doorstep includes not only Flora, but a note, a sprig of hawthorn, and a scarab ring. These clues indeed lead Beatrix on a formidable chase to uncover the identity of the mother and help settle the baby into a loving home.

Beatrix seeks the assistance of Dimity Woodcock, who is taking care of Flora. Dimity soon falls in love with the baby. Her brother and Justice of the Peace, Captain Miles Woodcock, is seeking the mother of the infant to bring her to justice, while also seeking a suitable husband for his sister. Conflict is rampant in the Woodcock household over what justice will be brought to bear on Flora's mother-and who Dimity will marry.

Theories flourish amongst the not-so-tight-lipped villagers and in the animal kingdom. These side stories between the humans and animals are skillfully interwoven throughout the story.

For those who have loved Beatrix Potter and her stories, Susan Wittig Albert continues to captivate the reader with the adventures of Beatrix Potter.

Armchair Interviews says: Delight your imagination and challenge your wit as you trip down fantasy lane with Beatrix and friends.

Wonderful book, as all of Susan Alberts books are. If you haven't started this series, don't delay, they are great.

Beatrix Potter loves her home in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey even though she can only get away from her family's London mansion for a few weekends at a time. Her parents expect her to take care of them in their old age and her mother wants her around all the time to cater to her whims. She is there for the summer fete and is very surprised to find a baby in a box with a scarab ring left by her door. She sees an elderly woman walking away and levitating over her wall.

She is unable to keep the baby because her brother is coming for a visit and then she has to go to London on business. She gives the baby to Dimity Woodcock who falls in love with baby Flora. Her brother captain Miles Woodcock is the justice of the peace for the Sawrey district and is determined to find the mother and hold her accountable for abandoning the baby. In the meantime, Major Christopher Kitteredge, who had a scandal attached to him, asks Dimity to marry him. Dimity doesn't want to go against her brother who opposes the relationship but she has loved the major all her life. She asks Beatrix for advice; and the lonely spinster is determined to help her friend as well as find out who the mother of baby Flora is so that the major and Dimity can adopt her.

Fans of Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy series will thoroughly enjoy this book in which the animals talk to each other in a totally hilarious subplot about who steals egg and sits on them for two months when they are supposed to hatch in twenty-eight days. This is a gentle whimsical tale with a nice dose of a mystery mixed into the cozy storyline.

Harriet Klausner