10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as previous books in series, March 2, 2005
I have read all of the previous entries in the Bed & Breakfast series and enjoyed them. This one I find has too many things that really wouldn't happen. I'm a few years younger than Judith and Renie and would never consider breaking into a house for any reason. There are just too many situations in this book that are unrealistic or rely too much on coincidences. Judith drives past a store and stops to buy flowers and the grocery order for the Blands just happens to be there waiting to be delivered. Too many situations like that make the book rather tiresome. Also at one point Sweetums, the cat, is brought to the vet after biting a guest at the B&B and the vet determines the cat does not have rabies. Now the only way to determine rabies, unless Sweetums had a rabies tag, is to actually kill the cat. So that was a little unbelieveable to anyone who actually has pets. I read the whole book because I did want to unravel the mystery of the Bland family, but don't think it is up to Mary Daheim's previous books.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not up to the rest of the series, November 18, 2004
I really like this series, but think this is a weaker offering than some of the others. Mary Daheim can be really funny and the characters are lovable exaggerations, but with plenty of human foibles to interest the reader as well as amuse. In this book, though, it seemed as if the author were writing with only part of her attention on her work. The plot and the characters' behavior seemed to repeat themselves from the other books, and the machinations to move the plot along were tiring and too contrived (how many reasons can Judith find to return to the Blands' house?). The strong point of this series has been the believability, just a little skewed, of the characters, but this time, they are almost irritating. Overall, it lacked the freshness I've found in the other offerings in this series.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
BED AND BREAKFAST MYSTERY SERVED WITH LAUGHTER, July 27, 2004
For those who like their mystery delivered with a light touch, Mary Daheim's back with the 20th in her highly readable Bed and Breakfast series. Of course, protagonists are the deft and daffy pseudo detective cousins Judith and Renie.
As an interesting aside, author Daheim has said that she bases her characters on family members. Guess who Renie is? That's right, Mary herself. And Judith is based on Mary's cousin Judy. At last report all relations have a great sense of humor and enjoy seeing what this writer will come up with next - as do readers.
With This Old Souse Renie returns to her former neighborhood in Seattle and B & B hostess Judith. As women will, the two began talking about anything and everything when the subject of an old, rather creepy Spanish villa came up. It seems the manse on Moonfleet Street has been abandoned, vacant for many years. They remember it from high school days; why not pop over there and see how it looks now.
Much to their surprise, despite its appearance, the house has been lived in since the mid 1940s by a family, the Blands - Dick and Jane and her unmarried sister, Sally. The inquisitive pair find out more from a friendly, voluble milkman who tells them he's been delivering milk there for ages. The mailman can't contribute much to this puzzle as he's never seen the family. Their groceries are delivered, and they pay all their bills in cash which is left in the milk box.
This is more than enough to pique the girls' interest, but they decide the Blands are simply eccentric - that is until Judith opens her car trunk to find a dead body. The recently departed? The milkman. Now, things are more than serious, they're sinister. As they begin to investigate further Judith and Renie find that the Blands may be more than they an handle.
As always, Mary Daheim keeps readers laughing and guessing until the last page.
- Gail Cooke
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