Customer Reviews

This Old Souse

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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

This series has been going downhill rapidly, but this one was the absolute pits.

Judith's excuse that she "likes people" has long been a lame excuse for getting her involved in murders and having people confide their deepest, darkest secrets out of the clear blue sky. But in this book, it just stretched the imagination too much.

Renie has been obsessed with a house since she was a child. Suddenly, 40 years later, she redevelops her obsession, mentions it to Judith, and brings her over to see the house. Next thing you know, Judith is showing up there on her own and gets involved in a murder mystery. She then proceeds to demand information on the murder from the cops, find lame excuses to show up at the house constantly, stalks the family members asking personal questions that are none of her business, and finally, breaks into the house in the middle of the night to satisfy her curiosity. And when all is said and done, the cops don't so much as arrest her on the breaking and entering charge, because she smiles warmly at them while telling her story.

As the series has continues to regress, so have the characters. Judith has always been an annoying, nosy buttinsky, but she's crossed the line to unbearable. Renie has gone from mildly humorous to downright idiotic. Gertrude, who used to be the best characters in the series, has become a cranky afterthought. At times, it almost seems like Mary Daheim is going for the slapstick of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plus/Lula/Grandma Mazur, only she's failing miserably. Even the secondary characters, such as Phyliss, Mike and the Rankers, have gone over the top to the point that the whole lot of them come off looking like morons.

It's time for Ms. Daheim to stick a fork in this series and concentrate on her Alpine series. While that one is also starting to go downhill the longer it goes on, it's still better than the garbage this series has become.

The owner of the popular bed and breakfast Hillside Manor, Judith McMonigle Flynn is having a nice day when her cousin Renie asks her to go to the old neighborhood to see Moonfleet, a beautifully looking home badly in need of repairs. The owners of the home have lived there for over five decades but nobody has ever really talked to them. They keep to themselves and have their food delivered. Their sister Sally lives with them but she is as reclusive as they are.

While casing the premises, Judith and Renie meet the dairy man who tells them he never sees the occupants of Moonfleet. A UPS truck delivers a package to them leaving it outside their home. He tells the cousins that once a year on the same date the package is delivered to that address. When Judith goes shopping, she finds the murdered body of the dairy man in the trunk of her car. The mystery surrounding Moonfleet becomes very personal to the cousins so they seek answers.

The latest Bed-and-Breakfast mystery is a great amateur sleuth story due mainly to the heroine. She has to keep her husband from finding out about her investigation, find her lost precious cat and cope with the marital woes of her son and her daughter in law while solving a mystery. This is a fabulous book in a fantastic mystery series. Mary Daheim deserves a career achievement award for her continuous high quality and unique originality.

Harriet Klausner

When cousins Judith and Renie smell a mystery you can guarantee that trouble is not far behind. This time is no different. When Renie's interest hones in on an old Spanish villa situated on Moonfleet Street, Judith tries to stay focused on her B&B. But then the villa's milkman ends up dead and in her trunk! So Judith gets sucked into the mystery of the old villa also.

The house, owned by the Bland family since WWII, has not changed in sixty years. The cousins are determined to find out why, as well as learn just how the milkman ended up dead in Judith's trunk. Better yet, if he was not a milkman, then just WHO was he?

**** A slow start, but true to all mysteries it quickly grabs you and pulls you in. Once I got into it, I was lost in the follies of these cousins and all the humor they leave in their wakes. A definite read for mystery fans! ****

Reviewed by K. Blair for Huntress Reviews.

When her cousin mentions an old house, B&Bmanager Judith McMonigle quickly becomes obsessed, interviewing the milkman, the deliveryman, and just about everyone else in the neighborhood. It turns out that the house is inhabited, but virtually no one ever sees the inhabitants. While snooping around Judith leaves her car for a few minutes--and comes back to find a body in her trunk. As an official suspect, she feels obligated to continue her investigation, finally breaking into the house in the middle of the night.

THIS OLD SOUSE never quite takes off. Unsympathetic characters and excessive reliance on coincidence repeatedly jar the reader out of the story. Author Mary Daheim relies on reader loyalty to a long-established series for momentum to carry the story forward rather than on plotting or characterization. Although it was well-enough written to persuade me to read to the end, I just never got into this one.

I very much enjoyed the earlier Daheim story I read. I hope THIS OLD SOUSE is an exception. For me, at least, this one didn't click.

Judith's cousin Renie asks her to accompany her to her old neighborhood. She wants to take a look at an old house on Moonfleet that has always intrigued her. It has always seemed deserted.

Judith's husband Joe is out of town and she can get away from her Bed & Breakfast for a little while, she agrees. When they arrive, they run into an old mailman that Renie had run ins with years ago. They learn that the house isn't deserted. People do live there. They get mail, milk and packages delivered.

The milkman tells them that Dick and Jane Bland, along with Jane's spinster sister, Sally, live there.

Judith comes back alone one day to get a better look. She parks her car in the alley behind on the house and gets out. She finds out that they get one UPS package a year from Austria. Finally she goes on with her errands. At the grocery store, she opens the car trunk to load her bags and finds the dead milkman from the Moonfleet house.

Of course, she is a suspect. Her car is impounded. Renie comes to pick her up.

On top of all this, Judith's son Mike and his wife Kristen have split up. Neither Joe nor Judith can understand this. Mike and their two boys go to stay with Uncle Al until Kristin can get her stuff out and head to her parents'.

Judith and Renie must uncover the truth before Joe returns. They end up getting themselves into much hot water before they can sort everything out.

The author has done a fabulous job of creating these characters. All of them are terrific. I love reading books in this series. They are entertaining and there is always a good mystery for them to unravel!

I highly recommend this book and series.

Renie Jones has been obsessed for years with a house near her childhood home and gets her cousin, Bed and Breakfast owner Judith McMonigle Flynn, to visit the house with her. Judith has solved a few mysteries in her past and senses one now: why are the owners, Dick and Jane Bland, never seen? Why isn't Sally, Jane's sister who also lives there, ever seen? Why is there a mysterious package delivered to the house the same time every year? Judith's curiosity causes her to become a murder suspect when a body turns up in her car trunk - a body directly related to the Bland house.

"This Old Souse" is a very humorous but loosely plotted mystery. It's as if Mary Daheim had the basic idea of a story involving mysterious occupants of a house, wasn't sure how to get Judith and Renie to the house plausibly, but liked the idea so much that she decided to go ahead and have fun with it. And fun she does have, starting with the improbable names of Dick, Jane, and Sally. She delights in creating over the top characters, some of which can be fun, but some are totally unbelievable like the incompetent mailman and insensitive receptionist at the vet's office. If you've never read a book in this series, Judith and Renie can be hard to take at first. Judith claims to be interested in people, but she often comes across as just being nosy and expects people to confide in her even if they've just met for the first time. Renie can be annoying too, pushing her way around. Gertrude, Judith's ancient mother, has been abrasive in past books, but Daheim tones her down quite a bit in this book.

Despite the awkward setup, the mystery itself has some nice moments, although about two thirds of the way into the book I figured out what was in the mysterious package left on the porch. Daheim does rely a bit too much on coincidence (Judith just happens to talk with the murder victim shortly before he is killed and his body is left in her car, which conveniently has a tricky trunk latch). But there are some really nice twists in the story that will keep the reader guessing who the murderer is.

"This Old Souse" is a good book for readers who like a nice, humorous, if light mystery.

This is the first book I have written by Ms. Daheim, so I may not know the characters well enough to understand why they would act like this. The fact that a woman would stake-out a house, interview the milkman (where are there milkmen anymore?), the mailman and the delivery man makes Judith sound demented. Then she parks her car and spies on the house from the bushes and is coincidently there when the package which arrives ONCE a year is delivered--WHAT? THEN she and her cousin go in and talk to one of the residents just because they want to--I couldn't take any more. I like more motivation for actions. I like SOME small amount of motivation other than, "I'm interested" before a heroine stalks and harrasses people.