Withering Heights (Ellie Haskell Mysteries, No. 12) [Mass Market Paperback]

Dorothy Cannell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

When her in-laws invite her to Yorkshire moors, Ellie can’t resist. The name “Cragstone House” just sounds so much like the delightfully musty manors she reads about in books! And so she and her husband set off for Yorkshire, accompanied by their irrepressible housekeeper and co-conspirator in crime solving, Mrs. Roxie Malloy. But things at Cragstone turn out far less idyllic than Ellie expected. First  the kindly cook, Mrs. Cake, suffers a mysterious fall down the stairs. Then a visiting vicar meets his death after drinking a cup of tea. Ellie has always thought it would be wonderful to be the heroine of a Gothic romance…but now she’s beginning to wonder: Will she and Roxie be able to solve the mystery and get out of Brontë country alive? Or has Ellie reached the tragic dead end of her own fairy tale?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Near the start of Cannell's witty 13th Ellie Haskell mystery (after 2002's The Importance of Being Ernestine), Ellie's precocious 13-year-old niece, Ariel Hopkins, shows up at the Haskells' house, Merlin Court, one stormy night. Ariel, who's read too many gothic novels, has made her way from far-away Yorkshire, where her father, Tom, and stepmother, Betty, after winning the lottery, bought an Elizabethan mansion dubbed by Ariel "Withering Heights." Ariel claims that her wicked stepmom is obsessed with finding the body of Nigel Gallagher, the mansion's previous owner, whom Betty believes was murdered by his wife, Lady Fiona. Meanwhile, Ellie's oddball housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, has wanted to mend fences with her estranged sister, Melody Tabby, who happens to live in the same town as the Hopkinses. So Ellie, husband Ben and Mrs. Malloy set off for Yorkshire to return Ariel to her parents and do a bit of investigating. The result is a funny, entertaining puzzler. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Ellie and Ben Haskell, along with their employee Mrs. Malloy, travel to Cragstone House in Yorkshire after Ariel Hopkins, daughter of Ben's cousin, Tom, asks for Ellie's help in investigating the strange, somewhat ghostly goings-on at the gothic manor. Tom and his wife, Betty, recently purchased the manor from the financially strapped Lady Fiona after they won the lottery. Betty is convinced Lady Fiona murdered her husband, who has disappeared. With the cook laid up with an injured ankle, Ben takes over the cooking, and Ellie handles the investigating. Ellie's life becomes more complicated when Ben meets up with an old girlfriend, and it seems the flame has been rekindled. Humor, quirky characters, and gothic underpinnings add to this eleventh in a series that will appeal to fans of Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity series, another family-centered British cozy. Sue O'Brien
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

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031294683X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312946838
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delightful and charming amateur sleuth, April 21, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Withering Heights (Ellie Haskell Mysteries, No. 12) (Hardcover)

With her three children spending some time at their grandparent's home, Ellie Haskell is looking forward to spending quality romantic time with her husband Ben without the interruptions that kids often bring. Alas, her idea of a romantic week is not to be because thirteen year old Ariel, the daughter of Ben's second cousin Tom Hopkins arrives on their doorstep. Her parents won the lottery and moved to Yorkshire in the town of Milton Moore where they bought Cragstone from a lady who didn't have the many to afford living there.

Ariel wants Ellie, Ben and their housekeeper Roxie Malloy to come to Cragstone House. Strange things are happening there like lights going on and off and doors found open. Ariel's step-mother Betty believes the former own Lady Fiona wants them out of the place because she killed her husband and buried him on the grounds. When they arrive at Ariel's new home, everyone tells her Betty's imagination is running away from her. Ellie senses evil in the air starting with Mr. Scrimshank, Lady Fiona and her husband's investment consultant who might be embezzling their funds. Mr. Gallagher's nanny dies and another death occurs which on the surface seem like accidents or natural deaths but Ellie feels there is more to it than meets the eye. She must be on the right track because someone tries to kill her, Betty and Ariel.

It has been a long time since Dorothy Cannell has written an Ellie Haskell book but was well worth the wait. WITHERING HEIGHTS is a delightful and charming amateur sleuth tale with a gothic atmosphere that make the house seem spooky. An entertaining sub-plot involves the beautiful Valeria who has come to take care of Nanny but seems more interested in Ben which make the heroine jealous. Readers will love the eccentric and quirky support cast and eagerly await the next Ellie Haskell mystery.

Harriet Klausner

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DELIGHTFUL WAY TO SPEND A RAINY EVENING., July 1, 2007

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Withering Heights (Ellie Haskell Mysteries, No. 12) (Hardcover)

I enjoy this particular genre and enjoy reading the writings of a very good story teller. With this work, I was quite satisfied on both counts. This is yet another installment in the Ellie Haskell Mystery Series and is indeed, as others have indicated, a good addition. Dorothy Cannell has mixed the cozy mystry well with the gothic romance here. Our lady sleuth and her wacky friend join again to solve a possible murder in a gothic house in Scotland. I am certainly not going into a plot line with this review, as others have done a wonderful job of that here. Rather I would like to comment on the author's characters and style. This book is filled with both. From Ellie Haskell's eccentric housekeeper, to the strange little girl that pops into their lives, we have wonderful array of characters that keep the story going and keep it interesting. (Note: The only slight criticism I might have of the book, is that there possible could be a few too many of these characters and at first they are sort of hard to track). I also enjoy the author's easy style and genuine humor. She, at times, seems to be poking fun at the genre of book, the characters, and indeed, herself. This is done in a low key way and is quite funny.

There is not graphic violece in this one, no torid love affairs, no mayham, just good clean fun. The author's syntax makes for easy reading and, as I noted above, she is a natural story teller. I cannot see how you could go wrong with this one.
D. Blankenship

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ghosts and romance, May 29, 2007

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Withering Heights (Ellie Haskell Mysteries, No. 12) (Hardcover)

First introduced to readers in 1984's THE THIN WOMAN, Ellie Haskell has since --- over the course of 11 delightfully cozy mysteries --- gained a husband, three children, a career and a real penchant for crime solving. But in WITHERING HEIGHTS, her 12th adventure, Ellie's old demons come back to haunt her in what could be her toughest case yet.

Ellie and her outrageously flamboyant housekeeper, Mrs. Roxie Malloy, share more than just the love of solving mysteries. They both love old-fashioned Victorian Gothic novels, the kind with "a young woman who leaps at the chance to become a governess in a decaying mansion where Something Unspeakable is shut away in the north tower and melancholy music drifts up from the crypt." Ellie also recently has begun sharing her love of Gothic romances with her husband Ben's young relative Ariel, a troubled girl who seems to find solace in the escapist fantasies. That is, until Ariel's own family wins the lottery and disappears, presumably to hide away from money-grubbing relatives.

One rainy night, though, Ariel herself shows up at Ellie's home, begging for relief from her stepmother Betty, who has grown obsessed with the idea that the ghost of their newly purchased manor house still haunts his old property. Ariel encourages Ellie and Ben to intervene, and they agree, especially when Ellie learns that the manor is located in the Yorkshire moors, a short drive from the Brontës' legendary home. By a great coincidence, it just happens that Mrs. Malloy's younger sister Melody, with whom she hasn't spoken in 40 years, also lives in the same Yorkshire village. Figuring that it's high time for a reconciliation, Roxie decides to tag along as well.

Of course, a road trip to a new village means introductions to all sorts of quirky characters, from the displaced dowager, Lady Fiona, to the aptly-named cook, Mrs. Cake. Pretty soon, Ellie finds herself knee-deep in all their secrets and in more than one mystery.

But one secret in particular is eating Ellie up inside and causing all her old self-doubts and self-loathing to rear their ugly heads. Who is Valeria, the lovely and accomplished woman who seems to know Ben? Was she the real love of Ben's life, lost long before he met Ellie? And could Val's reappearance and Ben's sneaky behavior have anything to do with the menacing prophecy that Mrs. Malloy receives? "[A] woman of my acquaintance whose first name begins with E should stop living in a dream world, seeing as her hubby's old girlfriend is going to show up and this time around she'll stop at nothing to get him."

Dorothy Cannell's mysteries always have been enjoyable to read, but they have had a tendency to become formulaic after a while, particularly with regards to Ellie's somewhat chaotic home life. Removing Ellie from her home base --- and from her children, who are out of the picture for the entire novel --- revitalizes the plot considerably, giving this 12th adventure a new freshness. It also has a legion of new characters for readers to learn, a feat that can be a bit daunting for those accustomed to the regular denizens of Chitterton Fells.

Cannell adeptly plays with Gothic conventions and expectations, and particularly with Ellie's tendencies to fall into those somewhat overblown romantic notions. Ellie's character development is also notable, as her growing insecurities with regard to Val lead her to question everything about herself and her comfortable life. Cannell's many readers needn't fret too much, though --- it's clear that nothing really bad is going to happen to Ellie, and liberal foreshadowing and clue-dropping early on in the novel will lead many to guess (some of) the secrets even before the literary sleuths do. But there's nothing wrong with that --- Cannell's mysteries appeal primarily due to their humor (particularly the at-times wickedly funny dialogue) and their reassurances that, at the end of the day, all's right in Ellie's world.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl