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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Animal Lovers will delight in this gentle mystery, November 14, 2004
Beatrix Potter is the heroine of this mystery, but not in the way that is popular lately: famous historical or fictional person is secretly a great detective. No, in this gentle mystery, Albert mixes fact with fiction and in telling of Miss Potter's first visit to Hill Top Farm as owner. There is no gruesome murder, no horrid secrets, no fearsome villain. Instead, there are a few missing items in the village of Near Sawrey that bring a ripple of disturbance to their (mostly) peaceful village. Miss Potter is not the detective, she doesn't seek out to find the missing items, nor does she use any deductive skills to solve the mysteries. She is merely the central point around which the story moves.
The thing that turns this from just the average village story, sprinkled with domestic mystery, to a delightful and charming story is the animals. Miss Potter brings here hedgehog, two bunnies and mouse with her. Also, the village has quite a cast of cats and dogs. What's even better-they talk! Not to humans, of course, but to each other. There conversations are recorded in italics, so the reader knows immediately which species is communicating. Albert uses it to make several amusing scenes where the animals are trying to tell the humans something, only to be told to stop meowing, or that there's no more fish, or that if they stop that noise they'll have to go outside. How shocked the village residents would be to discover that their pets made great detectives!
Another feature that makes this book so interesting is Miss Potter herself. Albert gives the reader glimpses of Miss Potters biography that made me sincerely want to read more. Luckily, Albert included a biographical not at the end, following Potter's life up to the point when the Hill Top Farm visit took place. I was interested enough, though, to want to know of Miss Potter, of what happens next, of when she does finally move in to Hill Top Farm. I was inspired to re-read Miss Potter's tales, as well, from the many mentions made of them.
I've used the word already, but "gentle" seems the best way to describe The Tale of Hill Top Farm. Pastoral, perhaps would also give the right impression; it is an escape from telephones and traffic and tv (and murder mysteries) to a slower time, when the loss of the Parish Register is a dreadful thing. Animal lovers will enjoy this book, though it might not be quite as satisfying to mystery lovers. Personally, I'm looking forward to the next of "The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter".
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Special Type of "Mystery", October 9, 2005
The Tale of Hill Top Farm is the first of a series which centers around the imagined life of Beatrix Potter, famed author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and many other beloved children's books. The facts of her life are adhered to: her growing literary success; her difficult and cold upper class parents; the death from a sudden onset leukemia of her fiance and editor; her purchase of a small farm in the English Lake Country. But, the events surrounding the "mystery" are Susan Wittig Albert's contribution - the excellent description of the countryside and the times (later 1800's), the people, the speech patterns,etc. are done "in the manner of" Beatrix Potter...and well done.
Accustomed as we are to rip-tide quick action packed thrillers, it takes a bit to switch to Ms. Potter's/Ms. Albert's 19th century charm and pace. Don't be put off by the need to "switch gears"...it is a pleasure to have a different pace to a mystery. And the characters, including animals a la Potter, are wonderful.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cute Country Tale, January 4, 2006
This book was listed as a mystery and, although it begins with a suspicious death, this is not a whodunit. Rather, The Tale of Hill Top Farm is a country tale that follows the life of Beatrix Potter and the townsfolk. There is a very interesting group of people in the book and they are all fictional (with the exception of Beatrix and William Heelis). Basically, Beatrix purchases the Hill Top Farm in the small village of Near Sawrey, and the book follows her interactions and struggles. It is weird - at first - to read a fictional book starring a real-life person; plus, the small animals in the book have spoken lines. The animals talk to the humans, but they can't be heard except to other animals. While some reviewers were put-off by the talking animals, I thought it was a sweet addition, and the animals actually help move the plot along. The story is rather `slow' in the sense that there is no action, really. This is a character-driven book in the small country, so you won't zip through this book at the same pace as an adventure or typical mystery. The book reminded me (a bit) of the Mitford series by Jan Karon, but without the religious messages. Overall, the book is very charming and I'll continuing reading the series.
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