Book Number 3: "Withering Heights" by Dorothy Cannell (261 pages)

After a couple of rather "heavy" books, this week I opted for a much lighter-weight read. I enjoy mysteries... especially English ones. On my family's annual trip to Maine this year, we dropped into a sweet little bookstore in Searsport.... The Left Bank. While purchasing a couple of books, I noticed a sign promoting an evening with local mystery writer, Dorothy Cannell. I knew I wasn't going to make it to the reading but I couldn't resist picking up her latest mystery....this one. She's written quite a few books with titles like: "The Trouble with Harriet", "The Importance of Being Ernestine" and "Bridesmaids Revisited". A bit too cutesy.... yes... but exactly what I expected and needed.... likable sleuth (female), with her quirky side-kick, lots of amateur detective banter, and of course the mysterious death of an English gentleman.

A feature in these English mysteries that I simply can't resist is a quaint English village setting.... this one was deep in Yorkshire.... and, to top it off, the whole mystery was hosted in an intriguing old English manor house where the former owner had been murdered and a set of other questionable "accidents" was continuing to occur.

Through a rather odd set of occurrences, amateur sleuth Ellie Haskell and her trusty housekeeper Roxy Malloy..... end up in the manor house of a cousin of Ellie's husband who had recently bought the house after winning big in the lottery. Ellie's husband (a book-writing chef) is recruited to cater the tea the new owner of the house is giving for the village. The original owner of the house has died under mysterious circumstances.... in yet another favorite English mystery feature of mine, a seance is held where the murder victim appears and begs the participants to find his murderer.

This is not ground-breaking work but it is an entertaining bit of fluff. Everything you'd want in an English mystery is here..... attractive female amateur sleuth with her trusty companion in crime solving, beautiful English countryside, satisfying banter between characters - (especially Ellie and Roxy), and after a few little plot twists, (and another murder), a satisfactory conclusion with the mystery solved.