Aunt Dimity's Good Deed (Aunt Dimity Series #3)

by Nancy Atherton

Overview

The third in the bestselling and beloved Aunt Dimity series. Watch out for Nancy Atherton's latest, Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom, coming in July 2018 from Viking!

Nancy Atherton's growing number of fans will certainly be delighted by Aunt Dimity's latest appearance in the honey-colored English cottage she bequeathed to her "niece," Lori Shepherd. Thanks to Aunt Dimity, Lori's life has taken on fairy-tale proportions: she's financially set for life and happily married or so she thinks. When Lori's plans for a second honeymoon to England with her workaholic husband fall through, she begrudgingly takes along her father-in-law who promptly disappears, leaving behind a mysterious note.  Inspired and guided by the ghost of Aunt Dimity and her inimitable blue journal, Lori's search for the elderly gentleman turns into a harrowing mission to uncover a centuries-old family secret complicated by mistaken identities, falsified deeds, family feuds, and Lori's unseemly attraction to her husband's beguiling English cousin. In a delightful chase that takes her all over the English countryside, Lori discovers the true meaning of marital bliss, and Nancy Atherton's fans, new and old, will savor a masterpiece of old-fashioned fun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140258813
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/1998
Series:	Aunt Dimity Series , #3
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	410,794
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.80(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nancy Atherton is the bestselling author of twenty-two Aunt Dimity Mysteries. The first book in the series, Aunt Dimity's Death, was voted "One of the Century's 100 Favorite Mysteries" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Nancy Atherton and the Aunt Dimity series

"Atherton smoothly blends history, village life, and the otherworldly."—Publishers Weekly

"Every scene is superbly crafted to perfection. Even if you have not read all the books in this series, I have not, you can enjoy and immerse yourself in this cozy mystery.” —Open Book Society

"I love the graceful style... the sense of tight-knit community, characters who aren’t afraid to be themselves, and, the unique paranormal element...I only wish I had learned about this series earlier." —Gotta Write Network

"In the realm of the cozy mystery, there are few series that can hold a candle to Atherton's Aunt Dimity series." —everydayebook.com
 
"Atherton is a superb writer who brings a lot of charm and wit to her story." —Suspense Magazine

"Always a charming read, the Aunt Dimity series is just right for when life gets too hectic and you need to slow down a bit." —Deadly Pleasures Magazine

"Let Nancy Atherton and Aunt Dimity remind you of the reason you got hooked on books in the first place. I promise you will be scouring bookstores for more of the series after you give it a taste." —CrimeCritics.com

From the Publisher

If you're looking for arch, cancel the trip to Chartres. Here's the third in a pointedly cute series featuring the ghost of "Aunt" Dimity, the dead friend of heroine Lori Shepherd's mother. Lori plans a second honeymoon for herself and her overworked husband, lawyer Bill Willis, in the idyllic English cottage Lori inherited from Dimity (Aunt Dimity's Death, 1992). When a case keeps Bill in Boston, Lori heads overseas with her father-in-law, William Willis Sr. He suddenly disappears, taking Lori's pink flannel bunny, Reginald, and leaving an enigmatic note about family business. Further clues come from Dimity's ghost via her leather-bound journal, in which Lori observes Dimity's handwriting materialize on the page. Lori tracks Willis Sr., accompanied by her friend Emma's precocious 12-year-old stepdaughter, Nell, and Nell's teddy bear, Bertie, through the picturesque countryside to London. There she finds the British Willisesincluding sexy Gerald, efficient Lucy and bumbling Arthurwho are at odds, their family law firm in disarray. The plot hangs on an 18th-century feud that divided the family, resulting in murder and theft, and leading to present-day blackmail; the villain is easily identified. At the end of this amusing but silly tale, Bill and pregnant Lori move to England, delighting Aunt Dimity's ghost. Author tour. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Atherton's third serial title once again mixes mystery with a bit of gothic romance. Because her husband has a last-minute conflict, pretty Lori ends up at Aunt Dimity's English country cottage with her father-in-law instead. When he disappears, Lori searchesand finds an old family secret. For fans.

Library Journal

Another foray into fantasyland with rare-book expert Lori Shepherd (Aunt Dimity and the Duke, 1994, etc.), the heiress to a charming English cottage and a considerable sum of money who has been married for two years to Bill Willis, a Boston lawyer of aristocratic lineage. All of this has come to Lori through the ghostly good offices of Aunt Dimity, long in her grave but always on hand when needed. Lori and Bill live in the ancestral mansion of Bill's father/law partner William. When Bill's workload keeps him from a planned trip to England with Lori, Willis Sr. takes his place, but he vanishes soon after the pair's arrival at Lori's cottage in Finch, having excused himself in the middle of a chess game with Nell, the precocious daughter of Lori's neighbors Emma and Derek Harris. Willis, Lori suspects, has seized on the trip as a chance to make peace with the English branch of the family, long estranged over some ancient feud. Lori, accompanied by Nell and guided by Aunt Dimity, keeps missing Willis as she follows in his wake, but along the way she meets the younger generation of Willis cousins—Gerald, Arthur, and Lucy—partners in a London law firm recently decimated by the departure of its senior members. Now Gerald has also left, in a cloud of rumors about an ugly, aging mistress and other matters. It's at Gerald's shabby cottage that Lori at last catches up with her father-in-law—and all puzzles, past and present, are resolved.

Giddily opaque plotting, a clutch of overmannered characters, and a general aura of sticky sweetness: Fans could adore it; others might like to see the author's graceful writing skills brought a bit more down to earth.

Kirkus Reviews