Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday

Title: Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday (#8)
Author: Nancy Atherton
Pub: 204; Penguin
Pages: 224
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Series

I have quickly grown to love Aunt Dimity and all of the other characters in these cozy mysteries.  I truly have to thank Net Galley and Penguin for allowing me to read the newest Aunt Dimity book because I have been hooked since then.

One aspect that I can appreciate with these mysteries is even though I have only read two, and totally not in order, I don't feel lost.  The characters overlap and yeah, sure, it'd be nice to have grown with them, I don't feel as though I'm stumbling around.

In Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday, Lori joins her husband, Bill, and best friends to the estate of a wealthy family to hear the inheritance.  Immediately there's something not right and like most families when wills and money become involved there are arguments.  But with THIS family, the disagreements take on a wee bit more devious motive.  Fires and falsely wired devices set to injure parties involved, etc.  But it's all done in such a campy Scooby Doo caper that it's hardly sinister. 

Aunt Dimity is not really a large character in Book 8, but rather we get to know the living characters deeper.

I think what I enjoy the most about these mysteries is they're pretty commonplace.  I mean, sure, I'm never going to get invited to a will reading where an estate is up for grabs, but the PEOPLE and their deceptions and personal journeys and mysteries are all real.  It's like discovering other aspects of someone you know.  The pacing is slow, somewhat like floating in a raft down a river.  PERFECT for a mental break from a horrible day or a book to read curled up with tea while sick.