Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first of the Aunt Dimity series I’ve read and I liked it a lot. The writing is outstanding. The description of setting drape the reader in vivid awareness of the surroundings. The characters are extremely well done with dialogue very well thought out.

The down side to the book are the contrivances of the plot. The main character is quickly drawn as wrapped up in work, leaves from America for England and suddenly, not only does work not matter, it’s not brought up again until the very last pages. The new location for the main character takes her in far too easily and suddenly the character is a sleuth who shrugs it off as something a computer expert could become. All too pat. All too contrived.

I will set that aside only because the excellent writing and the intriguing story line, which is really not all that much of a mystery.

The whole “Aunt Dimity” thing takes up far too much of the book cover considering her involvement in the book. I guess as the series continues “Aunt Dimity” takes a more important role.

I do find it interesting that this is the second book in the series and the supposed main character, “Aunt Dimity”, takes such a small role. The same happened in the last fiction book I read before this in which the second book in that series has it’s main character, Miss Silver, also take a very back seat.

Bottom line: I recommend the book. Enjoy the atmosphere but be warned of a very shaky plot.

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