Dimity Is a Dear

I just finished Nancy Atherton's first "mystery" in the Dimity series entitled "Aunt Dimity's Death." I enclose the word mystery in quotation marks because I'm not sure this is a mystery in the truest sense.

Lori Shepherd is the heroine who is struggling with a divorce, the death of her mother and a lack of purpose and stability in her life. She finds herself summoned to a curiously Dickensian attorney's office in Boston. She discovers there that the person of Aunt Dimity, a character is some stories her mother told her as a child is not, in fact, a fictional protagonist. Aunt Dimity is indeed a real person, and Lori is to complete a review and write an introduction to a children's book about Aunt Dimity for a small sum of money.

While on this pilgrimage in England, Lori finds out more about her mother and the mysterious Dimity. During the course of this rather benign adventure, Lori falls in love with one of the attorneys. Blending a touch of the supernatural (Dimity can speak to her through a journal) with history and a cozy setting, Atherton has created a unique heroine and sweet story.

While there wasn't much suspense in this novel, and no real Agatha Christie-type of mystery, the book was still an entertaining read.

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.