zombeesknees's review
3.0
What a confusing web McPherson does weave... Still not entirely sure how I feel about this one; the ending was satisfying, and tied up the mystifying threads pretty neatly. But I spent roughly %75 of the book completely confused -- and not just because this is a mystery. No, I was confused by the seemingly random and utterly INSANE characters, the preponderance of red herrings, and the saccharine dialogue of half the cast. Dandy's a capable narrator/protagonist, but not entirely likeable or relateable. I guess I'm just spoiled by the charming sleuths of my fave series and can't appreciate this thorn for the roses. McPherson does have a very vivid way of developing characters and painting scenes, though, and as -- previously mentioned -- the ending was at least satisfying and had its thrilling moments.
verityw's review
3.0
I'm getting these from the library and have given up on getting the right ones at the right time so to speak - but as it happens this is the book after the last Dandy I read (which still leaves me with a big old gap earlier on in the series!) so this was a little bit of good luck.
I enjoyed Dandy's latest mystery - she's looking into the disappearances of school mistresses from a boarding school where one of her childhood friends has been working. I found the twists and turns in this quite ingenious and I still love Dandy and Alec's sparky relationship. A nice fun (!) murder mystery.
I enjoyed Dandy's latest mystery - she's looking into the disappearances of school mistresses from a boarding school where one of her childhood friends has been working. I found the twists and turns in this quite ingenious and I still love Dandy and Alec's sparky relationship. A nice fun (!) murder mystery.
bananatricky's review
4.0
Three and a half stars.
Dandy Gilver gets called by two old friends, Aurora and Pearl Lipscott, women she used to spend idyllic summers with as a child. Her friends' younger sister Fleur, who Dandy remembers as a spirited, imaginative, free spirit who loved to design outrageous costumes and write stories about pirates, is working as an English teacher in a girl's boarding school and has cut off all communications with her sisters and her mother. Can Dandy investigate?
Dandy and Alec toddle off to St Columba's school in Portpatrick, a bizarre mix-up with the headmistress leads to Dandy being mistaken for a replacement French teacher and taken up to the school where she finds Fleur is no longer the colourful vibrant girl she remembers, instead she has become a grey, mousy woman, almost unrecognisable.
St Columba's is unlike any school Dandy has ever known, the girls seem to have lots of freedom and the teachers are a bizarre hotchpotch of waifs and strays. Then one of the girls lets slip that the French teacher leaving mid-term is just the latest in a stream of teachers who have left suddenly to be with their families. Then Fleur claims that she has killed four people - does she mean the missing teachers?
While Dandy is desperately trying to remember French conjugations and fathom out what Fleur means, Alec has found a case of his own. The owner of the local fish and chip shop, an Italian called Joe (Guiseppe) Aldo, has hired Alec to look for his wife who has run off with another man. Joe's daughter is also a student at St Columba's and does not know her mother has left.
I found it a struggle to get into the last novel in this series, this was the opposite I was hooked from the get-go. Intrigued by the glimpses into a halcyon world when Dandy and the three Lipscott sisters would be petted and feted and adored by Mamma-dearest and batty Aunt Lilah in a house which was warm and luxurious and full of lovely things, so very different from Dandy's own austere childhood and subsequent life.
However, much as I enjoyed the reading of this book, I struggle finding satisfaction with the ending. There seemed to be too many plots and too many guilty parties, maybe because I was expecting a somewhat different explanation for what was happening at St Columba's I can't wrap my head around the true explanation? Anyway, I re-read the last two chapters this morning and whilst individually I can grasp the different plotlines, I can't pull them all together. Maybe it's that having so many mysteries wrapped up together seems too much of a coincidence? And yet when I think about excluding one mystery everything unravels because each relies on the other for a building block.
Dandy Gilver gets called by two old friends, Aurora and Pearl Lipscott, women she used to spend idyllic summers with as a child. Her friends' younger sister Fleur, who Dandy remembers as a spirited, imaginative, free spirit who loved to design outrageous costumes and write stories about pirates, is working as an English teacher in a girl's boarding school and has cut off all communications with her sisters and her mother. Can Dandy investigate?
Dandy and Alec toddle off to St Columba's school in Portpatrick, a bizarre mix-up with the headmistress leads to Dandy being mistaken for a replacement French teacher and taken up to the school where she finds Fleur is no longer the colourful vibrant girl she remembers, instead she has become a grey, mousy woman, almost unrecognisable.
St Columba's is unlike any school Dandy has ever known, the girls seem to have lots of freedom and the teachers are a bizarre hotchpotch of waifs and strays. Then one of the girls lets slip that the French teacher leaving mid-term is just the latest in a stream of teachers who have left suddenly to be with their families. Then Fleur claims that she has killed four people - does she mean the missing teachers?
While Dandy is desperately trying to remember French conjugations and fathom out what Fleur means, Alec has found a case of his own. The owner of the local fish and chip shop, an Italian called Joe (Guiseppe) Aldo, has hired Alec to look for his wife who has run off with another man. Joe's daughter is also a student at St Columba's and does not know her mother has left.
I found it a struggle to get into the last novel in this series, this was the opposite I was hooked from the get-go. Intrigued by the glimpses into a halcyon world when Dandy and the three Lipscott sisters would be petted and feted and adored by Mamma-dearest and batty Aunt Lilah in a house which was warm and luxurious and full of lovely things, so very different from Dandy's own austere childhood and subsequent life.
However, much as I enjoyed the reading of this book, I struggle finding satisfaction with the ending. There seemed to be too many plots and too many guilty parties, maybe because I was expecting a somewhat different explanation for what was happening at St Columba's I can't wrap my head around the true explanation? Anyway, I re-read the last two chapters this morning and whilst individually I can grasp the different plotlines, I can't pull them all together. Maybe it's that having so many mysteries wrapped up together seems too much of a coincidence? And yet when I think about excluding one mystery everything unravels because each relies on the other for a building block.
jmeston's review
2.0
I have complaints. The middle of this book seemed to take forever. I agree with the poisonous widow in the hotel that Dandy and Alec are behaving in anachronistically free-and-easy ways with little regard for propriety. The murderer -- really?!
Sigh. I know that this series depends on the platonic teamwork of G&O. And Hugh's tolerance of same which is well drawn. But in these later books any notion of community standards (propriety, gossip, shaming, etc.) is being disregarded as unimportant. Which I can't really buy. Yes, Dandy can choose to interact with "her set" and then go and talk with policemen etc. I believe it to a point. But the lack of limits is bugging me.
I still love Dandy's voice, both narrative and conversational. How can we create a market for period domestic British humor novels to rival that of the murder mystery genre?
Sigh. I know that this series depends on the platonic teamwork of G&O. And Hugh's tolerance of same which is well drawn. But in these later books any notion of community standards (propriety, gossip, shaming, etc.) is being disregarded as unimportant. Which I can't really buy. Yes, Dandy can choose to interact with "her set" and then go and talk with policemen etc. I believe it to a point. But the lack of limits is bugging me.
I still love Dandy's voice, both narrative and conversational. How can we create a market for period domestic British humor novels to rival that of the murder mystery genre?
jayvall's review
4.0
I enjoyed this in the same way that I enjoy all of the Dandy Gilver books I've read so far. Not a scary mystery but not one that I could figure out on my own either with all the twists and turns. Easy reading that made me want to get back to it.
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