Winter of Discontent : A Dorothy Martin Mystery (Dorothy Martin Mysteries (Hardcover))

Rating:
Summary: A fine mystery
Review: Expatriate American retired educator Dorothy Martin and her British husband former Chief Constable Alan Nesbit settle into a cozy daily routine in Sherebury in which they enjoying their retirements together. Dorothy goes shopping with her best friend Jane Langland. They decide to drop the parcels off at Town Hall where Jane's boyfriend museum curator Bill Fanshawe works, but he is not there.

Jane panics because Bill seemingly vanished. More to calm Jane down a bit Dorothy and Alan agree to set aside their afternoon tea to search for Bill. They interview Bill's assistant Walter Tubbs and not long afterward Bill is found dead in the Roman tunnel beneath the museum. Dorothy and Alan investigate, but soon Walter is hospitalized as someone hit him over the head with an object. The case seems to evolve around a new exhibit that Alan was creating on Sherebury's role in WWII, but the prime suspect becomes the next victim. The two retirees struggle to solve the museum homicides.

The look at the silver years is terrific as readers obtain a taste (with tea) of how two retirees spend their lives together in a small English village. The who-done-it is fun more in the line of an amateur sleuth than a police procedural as Dorothy leads the inquiries while a reluctant Alan does not have to follow official procedures (though he is careful not to contaminate crime scenes). Fans of the series will enjoy this teatime cozy that solves the homicides between sips.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable until the disappointing ending
Review: Fans of the Dorothy Martin series (and I am certainly one) will probably be happy with this book, at least until the last few pages. It is always good to be back with Dorothy and her husband and their friend Jane.

The hard part about reviewing this is that I don't want to reveal the plot. This is not one of the best of the series. There are a few logical holes which I would probably be willing to forget completely if I didn't find the denouement of the mystery so annoying. The windup of the entire book is a little hard to buy, but so charming that I'm happy to accept it, expecting to see the welcome addition of another likeable character.

The resolution of the mystery is very disappointing to me. I think that Dams may realize that she is on shaky ground and that is why she has worked so hard, a little too hard, to make the murderer unsympathetic - otherwise, readers might be wanting to help pay the defense attorney, er, barrister. I wonder why she developed such a plot in the first place. I cannot like the characters'(Dams') argument that heinous crimes become irrelevant with time, and that justice is unnecessary if the perpetrator's later personal life is disappointing. Extenuating circumstances are for the judge to consider when passing sentence, not a reason for the police to fail to make arrests. The murderer suffered disappointments too - why not gloss over the recent crimes as well? Only at the last do the police remark that it would probably not be possible to prove the earlier crime - it sounds more like a rationalization than a reason.

If this were the first Dorothy Martin that I had read I probably wouldn't read another, and I would certainly have given it a lower rating. Since I really enjoyed the rest of the books, I'll assume that that series are always a little uneven, and look hopefully forward to the next installment.