Picture Miss Seeton [Paperback]

This the first book in the Miss Seeton series, introduces a number of characters that appear in later books. The book starts when Miss Seeton, an art teacher is in the process of retiring to the country. An night at the opera Carmen, sees her stumbling into a similar situation on the way home. Thus we meet Bob Ranger and Inspector Delphic of Scotland Yard, who speak to her about the crime she witnessed. This scene is pure comedy and I laugh whenever I read it, I pity poor Bob Ranger taking notes. Miss Seeton as she describes herself is a logical person, and she can't understand her strange (psychic) drawings or why the people around her find her actions remarkable. This book while being a crime mystery, is also a lovely comic romp through the eccentric characters of the English countryside. I throughly recommend this book to anyone who has enjoys crime, light comedy and romance.

Heron Carvic starts off his Miss Seeton series with this delightful romp through England. Miss Seeton is sort of a Marple type, with a tad more zing thrown in. She manages to foil (by mistake) all attempts on her life, capture the bad guys, and and up with a nurse and a detective sergeant happily in love. A lot of fun, though the plot can be a bit weak at points.

First in the Heron Carvic's Miss Seeton mystery series set in London and a village in Kent.

Note: It seems that Carvic only wrote the first five books in this series before he died. After that a Roy Peter Martin writing as Hampton Charles wrote the next three books with a Sarah J. Mason writing as Hamilton Crane. Mason/Crane wrote the next 14 stories, but it was noted that she modified Carvic's characters so much that only the names of the characters are recognizable (Wikipedia). Further mentions on the Internet reveal a general consensus that the stories that follow the original author are not as good as they don't display the same sense of humor or his touch. ...we'll see...

I suspect that if you do continue reading after number 5, it would be best to approach them as if they were a completely different series which simply shared the same characters. Lessens the disappointment...

My Take
Oh, if you like Agatha Christie, you will very much enjoy Carvic's Miss Seeton. She's psychic and her visions generally play out in her drawings...and Superintendent Delphick is quick to take advantage. Really a treat as one wouldn't expect the 1960s coppers being all that "psychic" themselves! Or that quick to accept. The whole story was rather like that. A sense of trust and caring that we, in general, lack today. This first story takes place in a small village with all the nosy interest in what everyone else is up to--the two Nuts are a bit of a hoot even if I do want to smash `em. I do love what Miss Seeton does to them in the post office! The whole village is a treat with a wide range of characters most of whom seem to care about each other. Lovely, absolutely lovely.

The atmosphere has a feel of the early part of the 1900s, but it must be set in the 1960s somewhere. Although, there is one mention of a computer, so I haven't a clue. There's lots of talk of having a car sent and there is a regular bus route that goes through the village.

Oh lord, I do enjoy the occasional lapses into parody...Miss Seeton's comment about laying her own has Nigel envisioning "Miss Seeton, in that hat, enthroned on an outsized nesting box" while later Delphick gets this image of himself cleaning up the drug smuggling ring with a boiling teakettle. Poor DS Bob comes in for quite a bit of quiet teasing. Then Anne and her aborted seductions.

Oh...and you can just hear some idjit criminal using that same damned excuse...!! Arghhhh!

As for Miss Seeton, it seems that the unusual is always swirling about her, at least according to the various reports Delphick finds about her activities.

He explains her to Bob as "everybody's conscience, . . . Humanity's backbone . . . [going] to the stake for you again and again; . . . as a matter of principle".

A thought that has Bob wondering about emigrating to Canada where the Mounties only ever "get their man". Certainly Brinton is moaning about how quiet the area used to be before she showed with her brolly in action.

ROFLMAO, lucky Delphick is about to get his dream come true...Lebel trussed up and packaged for him.

The Story
It all starts with a murder in London followed by a poke with a brolly, which brings Miss Seeton to the attention of both Scotland Yard and the bad guys. Her frustration and Delphick's noting that she's a drawing teacher begins the connection between Miss
Seeton and Delphick for the drawing she does of the "foreigner" and he immediately recognizes him.

Realizing that Miss Seeton is the only witness, Delphick is concerned about her continued well-being and arranges for surveillance to protect her. It's this combined with the newspaper publicity which makes Miss Seeton a "person of interest" in the village and speculation is rife. Then the nap and the pot of jam from Mrs. and Miss Vennings sends the Nuts off with gossip of drug running and alternating between Miss Seeton as the agent of a dope ring coming to have it out with Mrs. Venning for interference or an addict coming to moan about the lack of supplies.

And Miss Seeton heads down to Sweetbriars blissfully unaware of the press or the gossip shortly to be swirling about her. It's Nigel and his problem that brings Miss Seeton deeper into the mix, tying the threads into one great clump.

Not knowing when to cut his losses, the kingpin of this all simply makes things worse as he sends more and yet more "assassins" to rid him of this problem witness. The hen house war yields names and great adventure for Sir George and Nigel as they hare off to battle in her ladyship's M.G. The knight with his shotgun as his squire steers the "horses". The kidnapping that goes in reverse and ends for young Ginger when Miss Seeton gets indignant at the hearing over her crushed hat.

The Characters
Miss Emily Seeton is a drawing instructor for a private school in London and never seen without her umbrella. Her godmother Mrs. Bannet has just died [I think she's also "Cousin Flora"] and she's inherited her cottage Sweetbriars in Plummergen, Kent. Miss Seeton is "a pet" as one of the characters sees her. Unwilling to put up with rude manners, she dives right in with no thought of consequences. She's also psychic and what she sees comes out in her drawing. Mrs. Benn is the headmistress of the school which employs Miss Seeton and she's arrived to support her.

Superintendent Delphick, a.k.a., the Oracle, and his Detective Sergeant Bob Ranger are both with Scotland Yard. I like them both. Delphick is level-headed and quick while Bob is more inclined to a Boy Scout approach and both have warm hearts. Chief Detective Inspector Chris Brinton of the Ashford Criminal Investigation Department gets involved when the action moves into Kent...with Miss Seeton.

Major General Sir George and Lady Colvedon at Rytham Hall; Nigel is their son studying agriculture. Sir George is the local justice of the peace. Mrs. Sonia Vennings is a widow and has earned enough off her children's books about Jack the Rabbit to move to the Meadows at Plummergen with her poor, bored daughter Angela, hostage to her mother's past. Mrs. Fratters is their housekeeper. Martha Bloomer has been Mrs. Bannet's cleaning lady for years and has stayed on to help Miss Seeton (she also cleans for Lady Colvedon). She's rather known for her "Grand Slams". Her husband Stan did the garden and the chickens in return for which Ma B had gotten the produce and eggs while Mr. Bloomer sold the extra for his share.

"Miss [Erica] Nuttel and Norah "Bunny" Blaine shared a house, Lilikot, for eleven years in the center of the village opposite the garage". I'm sure they'll never move unless the village can unite in tossing them across the county. They're much too interested in whatever is happening around them and not too concerned with truth. In fact, embroidering is so much more fun and they spread whatever inventions they conceive about with glee. Most of the village refers to them together as the "Nuts"; individually as "Nutcrackers" and "Hot Cross Bun" respectively.

Mrs. Walsted runs the local draper's with the help of her daughter Margery. Arthur Treeves is the vicar. And a more woolly-headed one with a profound dislike for social chit-chat I can't imagine. His sister Molly Treeves is much more levelheaded and intelligent--she keeps her brother up-to-date. PC Potter is the village constable with orders to keep an eye on Miss Seeton. His comments to that effect only seem to fuel the village gossip in the wrong direction. Dr. Knight runs the local surgery and a small nursing care home with the help of his daughter Anne. Who has caught DS Ranger's eye. You'll like the doctor...a wicked sense of humor!

César Lebel is the young "foreigner" who starts it all with the murder of the young prostitute. Hubert Trefold Morton, solicitor, alderman, and mayor-expectant of Brettenden is Miss Seeton's solicitor. An annoyingly loud man with his fingers in many, many pies.

The Cover
There was no cover as it's an older publication--1968.

The title, I suspect, is part of our introduction to Miss Seeton's abilities to see much deeper into a person than we suspect. Luckily Inspector Delphick recognizes it right off and makes good use asking her to Picture Miss Seeton.