From Publishers Weekly
The pseudonymous Crane, the second author (after Hampton Charles) to continue the characters created by Heron Carvic, appears for the first time in hardcover in this latest (after Starring Miss Seeton) in this long-running English cozy series. The village of Plummergen is populated with many quaint characters: Sir George Colveden, a bluff-and-bluster military type; Mrs. Flax, village Wise Woman and maker of potions; the busybody Nuttell sisters, known as the Nuts; and Miss Emily Seeton, retired art teacher and consultant to Scotland Yard. "Miss Ess" has the psychic ability "to See" and to sketch "what she has Seen," often revealing clues overlooked by the police. In this outing, she helps solve two crime waves: the Ram Raids and the Sideboard Swipers, each of which involves the theft of antiques and artworks. While paying scant attention to the perpetration or investigation of those crimes, Crane details to the nth degree the gossipy, rumor-mongering population of Plummergen. The solution of the crime, and even the near death of Miss Seeton are anticlimactic, as most of Plummergen anticipates the annual Produce Show, scene of fierce competition against the rival village of Murreystone. Mystery Guild selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
This hardover resurrection for Miss Emily Seeton, the retired art teacher whose sketches have made her an unofficial Scotland Yard consultant--but who's been confined to paperback since her creator Heron Carvic's death some ten years ago--finds her knee-deep in village intrigue. A television crew headlined by rising director Jeremy Froste has come to Plummergen to gather material for an installment of the cooking program Not All Roast Beef; Froste is determined to track down the elusive apple known as the Plummergen Peculier; a conker match (horse chestnuts are batted instead of cricket balls) against rival village Murreystone seems fated to end in some darkly hinted treachery; and Miss Seeton's herbal contributions to the match have her gossipy neighbors branding her a witch. There's hardly a moment to spare for a gang of art and antiques thieves who are starting to turn to violence.... A deep-dyed village idyll with a tiny, tiny mystery and a characteristic Rube Goldberg climax. (Mystery Guild selection) --
Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
