Monday, April 12, 2010

Aunt Dimity Down Under




This is Nancy Atherton's 15th book in the series. I missed #14 because I was given this for Christmas so got them out of order. As I probably said waaaayyy down there on my post about the Aunt Dimity Series these books are fun, cozy and an easy read.

Lori's neighbours, the sweet twin Pym sisters, are seriously ill. No one knows how old they are. They've been a permanent fixture in the village forever. It isn't unreasonable that their hearts would eventually get tired. But they have one last wish and ask Lori to help them. They had a brother, who no one knew about except for their personal lawyer, and they wanted to find him before they died. Their father had banished him from the home when he was a young man because of his wild ways. Aubrey (the brother) made his way to New Zealand and unbeknownst to anyone but the lawyer, made his fortune there. He had set up a fund for his sisters which had been supporting them all their lives without their knowledge. They had always thought their pastor father had invested well to care for them in their future. They never did marry.

So off Lori goes to New Zealand. There isn't so much a sense of mystery in this book as their were in some but I really enjoyed learning about New Zealand. I didn't realize the whole south of the island was a mass of volcanos! Lori doesn't find Aubrey, she just misses Aubrey's son who had died shortly before she got there, and shortly after she arrives his grandson died in hospital, the result of a drunken lifestyle. What she does discover is a great grandneice for the Pyms. But Bree has gotten tired of her dysfunctional situation and now that her grandfather is dead and she doesn't have to worry about him she has taken off on her own. Most of the book is Lori's search for Bree which takes us all over New Zealand which in itself is reason enough, for me anyway, to read the book. I'll never get to go to New Zealand, I loved reading about it.

Lori is finally successful and takes Bree back to England to meet her greatgrand aunts whom she immediately bonds with. They rally and so hopefully we will have them to read about in book #16.