I am delighted to be today’s stop on the blog tour for Miss Seeton Quilts the Village by Hamilton Crane and Heron Carvic
Title:Miss Seeton Quilts the Village
Author: Hamilton Crane
Publisher: FarragoPress
Publication Date: 7 September 2017
Blurb
It’s practically a Royal Marriage! The highly eligible son of Miss Seeton’s old friends Sir George and Lady Colveden has wed the daughter of a French count. Miss Seeton lends her talents to the village scheme to create a quilted Bayeux Tapestry of local history, inspired by the wedding. But her intuitive sketches reveal a startlingly different perspective involving buried Nazi secrets, and links to the mysterious death of a diplomat and to a South American dictator . . . Serene amidst every kind of skulduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella!
The first new mystery in this much-loved series for almost twenty years. Find out why the world can’t get enough of Miss Seeton!
Review
Thank you to Farrago Press for providing an advanced copy of Miss Seeton Quilts the Village for review.
Originally created by author Heron Carvic, and now continued by Sarah J Mason under the pen name of Hamilton Crane, fans of Miss Seeton will undoubtedly been excited for this new addition to the series.
Sir George and Lady Colvedon’s son Nigel has married Louise, a Frenchwoman. To the inhabitants of Plummergen, this is the equivalent in importance to a royal wedding! Inspired by Louise’s French background, the village plan to create their own version of the Bayeaux Tapestry. All inhabitants of the village are encouraged to produce their own panel for the project detailing an important event in village history and Miss Seeton is tasked with using her artistic abilities to create an overall design for the project.
Whilst this might sound straight forward, Miss Seeton soon finds herself distracted by hidden frescos, Nazi secrets and mysterious Spaniards. Life in Plummergen is never boring!
The story is about secrets – the secret artwork on the cottage wall, the Saxon sisters’ secret, the secretive foreign visitors to the village and the Home Office’s secret surrounding a diplomat’s death.
As usual, Miss Seeton unwittingly foils some nefarious intentions with the aid of her trusty umbrella and her cryptic drawings, interpreted by Superintendent Delphick (“the Oracle”) and his sidekick Sergeant Bob Ranger, along with some assistance from Superintendent Brinton and Detective Constable Foxton.
As with the earlier Miss Seeton books, I like the humour. The author produces an amusingly satirical take on a traditional detective novel and of village life. With their excessive nosiness and partiality to gossip, Plummergen’s inhabitants are not the sort to allow anyone even a modicum of privacy! We then have a protagonist who has the ability to solve problems that Scotland Yard’s top detectives cannot sole, virtually by accident.
As always with the Miss Seeton series, Miss Seeton Quilts the Village provides the reader with a snapshot of village life mixed with a big dollop of mystery and skulduggery. A jolly good (albeit slightly twee) adventure and a perfect treat for a rainy Sunday afternoon!
Being the first in the series written by Hamilton Crane, I was interested to see how Miss Seeton Quilts the Village holds up against the originals. In my opinion, there was a slightly different feel to the writing style, however that may just be because I was specifically looking out for any differences. Either way, I think Crane has produced an enjoyable addition to the series.
The book is a standalone novel, however as it is the 22 book in the Miss Seeton series reading the earlier books in the series could assist in providing some background information regarding Miss Seeton’s unique skillset and her relationship with both the local police and the villagers.
About the Author
Hamilton Crane is the pseudonym used by Sarah J. Mason when writing 13 sequels and one prequel to the Miss Seeton series. She has also written detective fiction under her own name, but should not be confused with the Sarah Mason (no middle initial) who writes a rather different kind of book. After half a century in Hertfordshire (if we ignore four years in Scotland and one in New Zealand), Sarah J. Mason now lives in Somerset within easy reach of the beautiful city of Wells, and just far enough from Glastonbury to avoid the annual traffic jams.
Buy Links
Finally, if you like the sound of Miss Seeton Quilts the Village don’t forget to visit the rest of the stops on this blog tour….
The Curious Ginger Cat 