Withering Heights

February 5, 2007
Near the start of Cannell's witty 13th Ellie Haskell mystery (after 2002's The Importance of Being Ernestine
), Ellie's precocious 13-year-old niece, Ariel Hopkins, shows up at the Haskells' house, Merlin Court, one stormy night. Ariel, who's read too many gothic novels, has made her way from far-away Yorkshire, where her father, Tom, and stepmother, Betty, after winning the lottery, bought an Elizabethan mansion dubbed by Ariel "Withering Heights." Ariel claims that her wicked stepmom is obsessed with finding the body of Nigel Gallagher, the mansion's previous owner, whom Betty believes was murdered by his wife, Lady Fiona. Meanwhile, Ellie's oddball housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, has wanted to mend fences with her estranged sister, Melody Tabby, who happens to live in the same town as the Hopkinses. So Ellie, husband Ben and Mrs. Malloy set off for Yorkshire to return Ariel to her parents and do a bit of investigating. The result is a funny, entertaining puzzler.

March 1, 2007
Series sleuth and housewife Ellie Haskell ("Bridesmaids Revisited") and her maid, Mrs. Roxie Malloy, are in rare form as they try to solve the mystery behind a haunting of a Victorian mansion in Yorkshire. There is also the matter of the disappearance of the house's former owner and his money. Adding spice to an already amusing tale is the beautiful woman making seductive overtures to Ben Haskell, much to Ellie's dismay. Cannell is a master of subtle wit and humorous asides that lift her cozies to great heights. Before the influx of writers trying to out-humor Janet Evanovich, there was Dorothy Cannell. Long may she write! [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 1/07.]

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2007
Ellie and Ben Haskell, along with their employee Mrs. Malloy, travel to Cragstone House in Yorkshire after Ariel Hopkins, daughter of Ben's cousin, Tom, asks for Ellie's help in investigating the strange, somewhat ghostly goings-on at the gothic manor. Tom and his wife, Betty, recently purchased the manor from the financially strapped Lady Fiona after they won the lottery. Betty is convinced Lady Fiona murdered her husband, who has disappeared. With the cook laid up with an injured ankle, Ben takes over the cooking, and Ellie handles the investigating. Ellie's life becomes more complicated when Ben meets up with an old girlfriend, and it seems the flame has been rekindled. Humor, quirky characters, and gothic underpinnings add to this eleventh in a series that will appeal to fans of Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity series, another family-centered British cozy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)