Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Aunt Dimity and the Wishing Well

Title: Aunt Dimity and the Wishing Well
Author: Nancy Atherton
Publisher: April 17th 2014 by Viking Adult
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 288
Genre: Paranormal Cozy
Series: Aunt Dimity #19

If it was not for the previous eighteen books, there is no way that you would recognized all the names and faces at Hector Huggins’s funeral. A myriad of names are thrown at the reader and even I, being a long time reader of the series, had to stop and put back stories to them all.

Rolling up to Hector’s funeral is his beloved nephew Jack MacBride, fresh from the Australian outback and here in Finch to sort out Hector’s final affairs. Namely, the disposition of Hector’s home, Ivy Cottage. During renovations, a wishing well is discovered on the property and when Lori speaks into the wishing well for the rain to cease and her wish comes true, the villagers cannot get to the well fast enough to speak their desires.

Finch being Finch means that there will be no end to the chaos that ensues when wishes are suddenly granted, but Lori with the help of Aunt Dimity, starts to become suspicious. Who is the puppet master behind the granting of the wishes? There are too many coincidences for this to be anything other than planned.

Was it me, or was Lori being overly whiney in this book. Who is bedridden merely by having their thumb whacked by a hammer – unable to participate in the simplest of things because her thumb is trussed up like a mummy? Grated, a second wish of Lori’s was a surprise at the end, but that does not explain why she was completely incapacitated.

The final chapters in the book were very good, almost as if someone else had written them. Throughout most of the book, the repetitiveness was burdensome. At times, I would have sworn full sentences and ideas were repeated. Then suddenly at the end, the ideas and structure were clear and straightforward. The epilogue tied the book together completely without having the reader once again rolling their eyes over facts that had been previously gnawed to death.

This is one of my favorite series. Some books are much better than others and the reader has to be patient. The folks from Finch are wonderful even if the gossip vine travels faster than the speed of light; they do have your best interest in mind even if they are too wrapped up in their own lives to bring Lori a casserole when she has whacked her thumb.

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