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Not long
after the murder At Mullings Kenneth Tenneson dies after tumbling
down the stairs in his spooky old house aptly named Bogmire.
Both Inspector LeCrane and the village policeman's wife think
it suspicious, and the Inspector is keen for the help of Florence
Norris after her sleuthing skills during the earlier incident.
But Florence is on vacation in London with her cousin, and
thinks that a woman she thought about to throw herself in
front of a train has died in another way. Meanwhile back in
the village Alf the postman has his own troubles due to a
dog and a solicitor's letter.
If you want to read a gentle, meandering novel about English
village life in the 1930s then this series might be ideal.
Like the first in the series there is a murder and sleuthing
going on, but the story deals more with the characters and
their daily lives. Dovecote Hatch is exactly how you would
imagine a village at this time with its slow pace and everybody
knowing everybody else's business. Ms. Cannell has fun with
many of the names and characteristics of her cast. Some of
which have not been fully featured yet and will, presumably,
appear in future books. To its detriment the characters are
either decent, good people you would gladly have as neighbors
or broadly comic, over-the-top villains. This makes the story
at times seem rather two-dimensional, and gives it a monochrome
quality more suited to a comedy. The addition of a few gray
characters would be a boon, but otherwise if you enjoy a placid
village mystery then this series fits the bill.
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