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Miss Seeton #1
Picture Miss Seeton
When Miss Seeton walks out of a performance of Carmen and witnesses a stabbing, all she can recall is a shadowy figure. But how could even she have guessed that her latest drawing is a perfect portrait of the killer? Now, she is a sitting duck in Plummergen!
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
1519 people are currently reading
1863 people want to read
About the author
Heron Carvic
45 books43 followersHeron Carvic (21 January 1913-9 February 1980) was a British actor and writer who provided the voice for Gandalf in the BBC Radio version of The Hobbit, and played Caiphas the High Priest every time the play cycle The Man Born To Be King was broadcast.
As a writer he created the characters and wrote the first five books featuring retired art teacher Miss Emily D. Seeton, a gentle parody of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.
Further books nominally in the Miss Seeton series were then written under two other pseudonyms. Roy Peter Martin as "Hampton Charles" wrote three novels which were all released in 1990. Sarah J. Mason, writing under the name of Hamilton Crane, then took up the series writing 14 books in all, some of which are still in print.
As a writer he created the characters and wrote the first five books featuring retired art teacher Miss Emily D. Seeton, a gentle parody of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.
Further books nominally in the Miss Seeton series were then written under two other pseudonyms. Roy Peter Martin as "Hampton Charles" wrote three novels which were all released in 1990. Sarah J. Mason, writing under the name of Hamilton Crane, then took up the series writing 14 books in all, some of which are still in print.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 291 reviews
September 6, 2016
To truly picture Miss Seeton, you must imagine a younger, less conventional Miss Marple, one who gets caught up in farcical situations through no fault of her own. While the mystery is clever and the novel is quite funny, it’s the darling Miss Seeton and her can-do spirit that really captured me.
London art teacher Emily D. Seeton, a kind, dutiful forty-something spinster, encounters a murder of a French prostitute that turns out to be part of a larger scheme. Brave — or perhaps foolhardy — she drives off the murderer with her trusty umbrella. Miss Seeton can’t describe the murderer when pressed by the police — but she can draw a perfect rendition of him. Her artistic ability comes in handy more than once.
Unbeknownst to Miss Seeton, that makes her a target of a crime ring, one that tries to track her down during her holiday in the Kent countryside. The village characters that author Heron Carvic describes remain as fresh and funny as they were nearly 50 years ago; truly, despite being first published in 1968, Picture Miss Seeton has aged quite well. I can’t wait to read the next in the series, Miss Seeton Draws the Line.
Special thanks to Farrago for re-releasing this little gem. And thanks to whomever for making most of the re-released Miss Seeton books available on Kindle Unlimited.
London art teacher Emily D. Seeton, a kind, dutiful forty-something spinster, encounters a murder of a French prostitute that turns out to be part of a larger scheme. Brave — or perhaps foolhardy — she drives off the murderer with her trusty umbrella. Miss Seeton can’t describe the murderer when pressed by the police — but she can draw a perfect rendition of him. Her artistic ability comes in handy more than once.
Unbeknownst to Miss Seeton, that makes her a target of a crime ring, one that tries to track her down during her holiday in the Kent countryside. The village characters that author Heron Carvic describes remain as fresh and funny as they were nearly 50 years ago; truly, despite being first published in 1968, Picture Miss Seeton has aged quite well. I can’t wait to read the next in the series, Miss Seeton Draws the Line.
Special thanks to Farrago for re-releasing this little gem. And thanks to whomever for making most of the re-released Miss Seeton books available on Kindle Unlimited.
October 23, 2024
What a superbly scrumptious cozy mystery this is! Miss Seeton is too comic for words, even though she is unaware of it. I loved the whole cast of characters, even the one's you love to hate. A thoroughly entertaining read.
February 11, 2018
A fun, quirky mystery. It did take a while for me to get used to the writing style, which was rather stream-of-consciousness, but I liked the characters. However, given the situations she found herself in, and her solutions to them, I just couldn't decide if Miss Seeton was really smart, or a female Mr Bean.
August 10, 2017
Miss Emily Seeton is a retired art teacher who seems to magically thwart criminals and evil-doers armed only with a trusty umbrella, grace under pressure, and her drawing talents. She is naive yet incredibly observant and astute. Miss Seeton definitely reminds me of Miss Marple, with innocent, unintentional humorous antics added. I absolutely adore her!
Picture Miss Seeton is the first in the 22-book series. The book was originally published in 1968 by Heron Carvic, who wrote the first 5 Miss Seeton books. The remaining books were authored by Hampton Charles (pen name used by Roy Peter Martin) and Hamilton Crane (pen name of Sarah J. Mason). I had never heard of the Miss Seeton books before the re-release of the series by Farrago. The first 3 books are available separately, or can be purchased together as an ebook set.
In this introduction to the series, Miss Seeton attends the opera. After the performance while still lamenting over Carmen's tragic end, she comes across a young man being rough with a woman. Rapping him with her umbrella, she intends to tell him off about his behavior -- young men just shouldn't accost women in the street, after all! But, as he knocks her to the ground, Miss Seeton discovers he did more than just smack the girl around a bit. As police officers and others gather to help her up, they find that the girl is dead. She's been stabbed to death. The perpetrator runs away into the night. The police are concerned about Miss Seeton's safety as the crook made off with her purse containing her address and keys, until they learn she is moving from London to a nearby village the very next day. As will happen in villages, word gets around about the heroic actions (or possibly her villainous intentions and nefarious criminal past, depending on which person is telling the story) of Miss Seeton. It might all have ended there if the village vicar didn't get tongue tied and blurt out Miss Seeton's location to the media. The criminal element follows Miss Seeton to her new home, and more run ins with evil creeps follow. She is spied upon, nearly shot, kidnapped, gassed, and almost drowned before it's all over! The police can't help but laugh as Miss Seeton miraculously uses her umbrella, laundry soap and her unfailing luck and wits to escape all attempts to do her in.
This book is just a delightfully fun story! At 224 pages, it's a relatively quick read. I love Miss Seeton as a sweetly clueless amateur sleuth, who just seems to come upon the facts without even realizing it. The supporting characters, especially the police, are left following behind, often laughing, at the miraculous ways Miss Seeton dispatches justice.
From murdering teenagers to shady lawyers, Miss Seeton rises to the occasion and triumphs in often hilarious ways. Thanks to Farrago, I have the next two books waiting on my Kindle. I can't wait to see what Miss Seeton gets herself involved in next!
Off to start reading book 2, Miss Seeton Draws The Line. :)
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Farrago via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
Picture Miss Seeton is the first in the 22-book series. The book was originally published in 1968 by Heron Carvic, who wrote the first 5 Miss Seeton books. The remaining books were authored by Hampton Charles (pen name used by Roy Peter Martin) and Hamilton Crane (pen name of Sarah J. Mason). I had never heard of the Miss Seeton books before the re-release of the series by Farrago. The first 3 books are available separately, or can be purchased together as an ebook set.
In this introduction to the series, Miss Seeton attends the opera. After the performance while still lamenting over Carmen's tragic end, she comes across a young man being rough with a woman. Rapping him with her umbrella, she intends to tell him off about his behavior -- young men just shouldn't accost women in the street, after all! But, as he knocks her to the ground, Miss Seeton discovers he did more than just smack the girl around a bit. As police officers and others gather to help her up, they find that the girl is dead. She's been stabbed to death. The perpetrator runs away into the night. The police are concerned about Miss Seeton's safety as the crook made off with her purse containing her address and keys, until they learn she is moving from London to a nearby village the very next day. As will happen in villages, word gets around about the heroic actions (or possibly her villainous intentions and nefarious criminal past, depending on which person is telling the story) of Miss Seeton. It might all have ended there if the village vicar didn't get tongue tied and blurt out Miss Seeton's location to the media. The criminal element follows Miss Seeton to her new home, and more run ins with evil creeps follow. She is spied upon, nearly shot, kidnapped, gassed, and almost drowned before it's all over! The police can't help but laugh as Miss Seeton miraculously uses her umbrella, laundry soap and her unfailing luck and wits to escape all attempts to do her in.
This book is just a delightfully fun story! At 224 pages, it's a relatively quick read. I love Miss Seeton as a sweetly clueless amateur sleuth, who just seems to come upon the facts without even realizing it. The supporting characters, especially the police, are left following behind, often laughing, at the miraculous ways Miss Seeton dispatches justice.
From murdering teenagers to shady lawyers, Miss Seeton rises to the occasion and triumphs in often hilarious ways. Thanks to Farrago, I have the next two books waiting on my Kindle. I can't wait to see what Miss Seeton gets herself involved in next!
Off to start reading book 2, Miss Seeton Draws The Line. :)
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Farrago via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
May 16, 2016
Miss Seeton, almost retired art teacher, leaves a performance of Carmen at Covent Garden only to witness a stabbing. Not realising what she is seeing, she prods the murderer in the back with her umbrella. After knocking her to the ground, the murderer escapes but Miss Seeton is able to draw a picture of the man she saw for a fleeting second so the police know who they're looking for. Superintendent Alan Delphick (The Oracle) is intrigued and impressed by her ability but fears she is in danger.
Miss Seeton has been left a cottage in the Kent village of Plummergen but it seems her excursion into crime fighting is not destined to be her last as murder and mayhem follow her there. So often humorous crime novels just don't work in my opinion but this one does. It manages to combine an interesting plot, marvellous characters and some very funny incidents, dialogue and descriptions. I found myself laughing out loud several times as I was reading this book.
The book is well written with some marvellous scenes of village life and the way rumours start and are fuelled by mis-information. I loved Miss Seeton - think Miss Marple with an umbrella - who rushes in where angels fear to tread and who has an uncanny facility for drawing her impressions of people.
I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series and I'm glad they are being re-published for a new audience. If you think crime and humour don't mix then try Miss Seeton -you may just change your mind.
Miss Seeton has been left a cottage in the Kent village of Plummergen but it seems her excursion into crime fighting is not destined to be her last as murder and mayhem follow her there. So often humorous crime novels just don't work in my opinion but this one does. It manages to combine an interesting plot, marvellous characters and some very funny incidents, dialogue and descriptions. I found myself laughing out loud several times as I was reading this book.
The book is well written with some marvellous scenes of village life and the way rumours start and are fuelled by mis-information. I loved Miss Seeton - think Miss Marple with an umbrella - who rushes in where angels fear to tread and who has an uncanny facility for drawing her impressions of people.
I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series and I'm glad they are being re-published for a new audience. If you think crime and humour don't mix then try Miss Seeton -you may just change your mind.
June 12, 2016
I think this is the first time an automated Kindle recommendation has scored a hit for me. Picture Miss Seeton is an absolute riot. It's rather like a comedic parody of the Miss Marple type—Miss Seeton is a bit younger and more active, but much less bright spinster, whose gift seems to lie in her odd, metaphoric sketches of people which reveal things she intuitively senses about them. That, and a knack for getting into the wildest of scrapes without realizing she's done anything unusual.
It all begins with Mrs. Seeton poking a rude young man in the back with her umbrella on a dark London street, unaware that she's interrupting a murder in progress. After she's able to make an identifying sketch of the culprit, Scotland Yard determines to keep a protective eye on her in case she's in danger, as the only witness. Miss Seeton heads off to take up residence in her newly-inherited cottage in a quaint country village—where it turns out there are some odd goings-on that just might be connected with the original murder.
This is the clue-hunting romp type of mystery—author Carvic manages to keep a deft balance in tone between some genuinely nasty murders and the hilarity that results from Miss Seeton's being mixed up in them. (I laughed until I cried at the scene where the village rumor-mill gets going on the events by the pond.) The cast of supporting characters is wonderful, particularly a pair of very likable detectives, Superintendent Delphick (a.k.a. the Oracle) and his assistant Sergeant Bob Ranger; and Sir George and Lady Colvedon and their young son Nigel, a delightful family who participate in some of the book's best moments. (Bob and the Colvedons are my favorites in the book.) Also Dr. Knight and his family, who arrive on the scene a little later but do it in style.
There's a few little loose ends—e.g. the fact that and it does seem a little bit of a cheat that we don't get to see everybody's reaction to the information revealed in the last few paragraphs! But it's not too far out of keeping with the tone of the book to be unsatisfying. I'm already looking forward to the next books in the series!
(I understand there are four more Miss Seeton books by the original author, and that after his death other authors continued the series under his pen name. I'm interested in the rest of the original books, anyway.)
It all begins with Mrs. Seeton poking a rude young man in the back with her umbrella on a dark London street, unaware that she's interrupting a murder in progress. After she's able to make an identifying sketch of the culprit, Scotland Yard determines to keep a protective eye on her in case she's in danger, as the only witness. Miss Seeton heads off to take up residence in her newly-inherited cottage in a quaint country village—where it turns out there are some odd goings-on that just might be connected with the original murder.
This is the clue-hunting romp type of mystery—author Carvic manages to keep a deft balance in tone between some genuinely nasty murders and the hilarity that results from Miss Seeton's being mixed up in them. (I laughed until I cried at the scene where the village rumor-mill gets going on the events by the pond.) The cast of supporting characters is wonderful, particularly a pair of very likable detectives, Superintendent Delphick (a.k.a. the Oracle) and his assistant Sergeant Bob Ranger; and Sir George and Lady Colvedon and their young son Nigel, a delightful family who participate in some of the book's best moments. (Bob and the Colvedons are my favorites in the book.) Also Dr. Knight and his family, who arrive on the scene a little later but do it in style.
There's a few little loose ends—e.g. the fact that and it does seem a little bit of a cheat that we don't get to see everybody's reaction to the information revealed in the last few paragraphs! But it's not too far out of keeping with the tone of the book to be unsatisfying. I'm already looking forward to the next books in the series!
(I understand there are four more Miss Seeton books by the original author, and that after his death other authors continued the series under his pen name. I'm interested in the rest of the original books, anyway.)
December 12, 2017
Picture Miss Seeton by Heron Carvic was originally published in 1968 and is a totally delightful and funny read. Careful Miss Marple, you have some competition in a retired art teacher, armed with only her trusted brolly and her drawings.
Miss Seeton is slightly psychic, though she doesn't realize it. Her drawings are much more than an eye-witnessed account - they are her impressions of the situation, sometimes of what will happen. Her adventure in this novel happens after attending the play, Carmen, in Camden. She literally walks on to a murder, stabbing the young murderer with her brolly. They stumble to the ground. But before the young guy can do further harm to Miss Seeton, a man rushes to her aid.
The detectives of Scotland Yard are dumbfounded by Miss Seeton. They know exactly who the murderer is. And he's involved in some other nasty business. They are relieved that Miss Seeton is going to a small village for a holiday. She arrives in the village (that is full of gossips and busybodies) and rumors and innuendos of her London heroics have reached fever-pitched heights.
The bungling Vicar tells the Press of Miss Seeton's where-a-bouts, and of course the murderer is after her. Not only is Miss Seeton unaware of the danger she's in nor the fantastic stories about her, she stumbles into another mess: drugs and embezzlement. Bad guys want the elderly teacher gone - as in dead.
In several places I found myself laughing with tears flowing down my cheeks. The Sargent and his boss were great comic relief. The story is quick paced and totally unpredictable. I will be reading more in the Miss Seeton Series, even though Heron Carvic wrote only the first five novels before his death in 1980.
Miss Seeton is slightly psychic, though she doesn't realize it. Her drawings are much more than an eye-witnessed account - they are her impressions of the situation, sometimes of what will happen. Her adventure in this novel happens after attending the play, Carmen, in Camden. She literally walks on to a murder, stabbing the young murderer with her brolly. They stumble to the ground. But before the young guy can do further harm to Miss Seeton, a man rushes to her aid.
The detectives of Scotland Yard are dumbfounded by Miss Seeton. They know exactly who the murderer is. And he's involved in some other nasty business. They are relieved that Miss Seeton is going to a small village for a holiday. She arrives in the village (that is full of gossips and busybodies) and rumors and innuendos of her London heroics have reached fever-pitched heights.
The bungling Vicar tells the Press of Miss Seeton's where-a-bouts, and of course the murderer is after her. Not only is Miss Seeton unaware of the danger she's in nor the fantastic stories about her, she stumbles into another mess: drugs and embezzlement. Bad guys want the elderly teacher gone - as in dead.
In several places I found myself laughing with tears flowing down my cheeks. The Sargent and his boss were great comic relief. The story is quick paced and totally unpredictable. I will be reading more in the Miss Seeton Series, even though Heron Carvic wrote only the first five novels before his death in 1980.
January 27, 2021
*spoilers btw*
Wow. On the recommendation that if I liked cosy mysteries and wanted someone similar to Mrs Pollifax this series was a contender..I decided to go for it. Not what I expected and rather a disappointment in regards to the recommendation but sufficiently entertained in some form.
My mind throughout the book was fighting between outrage of peoples utter stupidity and feeling entertained by the many mishaps.
I find that this kind of book isn't good for me or my health lol. A Mr Bean style clueless character who inadvertently "solves" crimes is frankly not enjoyable on the whole. I admit to enjoying parts of it and also giggling, but I abhor mindlessness overall.
The pace and structure was rather muddled and wandering where one scene stopped and randomly bumped into another without much warning. Honestly this didn't bother me as much as I'm used to much worse in old ebooks but worth pointing out.
The modern cover art does not actually give any indication of the book's contents except from that umbrella. I also dislike covers which do not represent books contents..
Miss Seeton is a doddering old lady who prefers propriety over using her brain/doing the right thing over "proper". She uses her brolly against a murderer when in the act and then is hailed a heroine, while said murderer escapes at large. Her subconscious mind manages to show the police the attacker in form of her arty efforts.
Then, she goes the country house she's inherited without thinking of her safety and genuinely has no misgivings about being further attacked by this person despite the evidence given that he's a dangerous criminal.
Meanwhile other village persons either spread malicious lies with virtuous intention or are also doddering idiots who give away her whereabouts.
There's also a dope ring, embezzlement, more attacks and chases and all sorts of shenanigans, while again Miss Seetons unconscious arty farty mind plays a part in enlightening the lovely disbelieving Sergeant Ranger and calm Superintendent Delphink. The police men were nice and didn't give me rage like Miss Seaton or some other nasty villagers. There were also nice villagers pity they weren't shown more.
I don't think Miss Seeton is a heroine with a brain but one who doesn't make sufficient use of her faculties. I realise Im taking this way too seriously. There was a moment the Superintendent wanted to give her a smack. Yes. I felt you superintendent. We totally were in the same plane of thought brutha.
Seriously. You get held up by a gun but you think it's a toy pistol and he's trying to steal eggs and use your umbrella to bat it away making the guy shoot himself in the foot.
You get lured out of home and shoved into a sack, dumped into the back of a car and driven of with and instead of worrying about the evil you genuinely think it's someone having revenge on the friend who got shot "stealing eggs" so you free yourself by putting ginger beer from car into pipe etcetc. And more. These are impressive feats and highly entertaining.. But really the thought processes?? What!? I cannot. I'm sure many people enjoy this but I have enough anxiety in my real life without going around adding to it in my lovely world of books.
Miss Seeton. You are terrifying. Good bye.
Wow. On the recommendation that if I liked cosy mysteries and wanted someone similar to Mrs Pollifax this series was a contender..I decided to go for it. Not what I expected and rather a disappointment in regards to the recommendation but sufficiently entertained in some form.
My mind throughout the book was fighting between outrage of peoples utter stupidity and feeling entertained by the many mishaps.
I find that this kind of book isn't good for me or my health lol. A Mr Bean style clueless character who inadvertently "solves" crimes is frankly not enjoyable on the whole. I admit to enjoying parts of it and also giggling, but I abhor mindlessness overall.
The pace and structure was rather muddled and wandering where one scene stopped and randomly bumped into another without much warning. Honestly this didn't bother me as much as I'm used to much worse in old ebooks but worth pointing out.
The modern cover art does not actually give any indication of the book's contents except from that umbrella. I also dislike covers which do not represent books contents..
Miss Seeton is a doddering old lady who prefers propriety over using her brain/doing the right thing over "proper". She uses her brolly against a murderer when in the act and then is hailed a heroine, while said murderer escapes at large. Her subconscious mind manages to show the police the attacker in form of her arty efforts.
Then, she goes the country house she's inherited without thinking of her safety and genuinely has no misgivings about being further attacked by this person despite the evidence given that he's a dangerous criminal.
Meanwhile other village persons either spread malicious lies with virtuous intention or are also doddering idiots who give away her whereabouts.
There's also a dope ring, embezzlement, more attacks and chases and all sorts of shenanigans, while again Miss Seetons unconscious arty farty mind plays a part in enlightening the lovely disbelieving Sergeant Ranger and calm Superintendent Delphink. The police men were nice and didn't give me rage like Miss Seaton or some other nasty villagers. There were also nice villagers pity they weren't shown more.
I don't think Miss Seeton is a heroine with a brain but one who doesn't make sufficient use of her faculties. I realise Im taking this way too seriously. There was a moment the Superintendent wanted to give her a smack. Yes. I felt you superintendent. We totally were in the same plane of thought brutha.
Seriously. You get held up by a gun but you think it's a toy pistol and he's trying to steal eggs and use your umbrella to bat it away making the guy shoot himself in the foot.
You get lured out of home and shoved into a sack, dumped into the back of a car and driven of with and instead of worrying about the evil you genuinely think it's someone having revenge on the friend who got shot "stealing eggs" so you free yourself by putting ginger beer from car into pipe etcetc. And more. These are impressive feats and highly entertaining.. But really the thought processes?? What!? I cannot. I'm sure many people enjoy this but I have enough anxiety in my real life without going around adding to it in my lovely world of books.
Miss Seeton. You are terrifying. Good bye.
October 5, 2019
Having been recommended by someone whose opinion I trust, I was in the mood for something light and decided to try the first book in the Miss Seeton cozy series. I had no idea what I was getting myself into!
Delightful, charming, and hilarious are words that I seldom use, let alone throw around with abandon as I am doing now, but... I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book! If I didn't have any self-control, I'd be reading all the books in this series one right after the other like potato chips or cookies.
Miss Seeton is Miss Marple on laughing gas. She's a spryer Miss Marple, too, and you'll never believe the adventures she and her umbrella get into. To Scotland Yard's credit, Detective Chief Superintendent Delphick (known as The Oracle) knows that Miss Seeton's ability to identify the killer means her life could be in danger-- especially since they know who they're looking for: "...he had a nasty feeling that when she'd stuck her brolly into César Lebel, she'd stuck it into a hornet's nest." Fortunately for Miss Seeton, Delphick sees her for the astute person she is. Unfortunately, Detective Sergeant Ranger has the typical youth's opinion that she's merely a dotty old woman carrying a lethal umbrella-- but that opinion may change as the two police officers try their best to keep her alive.
Miss Seeton is about to retire, and she's inherited a nice little cottage down in a village in Kent. Wanting to try country life on for size, she moves in for a few weeks-- and she takes Delphick's murder investigation with her, little knowing how much difficulty the villagers are going to add. The people of Plummergen are a riot, even "the Nuts," Miss Nuttel and Mrs. Blaine, horrible gossips who are "the parish substitute for a Hollywood scandal sheet." As broad as the comedy may be, I'm from a small village and I recognized many of Plummergen's characters. (My village had its own version of the Nuts, among others.)
The killer tries time and again to do away with Miss Seeton. If you have a hard time understanding how murder attempts on a poor little old lady could be hilarious, all you have to do is read Picture Miss Seeton. I spent most of this book either smiling or laughing out loud. This book is light and fun and addictive. It's just what I needed, and I've decided: I. Need. More.
Delightful, charming, and hilarious are words that I seldom use, let alone throw around with abandon as I am doing now, but... I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book! If I didn't have any self-control, I'd be reading all the books in this series one right after the other like potato chips or cookies.
Miss Seeton is Miss Marple on laughing gas. She's a spryer Miss Marple, too, and you'll never believe the adventures she and her umbrella get into. To Scotland Yard's credit, Detective Chief Superintendent Delphick (known as The Oracle) knows that Miss Seeton's ability to identify the killer means her life could be in danger-- especially since they know who they're looking for: "...he had a nasty feeling that when she'd stuck her brolly into César Lebel, she'd stuck it into a hornet's nest." Fortunately for Miss Seeton, Delphick sees her for the astute person she is. Unfortunately, Detective Sergeant Ranger has the typical youth's opinion that she's merely a dotty old woman carrying a lethal umbrella-- but that opinion may change as the two police officers try their best to keep her alive.
Miss Seeton is about to retire, and she's inherited a nice little cottage down in a village in Kent. Wanting to try country life on for size, she moves in for a few weeks-- and she takes Delphick's murder investigation with her, little knowing how much difficulty the villagers are going to add. The people of Plummergen are a riot, even "the Nuts," Miss Nuttel and Mrs. Blaine, horrible gossips who are "the parish substitute for a Hollywood scandal sheet." As broad as the comedy may be, I'm from a small village and I recognized many of Plummergen's characters. (My village had its own version of the Nuts, among others.)
The killer tries time and again to do away with Miss Seeton. If you have a hard time understanding how murder attempts on a poor little old lady could be hilarious, all you have to do is read Picture Miss Seeton. I spent most of this book either smiling or laughing out loud. This book is light and fun and addictive. It's just what I needed, and I've decided: I. Need. More.
August 16, 2019
First in a series
From the book jacket: Miss Emily Seeton had seen Carmen and it had made enough of an impression so that when she came across a stabbing in real life it didn’t upset her too much. Not that anything upset Miss Seeton too much. As long as she had a firm hold on her umbrella (and she always did), she could face just about anything.
My reactions:
What a fun romp of a cozy mystery! Miss Seeton is a retired art teacher who has just inherited a cottage in the village of Plummergen, Kent. Fearing that her encounter with the murderer may put her at risk she leaves her London flat and vows to spend the summer in Plummergen. The villagers aren’t sure what to make of her, and they have heard rumors of her run-ins with the law. Is she involved in drugs? Is she a spy? She and her umbrella are certainly at the center of all the strange happenings in and about the village.
It took me a little while to get involved in the story, but once I did, I was completely hooked. I just loved Miss Seeton and her bumbling way of getting involved. There were a satisfying number of suspects and a fair number of twists and turn in the plot that kept me on my toes. And while I identified the main culprit long before Miss Seeton or the police, it was still fun watching them put the pieces together.
I had to get this through inter-library loan, and I hope I can continue with the series. Miss Seeton is a hoot.
From the book jacket: Miss Emily Seeton had seen Carmen and it had made enough of an impression so that when she came across a stabbing in real life it didn’t upset her too much. Not that anything upset Miss Seeton too much. As long as she had a firm hold on her umbrella (and she always did), she could face just about anything.
My reactions:
What a fun romp of a cozy mystery! Miss Seeton is a retired art teacher who has just inherited a cottage in the village of Plummergen, Kent. Fearing that her encounter with the murderer may put her at risk she leaves her London flat and vows to spend the summer in Plummergen. The villagers aren’t sure what to make of her, and they have heard rumors of her run-ins with the law. Is she involved in drugs? Is she a spy? She and her umbrella are certainly at the center of all the strange happenings in and about the village.
It took me a little while to get involved in the story, but once I did, I was completely hooked. I just loved Miss Seeton and her bumbling way of getting involved. There were a satisfying number of suspects and a fair number of twists and turn in the plot that kept me on my toes. And while I identified the main culprit long before Miss Seeton or the police, it was still fun watching them put the pieces together.
I had to get this through inter-library loan, and I hope I can continue with the series. Miss Seeton is a hoot.
August 12, 2017
I really wanted to like this book as it is beginning of a series but I just couldn't get into it. The main character is a younger Miss Marple type who witnesses a murder. The catch is she is an Art teacher able to replicate the killers face through her drawing. She moves to an late elderly relatives home in the country and meets a series of quirky characters. It should be good but the writing just doesn't do it for me, it seems bitty and confused at times. The characters are annoying and the scenes move quickly from one place to another with no explanation. I really wanted to stick with it but gave up half way through. Not for me.
March 23, 2017
Some reviewers have written that the Kindle edition of Picture Miss Seeton is abridged. I have no way to confirm or deny this. The Miss Seeton which I downloaded via Kindle Unlimited is, abridged or not, a light, funny take on the mystery genre. Despite the humor, I found it to be somewhat realistic based upon my law enforcement experience. Sometimes people do funny things even in serious circumstances. The calm and bravery exhibited by Miss Seeton, while not every day common, is not unheard if either.
Read
February 18, 2017I wasn't certain I'd enjoy this starting out - Miss Seeton's opening was very scatty, and the narrative leapt from person to person at an almost frantic pace. Eventually though, it settled down and became mildly humorous - a nice light read.
June 17, 2022
Actual rating 2.5 ⭐ rounded up. This was okay. I was kinda bored by it but I was interested in how the mystery was going to be resolved. I've read far better mysteries and as for charm, I prefer Miss Marple.
July 21, 2024
The Unsinkable Miss Seeton!
This crime novel from 1968 is along the lines of Agatha Christie—but lighter, with less mystery, and with more humor. It's the first in the Miss Seeton series.
Of course, the comparison with Miss Marple can't be avoided. Both are older women with an admirable polite steadiness. Miss Seeton is slightly younger (early 60s?), never married, on the verge of retirement as a school art teacher. Where Miss Marple is an astute sleuth with a cynical knowledge of human nature, Miss Seeton is merely an accidental witness to a murder and subsequently finds herself in the center of more murders, embezzlement, and a powerful drug ring. Miss Seeton's talents are also the tools in her survival: an astute intuition about people that she captures in her drawings, an ability to keep her head even while not fully understanding all the evil-doings around her. And she has that trusty umbrella she carries in all weather.
Like Miss Marple, she's got "nice old lady" hutzpah that is frequently underestimated.
Being written almost 60 years ago, there are undoubtedly a few old-fashioned ideas within but frankly none at all compared to the extreme offensiveness we endure by a current U.S. presidential candidate, publicly and regularly.
Speaking of its age, I don't know why but I also got a thrill coming across some of the back-in-my-day expressions not much in use today, like "pep pills" and "gas bag." I also dug the scatterings of literary and classical references. For example, I had to look up "Niobe," which was an important concept in one of Miss Seeton's drawings. I like when something I'm reading sends me off to Google where I pick up more tidbits of general education. It mildly surprises me that in older novels the authors assume their readers come to the work more well-read than we apparently are now. Have you noticed that?
I can't gauge how this novel stacks up in its genre. I don't read much crime or mysteries and have never read a cozy mystery. I can say, though, it was a fun read that takes place in a small, quaint, and gossipy English village with lots of kettles being put on. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. The writing was good, straight-forward, and refreshingly clean (of errors, of vulgarities). And a big kudos to Mr. Carvic for making each of the many characters distinguishable from one another in their speech and thought.
I enjoyed the little step back in time. In spite of all the criminality and danger, it was oddly relaxing.
And an old lady protagonist is always going to tickle my now old lady heart.
This crime novel from 1968 is along the lines of Agatha Christie—but lighter, with less mystery, and with more humor. It's the first in the Miss Seeton series.
Of course, the comparison with Miss Marple can't be avoided. Both are older women with an admirable polite steadiness. Miss Seeton is slightly younger (early 60s?), never married, on the verge of retirement as a school art teacher. Where Miss Marple is an astute sleuth with a cynical knowledge of human nature, Miss Seeton is merely an accidental witness to a murder and subsequently finds herself in the center of more murders, embezzlement, and a powerful drug ring. Miss Seeton's talents are also the tools in her survival: an astute intuition about people that she captures in her drawings, an ability to keep her head even while not fully understanding all the evil-doings around her. And she has that trusty umbrella she carries in all weather.
Like Miss Marple, she's got "nice old lady" hutzpah that is frequently underestimated.
Being written almost 60 years ago, there are undoubtedly a few old-fashioned ideas within but frankly none at all compared to the extreme offensiveness we endure by a current U.S. presidential candidate, publicly and regularly.
Speaking of its age, I don't know why but I also got a thrill coming across some of the back-in-my-day expressions not much in use today, like "pep pills" and "gas bag." I also dug the scatterings of literary and classical references. For example, I had to look up "Niobe," which was an important concept in one of Miss Seeton's drawings. I like when something I'm reading sends me off to Google where I pick up more tidbits of general education. It mildly surprises me that in older novels the authors assume their readers come to the work more well-read than we apparently are now. Have you noticed that?
I can't gauge how this novel stacks up in its genre. I don't read much crime or mysteries and have never read a cozy mystery. I can say, though, it was a fun read that takes place in a small, quaint, and gossipy English village with lots of kettles being put on. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. The writing was good, straight-forward, and refreshingly clean (of errors, of vulgarities). And a big kudos to Mr. Carvic for making each of the many characters distinguishable from one another in their speech and thought.
I enjoyed the little step back in time. In spite of all the criminality and danger, it was oddly relaxing.
And an old lady protagonist is always going to tickle my now old lady heart.
September 5, 2014
If you want a light, cosy mystery with a touch of parody, this should be enjoyable. Written in 1968, when Britain was still on the old money system of shillings and sovereigns, villages were still full of wellstocked local shops, and computers get a glancing mention as weird new technology that exists somewhere, but can't be trusted to do much.
Miss Seeton is a retired but not retiring art mistress who goes to spend her holidays in the house she has inherited from her aged godmother. (If Miss Seeton is retirement age, said godmother must have been elderly indeed.) A chance encounter on a street in London draws her into a labyrinth of drugs, murder, greed and embezzlement. Nothing daunted, she draws her way out by providing Scotland yard with artist's impressions of suspects and situations that just happen to hold the keys to more than one case.
I first read this book back in the 80s, and am amused to see how my perception of the main character has changed. The second time around, I see her not so much muddle-headed as self-centred and rather judgemental. She wanders around in her own world, repeatedly "amazed", "horrified" and "shocked" at the behaviour of others. Murder doesn't seem to bother her so much as rudeness and malicious gossip. The staff room of her school must have been populated by angels--nothing like the teachers I have known and worked with all my life! Her nosiness ("must put this right") leads to more than one person getting hurt, and she blithely disobeys police orders and advice to stay out of danger--which nearly leads to her own death.
Carvic enjoyed parodying Miss Marple, Miss Silver and other spinster detectives. I'm not sure why he felt the "baddy" in the first scene had to be French, unless it was to underscore that "decent" (British) folks don't do such things...shame that the French on the first page was so impossibly bad, even for Marseilles street slang, which I speak. I enjoyed the humour of everyone in authority's reaction to the bumbling, blundering brolly-brandishing Seeton, but the narration was patchy in spots. One moment the JP is telling the police about a car chase--then the narrative voice shifts abruptly to third person as the author plumps for showing instead of telling--and then back again, with no transition, to conversational "and then this happened and then that happened" leaving me feeling slightly carsick and confused.
Miss Seeton is a retired but not retiring art mistress who goes to spend her holidays in the house she has inherited from her aged godmother. (If Miss Seeton is retirement age, said godmother must have been elderly indeed.) A chance encounter on a street in London draws her into a labyrinth of drugs, murder, greed and embezzlement. Nothing daunted, she draws her way out by providing Scotland yard with artist's impressions of suspects and situations that just happen to hold the keys to more than one case.
I first read this book back in the 80s, and am amused to see how my perception of the main character has changed. The second time around, I see her not so much muddle-headed as self-centred and rather judgemental. She wanders around in her own world, repeatedly "amazed", "horrified" and "shocked" at the behaviour of others. Murder doesn't seem to bother her so much as rudeness and malicious gossip. The staff room of her school must have been populated by angels--nothing like the teachers I have known and worked with all my life! Her nosiness ("must put this right") leads to more than one person getting hurt, and she blithely disobeys police orders and advice to stay out of danger--which nearly leads to her own death.
Carvic enjoyed parodying Miss Marple, Miss Silver and other spinster detectives. I'm not sure why he felt the "baddy" in the first scene had to be French, unless it was to underscore that "decent" (British) folks don't do such things...shame that the French on the first page was so impossibly bad, even for Marseilles street slang, which I speak. I enjoyed the humour of everyone in authority's reaction to the bumbling, blundering brolly-brandishing Seeton, but the narration was patchy in spots. One moment the JP is telling the police about a car chase--then the narrative voice shifts abruptly to third person as the author plumps for showing instead of telling--and then back again, with no transition, to conversational "and then this happened and then that happened" leaving me feeling slightly carsick and confused.
May 3, 2016
LOVED IT. So, Miss Seeton--the proper, aging amateur lady detective at the heart of this series--is kind of a mashup of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple (whom I loathe) and Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver (whom I adore), with an extra dose of satire thrown in. While this mystery has that "Golden Age," village-cozy vibe, the fact that it was originally written in the 1960s allows it to be edgier than either of those series: the crimes in _Picture Miss Seeton_ all revolve around a drug ring, and the murders are nastier and more cold-blooded than they often are in cozies.
Though the 22 books in this series were originally published in print between 1968 and 1999, Farrago is re-releasing these books as e-books. Only the first five in the series were written by Carvic; after his death in 1980, two other writers continued the series.
Carvic's gimmick is making Miss Seeton a drawing teacher, one with an almost clairvoyant talent for sketching perpetrators and victims in ways that not only reveal their moral character, but also seem to reveal their pasts and predict their futures.
Like Wentworth, Carvic has a good time both making his unlikely detective figure a target both for admiration and good-natured mocking. The narration here is sophisticated, shifting back and forth from the point of view of Miss Seeton; Scotland Yard Superintendent Delphick and his Sergeant, Bob Ranger; village gossips Miss Nuttel and Mrs. Blaine; and a number of other characters. This makes it a little difficult to follow at first, but in time the shifts become easier to follow, and add to the complexity of the narrative.
All of this allows the author to begin setting up the locale of Plummergen and its inhabitants for future installments in the series. There's a lot of promise here--I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series as Farrago releases them!
NB: I received a free eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Though the 22 books in this series were originally published in print between 1968 and 1999, Farrago is re-releasing these books as e-books. Only the first five in the series were written by Carvic; after his death in 1980, two other writers continued the series.
Carvic's gimmick is making Miss Seeton a drawing teacher, one with an almost clairvoyant talent for sketching perpetrators and victims in ways that not only reveal their moral character, but also seem to reveal their pasts and predict their futures.
Like Wentworth, Carvic has a good time both making his unlikely detective figure a target both for admiration and good-natured mocking. The narration here is sophisticated, shifting back and forth from the point of view of Miss Seeton; Scotland Yard Superintendent Delphick and his Sergeant, Bob Ranger; village gossips Miss Nuttel and Mrs. Blaine; and a number of other characters. This makes it a little difficult to follow at first, but in time the shifts become easier to follow, and add to the complexity of the narrative.
All of this allows the author to begin setting up the locale of Plummergen and its inhabitants for future installments in the series. There's a lot of promise here--I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series as Farrago releases them!
NB: I received a free eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 25, 2018
This is a series of books I’ve have come across in libraries, second hand book shops, even charity shops over many years, but I have never read one, even though I quite like a good mystery, so I thought I’d give this a try.
The book started quite well and I was intrigued by Miss Seeton right from the start. Unfortunately I soon hit a problem with the style of writing. I really struggled to follow any dialogue. The sentences were clipped, unfinished, and often went off at a tagent. I suppose the author was trying to emulate normal conversation, but that really doesn’t work in print. To make matters worse even when there is a coherent passage the book just inexplicably jumps to another scene.
I believe the author intended Miss Seeton to be an ‘Innocent’, but at times she just appears to be stupid, how can she believe that right after witnessing a murder, the man threatening her with a gun was just trying to steal a few eggs.
The title of the book implies Miss Seeton is the main character, but she seems to only make the occasional guest appearance, this is a pity as she is the most interesting character.
Overall I thought about a quarter of the book was quite interesting and a fun read, unfortunately the other three quarters was incomprehensible or just boring.
The book started quite well and I was intrigued by Miss Seeton right from the start. Unfortunately I soon hit a problem with the style of writing. I really struggled to follow any dialogue. The sentences were clipped, unfinished, and often went off at a tagent. I suppose the author was trying to emulate normal conversation, but that really doesn’t work in print. To make matters worse even when there is a coherent passage the book just inexplicably jumps to another scene.
I believe the author intended Miss Seeton to be an ‘Innocent’, but at times she just appears to be stupid, how can she believe that right after witnessing a murder, the man threatening her with a gun was just trying to steal a few eggs.
The title of the book implies Miss Seeton is the main character, but she seems to only make the occasional guest appearance, this is a pity as she is the most interesting character.
Overall I thought about a quarter of the book was quite interesting and a fun read, unfortunately the other three quarters was incomprehensible or just boring.
August 23, 2022
2022 bk 239. I loved this series the first time around and am delighted that they are digitized and available again. Miss Seeton is an art teacher - school and private lessons. When she inherits a cottage from her godmother, she sets off to visit in on the school holidays. Stopping in London to take in a show, she witnesses a murder, attacks the murderer with her umbrella, and becomes acquainted with the police. Trouble follows her to her new home. A pair of nasty gossips, a murderer hunting her, problems with a local drug ring all conspire to keep her busy. Wonderful fun!
February 29, 2024
Loved the humorous tone to this!
March 27, 2025
I’ve been looking for Miss Seeton books for ages, happy to,find it on sale at Kindle. Armed with her brolly, and rather psychic ability to capture impressions with her sketches, she unconsciously leads police to finding the bad guys. Set in an English village with a handful of quirky characters.
January 3, 2019
This was a delight to reread.
I'd forgotten just what an endearing character Miss Seeton is with her ever-present brolly and continual misunderstanding of what's going on around her. To balance that, though, there is the fact that she was a school mistress and you realize she must have been a good one because she brings that sense of judging people to different situations. If only she understood just what the situations were.
These would go in the "cozy mystery" category as well as the comic category, while still being very satisfying mysteries.
Here's a bit of the beginning of the book in which Miss Seeton reflects on the opera she just saw.
I'd forgotten just what an endearing character Miss Seeton is with her ever-present brolly and continual misunderstanding of what's going on around her. To balance that, though, there is the fact that she was a school mistress and you realize she must have been a good one because she brings that sense of judging people to different situations. If only she understood just what the situations were.
These would go in the "cozy mystery" category as well as the comic category, while still being very satisfying mysteries.
Here's a bit of the beginning of the book in which Miss Seeton reflects on the opera she just saw.
"L'amour est tum tumHeron Carvic wrote the first five Miss Seeton mysteries. Although the series continued with other authors none of them really rang true. Those first five though are great fun.
De something..."
So colorful. Not romantic—no, one couldn’t call it that; if anything perhaps a trifle sordid. Carmen, herself, for instance, no better than she should be. In fact, if one were frank, worse. And the other girl, the young one; it was difficult to feel sorry for her. Her fiancé, quite obsessed with his mother—obviously weak and easily influenced—would have made a most unsatisfactory husband in any case. Still, for him to stab Carmen at the end like that—so unnecessary. Almost contrived. Though, of course, one must not forget that foreigners felt differently about these matters. One read that people abroad did frequently get emotional and kill each other. Probably the heat.
April 1, 2020
One of the best cozies I've read. Miss Seeton is adorable. The author is very clever in introducing her and by the end of the book, well...you see the ending is classic Miss Seeton. Perfect ending. The dialog is strong in this story and often it seems the reader is dropped into the middle of a conversation and privy to the information. There are intense parts of the storyline handled and described well. One thing Miss Seeton cannot abide is bad manners! This often gets her in trouble. The title is I think sort of a play on words referencing Miss Seeton teaching drawing class. When she is questioned by the police she is more comfortable sketching a picture than a verbal description. And also actually no one can picture her in any of these situations she is involved in quite innocently. She manages to find her way into the hearts of almost everyone she comes in contact with. Overall clever fun read. I am currently hunting down the rest of this series. I imagine the author Heron Carvic must have been quite a character himself or had a Miss Seeton in his family if so we are fortunate he shared her with us.
October 16, 2025
2025: Relistening to Phyllida Nash for my own series September challenge.
2018:I selected the audiobook due to Phyllida Nash's narration.- perfect.
The story originally started out with a very 'golden era' mystery feel to it. Miss Seeton is not golden era, she's an elderly, ladylike, spinster in a more modern time who has psychic drawing, as in artistic, powers, practices yoga, and has an umbrella as her lucky talisman.
Carvic repeatedly refers to "Alice in Wonderland" throughout the book - I eventually made the connection - which explains why the book has a slightly offbeat, Madhatter, tone to it. The ending has that same offbeat feel, it doesn't resolve the question, "What happened to the body in the cupboard?".
Extra content others may like to know about before handing to your teen: Carvic has his villain in the book ruthlessly ending someone's life (I wasn't prepared for it, the focus was on Miss Seeton's plight, the author just tossed it down the 'rabbit hole'). The story centres around drugs, their pushers and victims.
2018:I selected the audiobook due to Phyllida Nash's narration.- perfect.
The story originally started out with a very 'golden era' mystery feel to it. Miss Seeton is not golden era, she's an elderly, ladylike, spinster in a more modern time who has psychic drawing, as in artistic, powers, practices yoga, and has an umbrella as her lucky talisman.
Carvic repeatedly refers to "Alice in Wonderland" throughout the book - I eventually made the connection - which explains why the book has a slightly offbeat, Madhatter, tone to it. The ending has that same offbeat feel, it doesn't resolve the question, "What happened to the body in the cupboard?".
Extra content others may like to know about before handing to your teen: Carvic has his villain in the book ruthlessly ending someone's life (I wasn't prepared for it, the focus was on Miss Seeton's plight, the author just tossed it down the 'rabbit hole'). The story centres around drugs, their pushers and victims.
May 5, 2016
What a treat to meet my old friend Miss Seeton. I enjoy my visits with her and all the antics that happen. There is much laughter and many smiles as Miss Seeton managed to aid the police with her drawing ability. She carries her umbrella with her. Leaving the opera house Miss Seeton interrupts a murder and is able to draw a picture of the villain for Scotland Yard. This begins her adventure as she heads toward the small town where she has inherited a house. There are several attempts to kill her.The reason she is able to escape each attempt is ingenious. I looking forward to reading her adventures again.
Disclosure: I received a free copy Farrago through NetGalley for an honest review. I would like to thank them for this opportunity to read and review the book. The opinions are my own.
Disclosure: I received a free copy Farrago through NetGalley for an honest review. I would like to thank them for this opportunity to read and review the book. The opinions are my own.
July 11, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, flowed wonderfully, kept me interested and was, at times, funny.
The heroine, Miss Seeton, is a practical English spinster who teaches art and is an accomplished artist herself. She also has a great deal of common sense.
The other characters were well rounded and either interesting or irritating, which made the story all the more engaging. Add in a typical English village with character plus and you have a great story.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait to get into the next one to see what kind of mischief Miss Seeton gets into next.
The heroine, Miss Seeton, is a practical English spinster who teaches art and is an accomplished artist herself. She also has a great deal of common sense.
The other characters were well rounded and either interesting or irritating, which made the story all the more engaging. Add in a typical English village with character plus and you have a great story.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait to get into the next one to see what kind of mischief Miss Seeton gets into next.
September 12, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery, especially the main character. Refreshingly clean, though not a new idea (spinster lady w/special insight) it is however a pleasant addition to that sub genre. Well played in character by Phyllida Nash. I agree wholeheartedly with Charles’ review (below). It’s much clearer and better said than my own.
February 8, 2017
First read in 2011 and again 29 April 2016.
First in the Heron Carvic's Miss Seeton too-funny mystery series sharing adventures between London and a village in Kent.
This ARC was sent to me by NetGalley and Farrago for an honest review.
My Take
If you like the homey qualities of Agatha Christie, you will very much enjoy Carvic's Miss Seeton! She's a no-nonsense, logical lady who firmly believes in manners. Much to some bad boys' chagrin! She's also naive in believing that everyone will behave the same way, which turns Picture Miss Seeton into a comedy of logic versus gossip with the villagers seeing Miss Seeton's logical approach to life as eccentric. One of those logical moves — that one doesn't expect from a "little old lady" — is Miss Seeton taking up yoga.
It's that insistence on manners that starts the action off and her reaction to it all that brings out Delphick's protective instincts. He's quite pleased that the murderer doesn't know of Miss Seeton's plans for the morrow, and that she'll be right out the way of any danger.
Oh, well.
Superintendent Delphick is quick to take advantage of Miss Seeton's naiveté. The surprising part is that one wouldn't expect the 1960s coppers being all that "psychic" themselves! Or that quick to accept. The whole story was rather like that. A sense of trust and caring that we, in general, lack today.
It's a soap opera-like approach to drugs and crime — the sort that brings to mind Reefer Madness, there are police who use their heads, there are some villagers who are practical and kindly while others take much too much joy in embellishing their own "hopes" into a mish-mash of entangled gossip with all sorts of nonsensical ideas thrown into the ether about the "truth" behind Miss Seeton and her activities. The two Nuts are a hoot even if I do want to smash 'em left, right, and center. I do love what Miss Seeton does to them in the post office!
Carvic does have his fun with the English attitude toward anyone not English. Ooh, ar, them furriners don't half know how to behave…bein' foreign-like and all. Miss Seeton is quite the levelheaded lady, and never more so than when she first meets the Oracle. Poor Ranger has no idea what he's in for, but she is a nice bit of relief for the cops.
The atmosphere feel like the 1900s, but it must be set in the 1960s somewhere. Or maybe not. There is one mention of a computer, so I haven't a clue. There's lots of talk of having a car sent and there is a regular bus route that goes through the village, so it's sufficiently confusing as to when the story takes place.
One must appreciate the reverend. His heart is in the right place. If only he didn't leap to conclusions so quickly! Poor DS Bob comes in for quite a bit of quiet teasing. Then Anne and her aborted seductions, poor girl, lol. The chasing in which Nigel and Sir George engage. The rabbitin', *laughing*.
I do love Lady Colvedon, Sir George, and Nigel. They're truly decent people with a wicked sense of humor who know what's going on around them.
That Morton was a real piece of work. I did get confused by a statement that Mrs. Venning had been socially active until a year ago when earlier (and later) Carvic makes it sound as though Mrs. Venning has been a hermit for years.
Oh lord, I do enjoy the occasional lapses into parody…Miss Seeton's comment about laying her own has Nigel envisioning "Miss Seeton, in that hat, enthroned on an outsized nesting box" while later Delphick gets this image of himself cleaning up the drug smuggling ring with a boiling teakettle.
Miss Seeton did have a tricky way of getting out of that kidnapping. Oh, and you can just hear some idjit criminal using that same damned excuse…!! Arghhhh! I did love the judge's reaction when Miss Seeton had her say in court, lol.
I can't really blame Nigel for taking the piss with Delphick:
ROFLMAO, lucky Delphick is about to get his dream come true…Lebel trussed up and packaged for him. You'll never guess how it comes about, ROFL.
Picture Miss Seeton was an absolute treat. An author who actually knew how to write and did so with intelligence.
The Story
It all starts with a murder in London and a poke with a brolly, which brings Miss Seeton to the attention of both Scotland Yard and the bad guys. Her frustration and Delphick's noting that she's a drawing teacher begins the connection between Miss Seeton and Delphick.
With that comes protective surveillance, newspaper publicity, and the Nuts' obsession with "creativity" combined with a nap and the pot of jam from Mrs. and Miss Vennings sends the Nuts off with gossip that alternates between drug running, vendettas, and lord knows what else.
And Miss Seeton heads down to Sweetbriars blissfully unaware of the press or the gossip shortly to be swirling about her. She'll be drawn deeper into the mix when she listens to Nigel as he sweats out his problem. The one that brings Miss Seeton deeper into the mix, tying the threads into one great clump.
The Characters
Miss Emily Seeton is a drawing instructor for a private school in London and never seen without her umbrella. Her godmother and a cousin twice removed, Mrs. Flora Bannet, has just died and left Miss Seeton her cottage, Sweetbriars.
Scotland Yard
Superintendent Delphick, a.k.a., the Oracle, and Detective Sergeant Bob Ranger are both with Scotland Yard. I like them both for their warm hearts: Delphick is level-headed and quick while Bob is more inclined to a Boy Scout approach. Harry is running some prints. Chief Superintendent Gosslin is Delphick's boss.
Plummergen, Kent is…
…where Miss Seeton's inheritance lies. Martha Bloomer had been Mrs. Bannet's cleaning lady for years ("Flora always said Martha must have been born in the middle of a conversation") and has stayed on to help Miss Seeton (she also cleans for Lady Colvedon). She's rather known for her "Grand Slams". Her husband, Stan, did the garden and the chickens in a barter arrangement.
Major-General Sir George Colveden, the local justice of the peace, and Meg, Lady Colvedon, live at Rytham Hall with their son, Nigel, who is studying agriculture. An older daughter is married and lives in London.
Mrs. Sonia Vennings is a widow who turned to writing and has earned enough off her children's books about Jack the Rabbit, his friend Lucy, and his enemy Wally Weasel to move to the Meadows with her poor, bored daughter, Angela, hostage to her mother's past. David is the husband who died. Mrs. Fratters is their housekeeper and had been Sonia's nurse when she was a child.
The Reverend Arthur Treeves is the bachelor vicar who has lost his faith. And a more woolly-headed one with a profound dislike for social chit-chat I can't imagine. His sister, Molly Treeves, is much more levelheaded and intelligent — she keeps her brother up-to-date.
Dr. Knight runs the local surgery and a small nursing care home with the help of his daughter Anne, who has caught DS Ranger's eye. You'll like the doctor…a wicked sense of humor: "Bob following: a leviathan in tow to a tiny tug".
Erica "Eric" Nuttel and Norah "Bunny" Blaine have shared a house, Lilikot (ahem, a.k.a., the Nut House), for eleven years in the center of the village opposite the garage". I'm sure they'll never move unless the village can unite in tossing them across the county. They're much too interested in whatever is happening around them and not too concerned with truth. In fact, embroidering is so much more fun, and they spread their inventions about with glee. Most of the village refers to them together as the "Nuts" and individually as "Nutcrackers" and "Hot Cross Bun" respectively.
PC Potter is the village constable with orders to keep an eye on Miss Seeton. His comments to that effect only seem to fuel the village gossip in the wrong direction. Jack Crabbe runs the local garage and petrol station and hires himself out to drive people about. Mrs. Walsted runs the local draper's with the help of her daughter, Margery. Mrs. Goffer and Mrs. Spice are encountered in the grocer's. Doris is the waitress at The George and Dragon. Mr. Stillman runs the post office.
Ashford
Chief Detective Inspector Chris Brinton of the Ashford Criminal Investigation Department gets involved when the action moves into Kent…with Miss Seeton. Hubert Trefold Morton, solicitor, alderman, and mayor-expectant of Brettenden is Miss Seeton's solicitor. An annoyingly loud man with his fingers in many, many pies. Some of his previous clients include Mrs. Cummingdale with the angry nephew, Ernest Foremason, Miss Worlingham, and Miss Hant. His housekeeper doesn't think much of him, either.
The Singing Swan is a youth club on the other side of Brettenden. Art Grant, Micky Hughes, Sue Frith, Diana Dean, James Trugg, and John Hart are habitués.
César Lebel is the young "foreigner" who starts it all with the murder of the young prostitute, Marie Prévost Hickson. Ginger Nut is the close-mouthed kidnapper.
Mabel and Edward Walters came to Miss Seeton's aid in London. Mrs. Perrsons is a nosy neighbor in London.
The Cover and Title
It's a pastel rainbow reflecting the light humor of the story. A yellow-on-yellow sky against which a melon-colored village silhouette stands out. The melon degrades down to a pale peach at the bottom, and in between, is a tall dark purple silhouette of Miss Seeton unfurling her Battlin' Brolly, pointing it at Lady Colveden's used and abused MG with a pretty blue graphic of Sweetbriars tucked in the title.
The title is part of our introduction to Miss Seeton's abilities to Picture Miss Seeton, as she plumbs the depths of her artistic insight into the people around her.
First in the Heron Carvic's Miss Seeton too-funny mystery series sharing adventures between London and a village in Kent.
This ARC was sent to me by NetGalley and Farrago for an honest review.
My Take
If you like the homey qualities of Agatha Christie, you will very much enjoy Carvic's Miss Seeton! She's a no-nonsense, logical lady who firmly believes in manners. Much to some bad boys' chagrin! She's also naive in believing that everyone will behave the same way, which turns Picture Miss Seeton into a comedy of logic versus gossip with the villagers seeing Miss Seeton's logical approach to life as eccentric. One of those logical moves — that one doesn't expect from a "little old lady" — is Miss Seeton taking up yoga.
It's that insistence on manners that starts the action off and her reaction to it all that brings out Delphick's protective instincts. He's quite pleased that the murderer doesn't know of Miss Seeton's plans for the morrow, and that she'll be right out the way of any danger.
Oh, well.
Superintendent Delphick is quick to take advantage of Miss Seeton's naiveté. The surprising part is that one wouldn't expect the 1960s coppers being all that "psychic" themselves! Or that quick to accept. The whole story was rather like that. A sense of trust and caring that we, in general, lack today.
It's a soap opera-like approach to drugs and crime — the sort that brings to mind Reefer Madness, there are police who use their heads, there are some villagers who are practical and kindly while others take much too much joy in embellishing their own "hopes" into a mish-mash of entangled gossip with all sorts of nonsensical ideas thrown into the ether about the "truth" behind Miss Seeton and her activities. The two Nuts are a hoot even if I do want to smash 'em left, right, and center. I do love what Miss Seeton does to them in the post office!
Carvic does have his fun with the English attitude toward anyone not English. Ooh, ar, them furriners don't half know how to behave…bein' foreign-like and all. Miss Seeton is quite the levelheaded lady, and never more so than when she first meets the Oracle. Poor Ranger has no idea what he's in for, but she is a nice bit of relief for the cops.
The atmosphere feel like the 1900s, but it must be set in the 1960s somewhere. Or maybe not. There is one mention of a computer, so I haven't a clue. There's lots of talk of having a car sent and there is a regular bus route that goes through the village, so it's sufficiently confusing as to when the story takes place.
One must appreciate the reverend. His heart is in the right place. If only he didn't leap to conclusions so quickly! Poor DS Bob comes in for quite a bit of quiet teasing. Then Anne and her aborted seductions, poor girl, lol. The chasing in which Nigel and Sir George engage. The rabbitin', *laughing*.
I do love Lady Colvedon, Sir George, and Nigel. They're truly decent people with a wicked sense of humor who know what's going on around them.
"Wife always first suspect. Hire someone. Don't let 'em overcharge."All the juggling about as the villagers try to figure out a welcoming gift for Miss Seeton was too funny. The hen house war yields names and great adventure for Sir George and Nigel as they hare off to battle in her ladyship's MG. The kidnapping that goes in reverse and ends for young Ginger when Miss Seeton gets indignant at the hearing over her crushed hat.
That Morton was a real piece of work. I did get confused by a statement that Mrs. Venning had been socially active until a year ago when earlier (and later) Carvic makes it sound as though Mrs. Venning has been a hermit for years.
Oh lord, I do enjoy the occasional lapses into parody…Miss Seeton's comment about laying her own has Nigel envisioning "Miss Seeton, in that hat, enthroned on an outsized nesting box" while later Delphick gets this image of himself cleaning up the drug smuggling ring with a boiling teakettle.
Miss Seeton did have a tricky way of getting out of that kidnapping. Oh, and you can just hear some idjit criminal using that same damned excuse…!! Arghhhh! I did love the judge's reaction when Miss Seeton had her say in court, lol.
I can't really blame Nigel for taking the piss with Delphick:
"'Sarcasm and rudeness aren't exactly helpful.'"I quite agree,' retorted Nigel, 'but I don't see why it should be one-way traffic.'"That comment Miss Seeton makes about the "gardener" who wrote How Does Your Garden Grow? cracked me up.
He explains her to Bob as "everybody's conscience, . . . Humanity's backbone . . . [going] to the stake for you again and again; . . . as a matter of principle".A thought that has Bob wondering about emigrating to Canada where the Mounties only ever get their "man". Certainly Brinton is moaning about how quiet the area used to be before she showed with her brolly in action.
ROFLMAO, lucky Delphick is about to get his dream come true…Lebel trussed up and packaged for him. You'll never guess how it comes about, ROFL.
Picture Miss Seeton was an absolute treat. An author who actually knew how to write and did so with intelligence.
The Story
It all starts with a murder in London and a poke with a brolly, which brings Miss Seeton to the attention of both Scotland Yard and the bad guys. Her frustration and Delphick's noting that she's a drawing teacher begins the connection between Miss Seeton and Delphick.
With that comes protective surveillance, newspaper publicity, and the Nuts' obsession with "creativity" combined with a nap and the pot of jam from Mrs. and Miss Vennings sends the Nuts off with gossip that alternates between drug running, vendettas, and lord knows what else.
And Miss Seeton heads down to Sweetbriars blissfully unaware of the press or the gossip shortly to be swirling about her. She'll be drawn deeper into the mix when she listens to Nigel as he sweats out his problem. The one that brings Miss Seeton deeper into the mix, tying the threads into one great clump.
The Characters
Miss Emily Seeton is a drawing instructor for a private school in London and never seen without her umbrella. Her godmother and a cousin twice removed, Mrs. Flora Bannet, has just died and left Miss Seeton her cottage, Sweetbriars.
Scotland Yard
Superintendent Delphick, a.k.a., the Oracle, and Detective Sergeant Bob Ranger are both with Scotland Yard. I like them both for their warm hearts: Delphick is level-headed and quick while Bob is more inclined to a Boy Scout approach. Harry is running some prints. Chief Superintendent Gosslin is Delphick's boss.
Plummergen, Kent is…
…where Miss Seeton's inheritance lies. Martha Bloomer had been Mrs. Bannet's cleaning lady for years ("Flora always said Martha must have been born in the middle of a conversation") and has stayed on to help Miss Seeton (she also cleans for Lady Colvedon). She's rather known for her "Grand Slams". Her husband, Stan, did the garden and the chickens in a barter arrangement.
Major-General Sir George Colveden, the local justice of the peace, and Meg, Lady Colvedon, live at Rytham Hall with their son, Nigel, who is studying agriculture. An older daughter is married and lives in London.
Mrs. Sonia Vennings is a widow who turned to writing and has earned enough off her children's books about Jack the Rabbit, his friend Lucy, and his enemy Wally Weasel to move to the Meadows with her poor, bored daughter, Angela, hostage to her mother's past. David is the husband who died. Mrs. Fratters is their housekeeper and had been Sonia's nurse when she was a child.
The Reverend Arthur Treeves is the bachelor vicar who has lost his faith. And a more woolly-headed one with a profound dislike for social chit-chat I can't imagine. His sister, Molly Treeves, is much more levelheaded and intelligent — she keeps her brother up-to-date.
Dr. Knight runs the local surgery and a small nursing care home with the help of his daughter Anne, who has caught DS Ranger's eye. You'll like the doctor…a wicked sense of humor: "Bob following: a leviathan in tow to a tiny tug".
Erica "Eric" Nuttel and Norah "Bunny" Blaine have shared a house, Lilikot (ahem, a.k.a., the Nut House), for eleven years in the center of the village opposite the garage". I'm sure they'll never move unless the village can unite in tossing them across the county. They're much too interested in whatever is happening around them and not too concerned with truth. In fact, embroidering is so much more fun, and they spread their inventions about with glee. Most of the village refers to them together as the "Nuts" and individually as "Nutcrackers" and "Hot Cross Bun" respectively.
PC Potter is the village constable with orders to keep an eye on Miss Seeton. His comments to that effect only seem to fuel the village gossip in the wrong direction. Jack Crabbe runs the local garage and petrol station and hires himself out to drive people about. Mrs. Walsted runs the local draper's with the help of her daughter, Margery. Mrs. Goffer and Mrs. Spice are encountered in the grocer's. Doris is the waitress at The George and Dragon. Mr. Stillman runs the post office.
Ashford
Chief Detective Inspector Chris Brinton of the Ashford Criminal Investigation Department gets involved when the action moves into Kent…with Miss Seeton. Hubert Trefold Morton, solicitor, alderman, and mayor-expectant of Brettenden is Miss Seeton's solicitor. An annoyingly loud man with his fingers in many, many pies. Some of his previous clients include Mrs. Cummingdale with the angry nephew, Ernest Foremason, Miss Worlingham, and Miss Hant. His housekeeper doesn't think much of him, either.
The Singing Swan is a youth club on the other side of Brettenden. Art Grant, Micky Hughes, Sue Frith, Diana Dean, James Trugg, and John Hart are habitués.
César Lebel is the young "foreigner" who starts it all with the murder of the young prostitute, Marie Prévost Hickson. Ginger Nut is the close-mouthed kidnapper.
Mabel and Edward Walters came to Miss Seeton's aid in London. Mrs. Perrsons is a nosy neighbor in London.
The Cover and Title
It's a pastel rainbow reflecting the light humor of the story. A yellow-on-yellow sky against which a melon-colored village silhouette stands out. The melon degrades down to a pale peach at the bottom, and in between, is a tall dark purple silhouette of Miss Seeton unfurling her Battlin' Brolly, pointing it at Lady Colveden's used and abused MG with a pretty blue graphic of Sweetbriars tucked in the title.
The title is part of our introduction to Miss Seeton's abilities to Picture Miss Seeton, as she plumbs the depths of her artistic insight into the people around her.
May 1, 2016
First in the Heron Carvic's Miss Seeton too-funny mystery series sharing adventures between London and a village in Kent.
This ARC was sent to me by NetGalley and Farrago for an honest review.
My Take
If you like the homey qualities of Agatha Christie, you will very much enjoy Carvic's Miss Seeton! She's a no-nonsense, logical lady who firmly believes in manners. Much to some bad boys' chagrin! She's also naive in believing that everyone will behave the same way, which turns Picture Miss Seeton into a comedy of logic versus gossip with the villagers seeing Miss Seeton's logical approach to life as eccentric. One of those logical moves — that one doesn't expect from a "little old lady" — is Miss Seeton taking up yoga.
It's that insistence on manners that starts the action off and her reaction to it all that brings out Delphick's protective instincts. He's quite pleased that the murderer doesn't know of Miss Seeton's plans for the morrow, and that she'll be right out the way of any danger.
Oh, well.
Superintendent Delphick is quick to take advantage of Miss Seeton's naiveté. The surprising part is that one wouldn't expect the 1960s coppers being all that "psychic" themselves! Or that quick to accept. The whole story was rather like that. A sense of trust and caring that we, in general, lack today.
It's a soap opera-like approach to drugs and crime — the sort that brings to mind Reefer Madness, there are police who use their heads, there are some villagers who are practical and kindly while others take much too much joy in embellishing their own "hopes" into a mish-mash of entangled gossip with all sorts of nonsensical ideas thrown into the ether about the "truth" behind Miss Seeton and her activities. The two Nuts are a hoot even if I do want to smash 'em left, right, and center. I do love what Miss Seeton does to them in the post office!
Carvic does have his fun with the English attitude toward anyone not English. Ooh, ar, them furriners don't half know how to behave…bein' foreign-like and all. Miss Seeton is quite the levelheaded lady, and never more so than when she first meets the Oracle. Poor Ranger has no idea what he's in for, but she is a nice bit of relief for the cops.
The atmosphere feel like the 1900s, but it must be set in the 1960s somewhere. Or maybe not. There is one mention of a computer, so I haven't a clue. There's lots of talk of having a car sent and there is a regular bus route that goes through the village, so it's sufficiently confusing as to when the story takes place.
One must appreciate the reverend. His heart is in the right place. If only he didn't leap to conclusions so quickly! Poor DS Bob comes in for quite a bit of quiet teasing. Then Anne and her aborted seductions, poor girl, lol. The chasing in which Nigel and Sir George engage. The rabbitin', *laughing*.
I do love Lady Colvedon, Sir George, and Nigel. They're truly decent people with a wicked sense of humor who know what's going on around them.
That Morton was a real piece of work. I did get confused by a statement that Mrs. Venning had been socially active until a year ago when earlier (and later) Carvic makes it sound as though Mrs. Venning has been a hermit for years.
Oh lord, I do enjoy the occasional lapses into parody…Miss Seeton's comment about laying her own has Nigel envisioning "Miss Seeton, in that hat, enthroned on an outsized nesting box" while later Delphick gets this image of himself cleaning up the drug smuggling ring with a boiling teakettle.
Miss Seeton did have a tricky way of getting out of that kidnapping. Oh, and you can just hear some idjit criminal using that same damned excuse…!! Arghhhh! I did love the judge's reaction when Miss Seeton had her say in court, lol.
I can't really blame Nigel for taking the piss with Delphick:
ROFLMAO, lucky Delphick is about to get his dream come true…Lebel trussed up and packaged for him. You'll never guess how it comes about, ROFL.
Picture Miss Seeton was an absolute treat. An author who actually knew how to write and did so with intelligence.
The Story
It all starts with a murder in London and a poke with a brolly, which brings Miss Seeton to the attention of both Scotland Yard and the bad guys. Her frustration and Delphick's noting that she's a drawing teacher begins the connection between Miss Seeton and Delphick.
With that comes protective surveillance, newspaper publicity, and the Nuts' obsession with "creativity" combined with a nap and the pot of jam from Mrs. and Miss Vennings sends the Nuts off with gossip that alternates between drug running, vendettas, and lord knows what else.
And Miss Seeton heads down to Sweetbriars blissfully unaware of the press or the gossip shortly to be swirling about her. She'll be drawn deeper into the mix when she listens to Nigel as he sweats out his problem. The one that brings Miss Seeton deeper into the mix, tying the threads into one great clump.
The Characters
Miss Emily Seeton is a drawing instructor for a private school in London and never seen without her umbrella. Her godmother and a cousin twice removed, Mrs. Flora Bannet, has just died and left Miss Seeton her cottage, Sweetbriars.
Scotland Yard
Superintendent Delphick, a.k.a., the Oracle, and Detective Sergeant Bob Ranger are both with Scotland Yard. I like them both for their warm hearts: Delphick is level-headed and quick while Bob is more inclined to a Boy Scout approach. Harry is running some prints. Chief Superintendent Gosslin is Delphick's boss.
Plummergen, Kent is…
…where Miss Seeton's inheritance lies. Martha Bloomer had been Mrs. Bannet's cleaning lady for years ("Flora always said Martha must have been born in the middle of a conversation") and has stayed on to help Miss Seeton (she also cleans for Lady Colvedon). She's rather known for her "Grand Slams". Her husband, Stan, did the garden and the chickens in a barter arrangement.
Major-General Sir George Colveden, the local justice of the peace, and Meg, Lady Colvedon, live at Rytham Hall with their son, Nigel, who is studying agriculture. An older daughter is married and lives in London.
Mrs. Sonia Vennings is a widow who turned to writing and has earned enough off her children's books about Jack the Rabbit, his friend Lucy, and his enemy Wally Weasel to move to the Meadows with her poor, bored daughter, Angela, hostage to her mother's past. David is the husband who died. Mrs. Fratters is their housekeeper and had been Sonia's nurse when she was a child.
The Reverend Arthur Treeves is the bachelor vicar who has lost his faith. And a more woolly-headed one with a profound dislike for social chit-chat I can't imagine. His sister, Molly Treeves, is much more levelheaded and intelligent — she keeps her brother up-to-date.
Dr. Knight runs the local surgery and a small nursing care home with the help of his daughter Anne, who has caught DS Ranger's eye. You'll like the doctor…a wicked sense of humor: "Bob following: a leviathan in tow to a tiny tug".
Erica "Eric" Nuttel and Norah "Bunny" Blaine have shared a house, Lilikot (ahem, a.k.a., the Nut House), for eleven years in the center of the village opposite the garage". I'm sure they'll never move unless the village can unite in tossing them across the county. They're much too interested in whatever is happening around them and not too concerned with truth. In fact, embroidering is so much more fun, and they spread their inventions about with glee. Most of the village refers to them together as the "Nuts" and individually as "Nutcrackers" and "Hot Cross Bun" respectively.
PC Potter is the village constable with orders to keep an eye on Miss Seeton. His comments to that effect only seem to fuel the village gossip in the wrong direction. Jack Crabbe runs the local garage and petrol station and hires himself out to drive people about. Mrs. Walsted runs the local draper's with the help of her daughter, Margery. Mrs. Goffer and Mrs. Spice are encountered in the grocer's. Doris is the waitress at The George and Dragon. Mr. Stillman runs the post office.
Ashford
Chief Detective Inspector Chris Brinton of the Ashford Criminal Investigation Department gets involved when the action moves into Kent…with Miss Seeton. Hubert Trefold Morton, solicitor, alderman, and mayor-expectant of Brettenden is Miss Seeton's solicitor. An annoyingly loud man with his fingers in many, many pies. Some of his previous clients include Mrs. Cummingdale with the angry nephew, Ernest Foremason, Miss Worlingham, and Miss Hant. His housekeeper doesn't think much of him, either.
The Singing Swan is a youth club on the other side of Brettenden. Art Grant, Micky Hughes, Sue Frith, Diana Dean, James Trugg, and John Hart are habitués.
César Lebel is the young "foreigner" who starts it all with the murder of the young prostitute, Marie Prévost Hickson. Ginger Nut is the close-mouthed kidnapper.
Mabel and Edward Walters came to Miss Seeton's aid in London. Mrs. Perrsons is a nosy neighbor in London.
The Cover and Title
It's a pastel rainbow reflecting the light humor of the story. A yellow-on-yellow sky against which a melon-colored village silhouette stands out. The melon degrades down to a pale peach at the bottom, and in between, is a tall dark purple silhouette of Miss Seeton unfurling her Battlin' Brolly, pointing it at Lady Colveden's used and abused MG with a pretty blue graphic of Sweetbriars tucked in the title.
The title is part of our introduction to Miss Seeton's abilities to Picture Miss Seeton, as she plumbs the depths of her artistic insight into the people around her.
This ARC was sent to me by NetGalley and Farrago for an honest review.
My Take
If you like the homey qualities of Agatha Christie, you will very much enjoy Carvic's Miss Seeton! She's a no-nonsense, logical lady who firmly believes in manners. Much to some bad boys' chagrin! She's also naive in believing that everyone will behave the same way, which turns Picture Miss Seeton into a comedy of logic versus gossip with the villagers seeing Miss Seeton's logical approach to life as eccentric. One of those logical moves — that one doesn't expect from a "little old lady" — is Miss Seeton taking up yoga.
It's that insistence on manners that starts the action off and her reaction to it all that brings out Delphick's protective instincts. He's quite pleased that the murderer doesn't know of Miss Seeton's plans for the morrow, and that she'll be right out the way of any danger.
Oh, well.
Superintendent Delphick is quick to take advantage of Miss Seeton's naiveté. The surprising part is that one wouldn't expect the 1960s coppers being all that "psychic" themselves! Or that quick to accept. The whole story was rather like that. A sense of trust and caring that we, in general, lack today.
It's a soap opera-like approach to drugs and crime — the sort that brings to mind Reefer Madness, there are police who use their heads, there are some villagers who are practical and kindly while others take much too much joy in embellishing their own "hopes" into a mish-mash of entangled gossip with all sorts of nonsensical ideas thrown into the ether about the "truth" behind Miss Seeton and her activities. The two Nuts are a hoot even if I do want to smash 'em left, right, and center. I do love what Miss Seeton does to them in the post office!
Carvic does have his fun with the English attitude toward anyone not English. Ooh, ar, them furriners don't half know how to behave…bein' foreign-like and all. Miss Seeton is quite the levelheaded lady, and never more so than when she first meets the Oracle. Poor Ranger has no idea what he's in for, but she is a nice bit of relief for the cops.
The atmosphere feel like the 1900s, but it must be set in the 1960s somewhere. Or maybe not. There is one mention of a computer, so I haven't a clue. There's lots of talk of having a car sent and there is a regular bus route that goes through the village, so it's sufficiently confusing as to when the story takes place.
One must appreciate the reverend. His heart is in the right place. If only he didn't leap to conclusions so quickly! Poor DS Bob comes in for quite a bit of quiet teasing. Then Anne and her aborted seductions, poor girl, lol. The chasing in which Nigel and Sir George engage. The rabbitin', *laughing*.
I do love Lady Colvedon, Sir George, and Nigel. They're truly decent people with a wicked sense of humor who know what's going on around them.
"Wife always first suspect. Hire someone. Don't let 'em overcharge."All the juggling about as the villagers try to figure out a welcoming gift for Miss Seeton was too funny. The hen house war yields names and great adventure for Sir George and Nigel as they hare off to battle in her ladyship's MG. The kidnapping that goes in reverse and ends for young Ginger when Miss Seeton gets indignant at the hearing over her crushed hat.
That Morton was a real piece of work. I did get confused by a statement that Mrs. Venning had been socially active until a year ago when earlier (and later) Carvic makes it sound as though Mrs. Venning has been a hermit for years.
Oh lord, I do enjoy the occasional lapses into parody…Miss Seeton's comment about laying her own has Nigel envisioning "Miss Seeton, in that hat, enthroned on an outsized nesting box" while later Delphick gets this image of himself cleaning up the drug smuggling ring with a boiling teakettle.
Miss Seeton did have a tricky way of getting out of that kidnapping. Oh, and you can just hear some idjit criminal using that same damned excuse…!! Arghhhh! I did love the judge's reaction when Miss Seeton had her say in court, lol.
I can't really blame Nigel for taking the piss with Delphick:
"'Sarcasm and rudeness aren't exactly helpful.'"I quite agree,' retorted Nigel, 'but I don't see why it should be one-way traffic.'"That comment Miss Seeton makes about the "gardener" who wrote How Does Your Garden Grow? cracked me up.
He explains her to Bob as "everybody's conscience, . . . Humanity's backbone . . . [going] to the stake for you again and again; . . . as a matter of principle".A thought that has Bob wondering about emigrating to Canada where the Mounties only ever get their "man". Certainly Brinton is moaning about how quiet the area used to be before she showed with her brolly in action.
ROFLMAO, lucky Delphick is about to get his dream come true…Lebel trussed up and packaged for him. You'll never guess how it comes about, ROFL.
Picture Miss Seeton was an absolute treat. An author who actually knew how to write and did so with intelligence.
The Story
It all starts with a murder in London and a poke with a brolly, which brings Miss Seeton to the attention of both Scotland Yard and the bad guys. Her frustration and Delphick's noting that she's a drawing teacher begins the connection between Miss Seeton and Delphick.
With that comes protective surveillance, newspaper publicity, and the Nuts' obsession with "creativity" combined with a nap and the pot of jam from Mrs. and Miss Vennings sends the Nuts off with gossip that alternates between drug running, vendettas, and lord knows what else.
And Miss Seeton heads down to Sweetbriars blissfully unaware of the press or the gossip shortly to be swirling about her. She'll be drawn deeper into the mix when she listens to Nigel as he sweats out his problem. The one that brings Miss Seeton deeper into the mix, tying the threads into one great clump.
The Characters
Miss Emily Seeton is a drawing instructor for a private school in London and never seen without her umbrella. Her godmother and a cousin twice removed, Mrs. Flora Bannet, has just died and left Miss Seeton her cottage, Sweetbriars.
Scotland Yard
Superintendent Delphick, a.k.a., the Oracle, and Detective Sergeant Bob Ranger are both with Scotland Yard. I like them both for their warm hearts: Delphick is level-headed and quick while Bob is more inclined to a Boy Scout approach. Harry is running some prints. Chief Superintendent Gosslin is Delphick's boss.
Plummergen, Kent is…
…where Miss Seeton's inheritance lies. Martha Bloomer had been Mrs. Bannet's cleaning lady for years ("Flora always said Martha must have been born in the middle of a conversation") and has stayed on to help Miss Seeton (she also cleans for Lady Colvedon). She's rather known for her "Grand Slams". Her husband, Stan, did the garden and the chickens in a barter arrangement.
Major-General Sir George Colveden, the local justice of the peace, and Meg, Lady Colvedon, live at Rytham Hall with their son, Nigel, who is studying agriculture. An older daughter is married and lives in London.
Mrs. Sonia Vennings is a widow who turned to writing and has earned enough off her children's books about Jack the Rabbit, his friend Lucy, and his enemy Wally Weasel to move to the Meadows with her poor, bored daughter, Angela, hostage to her mother's past. David is the husband who died. Mrs. Fratters is their housekeeper and had been Sonia's nurse when she was a child.
The Reverend Arthur Treeves is the bachelor vicar who has lost his faith. And a more woolly-headed one with a profound dislike for social chit-chat I can't imagine. His sister, Molly Treeves, is much more levelheaded and intelligent — she keeps her brother up-to-date.
Dr. Knight runs the local surgery and a small nursing care home with the help of his daughter Anne, who has caught DS Ranger's eye. You'll like the doctor…a wicked sense of humor: "Bob following: a leviathan in tow to a tiny tug".
Erica "Eric" Nuttel and Norah "Bunny" Blaine have shared a house, Lilikot (ahem, a.k.a., the Nut House), for eleven years in the center of the village opposite the garage". I'm sure they'll never move unless the village can unite in tossing them across the county. They're much too interested in whatever is happening around them and not too concerned with truth. In fact, embroidering is so much more fun, and they spread their inventions about with glee. Most of the village refers to them together as the "Nuts" and individually as "Nutcrackers" and "Hot Cross Bun" respectively.
PC Potter is the village constable with orders to keep an eye on Miss Seeton. His comments to that effect only seem to fuel the village gossip in the wrong direction. Jack Crabbe runs the local garage and petrol station and hires himself out to drive people about. Mrs. Walsted runs the local draper's with the help of her daughter, Margery. Mrs. Goffer and Mrs. Spice are encountered in the grocer's. Doris is the waitress at The George and Dragon. Mr. Stillman runs the post office.
Ashford
Chief Detective Inspector Chris Brinton of the Ashford Criminal Investigation Department gets involved when the action moves into Kent…with Miss Seeton. Hubert Trefold Morton, solicitor, alderman, and mayor-expectant of Brettenden is Miss Seeton's solicitor. An annoyingly loud man with his fingers in many, many pies. Some of his previous clients include Mrs. Cummingdale with the angry nephew, Ernest Foremason, Miss Worlingham, and Miss Hant. His housekeeper doesn't think much of him, either.
The Singing Swan is a youth club on the other side of Brettenden. Art Grant, Micky Hughes, Sue Frith, Diana Dean, James Trugg, and John Hart are habitués.
César Lebel is the young "foreigner" who starts it all with the murder of the young prostitute, Marie Prévost Hickson. Ginger Nut is the close-mouthed kidnapper.
Mabel and Edward Walters came to Miss Seeton's aid in London. Mrs. Perrsons is a nosy neighbor in London.
The Cover and Title
It's a pastel rainbow reflecting the light humor of the story. A yellow-on-yellow sky against which a melon-colored village silhouette stands out. The melon degrades down to a pale peach at the bottom, and in between, is a tall dark purple silhouette of Miss Seeton unfurling her Battlin' Brolly, pointing it at Lady Colveden's used and abused MG with a pretty blue graphic of Sweetbriars tucked in the title.
The title is part of our introduction to Miss Seeton's abilities to Picture Miss Seeton, as she plumbs the depths of her artistic insight into the people around her.
January 27, 2018
The first book of an apparently fairly long series, this mystery was first published in 1968. It stands up well today, having attained only a slight retro patina. Miss Seeton, a retired teacher of art/drawing, is an amusing character who moves blithely through life (usually with her umbrella handy) while everything sort of erupts into chaos around her. In this story, she witnesses a murder practically on page one while returning from the opera. That's in London. She soon goes to visit a cottage in the country which she recently inherited, but will have to return for an inquest. The reader then gets a quite long parade of eccentric village denizens whose part in the plot isn't immediately apparent. (But who doesn't love a parade, right?) A lot of odd occurrences follow on her visit, and the police inspector gradually comes to realize that Miss Seeton's drawings are often sort of prophetic and symbolic, containing clues to the mystery.
There was an odd (to me) feeling about some of the narrative segments, particularly when the prose gives us the unfiltered inner-mind workings of some older male. The prose gets choppy and a little full of harrumph. I suppose such things help characterize these actors, but I wasn't sure if I liked the style entirely. Other than that, the writing is perfectly delightful and the characters enjoyable (except when they shouldn't be). I would easily read another in the series, perhaps more...
I read the newly republished and gussied-up e-book version with a nice afterword about the author and his life. And I obtained the book for free via one of those daily offers on the mighty 'Zon.
I think this may fulfill my self-assigned check-off item, "one token book by a male author" for the year, but we'll see...
There was an odd (to me) feeling about some of the narrative segments, particularly when the prose gives us the unfiltered inner-mind workings of some older male. The prose gets choppy and a little full of harrumph. I suppose such things help characterize these actors, but I wasn't sure if I liked the style entirely. Other than that, the writing is perfectly delightful and the characters enjoyable (except when they shouldn't be). I would easily read another in the series, perhaps more...
I read the newly republished and gussied-up e-book version with a nice afterword about the author and his life. And I obtained the book for free via one of those daily offers on the mighty 'Zon.
I think this may fulfill my self-assigned check-off item, "one token book by a male author" for the year, but we'll see...
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