Three Monkeys

Dido Hoare #7

by Marianne Macdonald

Dido Hoare, antiquarian bookshop owner and single parent, is walking her young son home from nursery. When Ben tells her he has seen a monkey, she assumes it is a figment of his imagination. However, Dido suddenly remembers having met both a monkey and its owner, one of the rough sleepers in the neighbourhood, and her duty seems clear: she must restore the poor animal to his master. Dido does recover the lost monkey, but its owner only reappears briefly when he finds the dismembered body of a girl in a pile of rubbish sacks across the road from the shop; and although he escapes from police custody and then leaves some of his belongings in Dido's dustbin for safekeeping, he is found injured in the street nearby, supposed victim of a hit-and-run accident. This bewilders not only Dido, but the local police, and journalist and heartthrob Chris Kennedy who is in the midst of a newspaper investigation into people-trafficking, and even Dido's father, Professor Barnabas Hoare. Before long, others complicate the problem: DC Ken Acker, who seems to be playing his own game; his injured wife, one of Dido's oldest customers; two thugs who invade the bookshop; a girl called Nina; and above all Annie Kelly, the retired prostitute trying to make her way in the world with the help of some shoplifting and a bribe from the journalist, Chris. After that, things become a little confusing, and working them out takes all the help and courage Dido can find...and a little more.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

216 pages, Library Binding

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

MARIANNE MACDONALD was born in the lumber town of Kenora, Northern Ontario, and grew up in Winnipeg and Montreal. Her first children's book was published when she was 16. She took her BA at McGill University, then went to Oxford for graduate studies in English. For thirty years she pretended to be an academic, acquiring various degrees and teaching at universities in Canada and England. She left teaching early in order to return to her writing.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three Monkeys by Marianne Macdonald

When antiquarian book seller, Dido Hoare’s 4 year old son mentions seeing a monkey as they walk home from school, she at first brushes it off as a school-related fantasy. But it soon appears that reality is hanging around in her backyard garden and pestering her cat.
Then there is the street person who appears to have taken up residence in the cubbyhole alley alongside her rubbish bin. How the two are related becomes the beginning to a fateful tale.
Heavy in human trafficking, domestic violence, prostitution, drug addiction, body parts, and undercover investigations, there is much going on here. Dido makes a couple more acquaintances of interest, maybe a few more enemies and possibly learns a couple valuable lessons that should hold true to the next book.
One of the best things about reading a mystery is finding out if your guesses are right at the big ending reveal. But there was none! Assumptions, yes, but we don’t find out if the cop was dirty, who chopped up and was leaving the body parts, how the old man was involved, if the prostitute is safe, or even if the other bookstore owner was compensated at all for the flower book.
Still, a good read, full of dynamics and a bit of snark. I like Chris Kennedy and continue to adore Barnabas. The addition of Stanley as a more prominent character is also welcome, as is “Charlie” for whom the book is mostly titled.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Dido Hoare, antiquarian bookshop owner and single parent, is walking her son home from nursery one cold December afternoon when Ben says there is a monkey loose on the street. Of course Dido assumes this is a figment of his imagination, until she realizes that there is certainly something haunting her back garden and threatening her cat, Mr. Spock. As the monkey appears and rampages through her kitchen, Dido recalls having met its owner, one of the rough sleepers in the neighborhood. Her duty is clear: she must restore the animal to his sad master. But this is easier said than done, for the old man disappears after finding the dismembered body of a girl in a pile of rubbish sacks across the road from the shop.

"After that, things become both hectic and complicated as more and more shady characters appear on the doorstep, bringing trouble. And working everything out takes all the craft and courage Dido can find ..."
~~front flap

This last book in the series was a disappointment: too many plot threads, and some of them were left dangling ... not a very satisfactory ending to what was a very interesting series.

[Sarah83 sbookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein weiterer Teil um die Buchhändlerin Dido.
Dieses Mal taucht eine Leiche (bzw ein Teil einer Leiche) neben Didos Laden auf. Dido, die die Leiche mit dem örtlichen Obdachlosen findet, ist sofort wieder mit drin im Geschehen und schnell kommen die Themen: Prostitution, Drogen, häusliche Gewalt und Erpressung dazu.
Ja sicherlich gibt es das alles. Sicherlich ist das alles schlimm, aber alles in einem Buch?
War mir ein wenig zu viel des guten. 😟
#netgalley #unsauberegeschäfte

[Spuddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

#7 in the Dido Hoare, antiquarian bookseller mystery series. When an old homeless man Dido has seen around discovers parts of a dismembered body in the trash near Dido's home and bookstore, she becomes involved in yet another strange mystery. The old man had a monkey which Dido eventually captures and which ends up staying with a friend of her father's.

As per usual, there are many things Dido somehow "forgets" to report to the police (I'm beginning to call this 'amateur sleuth syndrome' so prevalent is it among these types of books! LOL) and keeps poking into things herself with the help of her sort-of boyfriend, Chris Kennedy, an investigative reporter. She's puzzled by a quite rare and valuable book the man once had shown Dido which isn't in his belongings when he's in hospital after being hit by a car. Of course before solving the crimes, Dido eventually ends up in danger herself, through a series of what I can only call bad choices.

Maybe it was just my mood, but there seemed to be a lot of "filler" in this book with the making and drinking of endless cups of tea and coffee, picking Ben (Dido's four-year-old son) up from or taking him to nursery, etc. I like Dido and I LOVE Barnabas, but I would have liked more interesting tidbits about books and the bookselling business as filler instead of the other things. In the earlier books, I got a real sense of Dido's love for her shop and for what she does, but that's been missing for these past couple of books which takes a bit of the sparkle out of them.

[Barbra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My name is Dido Hoare, and I hate December. Even on one of the rare cloudless days, the sun only just about manages to crawl around a tiny arc of the southern horizon, reminding us how ridiculously far north London actually is. A cranky geography teacher once snapped and made us look it up on the globe; believe it or not, this city is in the latitudes of the Aleutian Islands, southern Labrador and Irkutsk. No wonder the upper classes used to spend their winters socializing on the Riviera or conquering India while the rest of us had to stop taking baths, scavenge for Yule logs and get drunk." This is the first paragraph and you are hooked and in Dido's world.

Great story and mystery.

[Imogen Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rare library book find exploring the book shelve on a rainy afternoon is the best cure for boredom reading Three Monkeys by Marianne Macdonald is a odd book slow pasted but interesting enough to read in two afternoons a book which has great market value online but belongs in the library to be enjoyed by all ages.

[Quinten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsolved answers but it fits perfectly with the way this story was written. Some things are better left unsolved and unknown.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good installment!