Book Review - Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Duke
Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton
Published by: Penguin
Publication Date: 1994
Format: Paperback, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Emma is forty. Emma is forty and alone. Her "boyfriend" has just married a lithe young thing in an obvious midlife crisis. So Emma is off to England to take a much needed holiday from her high tech job. She is there to indulge in her passion, gardening! She might not know much, but she does love plants and soil. At an out of the way public garden Emma runs into an odd duo. Two elderly identical twins who tell her that she must visit Penford Hall, further down the Cornish coast. Emma is intrigued and heads there. Only the house is more than off the beaten track and once there the Duke, Grayson, is under the impression that she is the new gardener. She tries to explain that she was just there to see the gardens not to prepare them for a giant fete in a few months time. Yet Grayson insists that the twins were doing the bidding of Aunt Dimity, so that's that, she must stay. Her fellow inmates at the house are Grayson's washed up cousin Susannah, who used to be a model, and Susannah's manager. Yet all Susannah talks about is the late rock star Lex Rex who died off the coast in Grayson's boat. There are a plethora of the usual taciturn servants but more importantly there is the widower Derek and his two children, Nell and Peter. Derek has been hired by Grayson, whom he knew peripherally in college, to restore the stained glass window in the church on the grounds. Susannah soon falls prey to an accident, or perhaps an attack and is rushed to the hospital. Grayson fears that it will be the Lex Rex incident all over again. If he can just get everything put to rights and get the celebrations underway, the house will be safe and perfect forever... or so he hopes. Aunt Dimity did promise him. If Dimity has her way perhaps Derek and Emma's broken hearts will mend together and there will be happy endings for all.
I found this second book in the Aunt Dimity series far more enjoyable than the first because Cornwall. Seriously Cornwall people. What drew me to this story and kept me interested was the Cornish Coast with dreams of Daphne Du Maurier and death on the jagged rocks. Yes, I know it was a lot of my own romanticism that made this book work for me, but there you have it! But also, the gardens! The descriptions of these gorgeous and abundant gardens built in and around the remains of a great house made me want this place to truly exist so that I could go there. Like ruins overrun with flora. The Secret Garden on crack. I want to go to there! Aside from that, there really wasn't much else. This prequel follows Emma and the ordeals her and Derek go through on their way to wedded bliss. Because it isn't even a surprise that they will be the couple matched, they're already married to each other when we meet them in the first book! Not to say that Aunt Dimity won't match a few more along the way, it's what she does. There was something actually resembling a mystery in this "mystery" series, which was a nice change of pace, but still, the romances seem to be the thrust of the series and were too contrived. The children and their belief in their father's happiness and the weird and convoluted theories about their dead mother's soul and the stained glass window that their father was there to repair bordered on the ludicrous. I will say this one did make me want to pick up the next in the series... but only if it was with these characters, not Lori and Bill from the previous installment. Emma and Derek made this book work, so perhaps I might skip the rest if it's just bland Bill and wet rag Lori. So perhaps I should thank this omnibus because if it wasn't for the fact I wanted to finish the whole book I wouldn't have read the enjoyable second story. So even if the next one doesn't work, at least I'll always have the one with the Duke. It's all about Dukes these days!
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