annieb123's Review of Watch the Wall, Miss Seeton (A Miss Seeton Mystery)

by Hamilton Crane and Heron Carvic

Have the smugglers made a grave mistake?

Customs & Excise are tracking a gang of cigar-smugglers who operate on the quiet Kent coast near Plummergen, home to retired art teacher Miss Emily Seeton. Their attempt at a midnight ambush goes wrong, and a man is found dead.

As Miss Seeton sketches the most notorious tomb in Plummergen churchyard – the one built for 19th-century smuggler Abraham Voller – she meets a young American tourist. He claims to be a descendant of the Voller family, but is he a truly innocent ancestor-hunter, or do smugglers inherit their trade?

When the school concert includes a performance of Kipling’s “A Smuggler’s Song” it begins to seem that everyone is at it ... but we can rely on Miss Seeton to ensure that the police will get their man, and the smugglers’ dreams will go up in smoke!

Serene amidst every kind of skulduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella.

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Watch the Wall, Miss Seeton is the 25th Miss Seeton mystery (the first mystery prequel was numbered 0, so this one is listed as #24). Originally written by Heron Carvic, the series was taken over and written in an homage style by Hamilton Crane after Carvic's death.

Released 21st Feb 2019 by Farrago, it's 243 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.

There are only a handful of series, however well written, which keep me coming back for more year after year. The Miss Seeton books are amongst of the coziest of cozies, silly and very fluffy but they have an undercurrent of wickedly campy humor. They're very tongue in cheek and full of sly lampooning of everything from police procedurals to rural English village life in the mid 1970's.

I did feel this entry in the series was maybe a trifle more scattered and difficult to follow than most of the others. There were several disparate plot threads and they crossed and intertwined and were sometimes difficult for me to keep track of. The characters, both the returning ensemble cast and the new, are well fleshed out and clearly written.

The language is relatively clean with the occasional 'hell, damn, or bloody' but nothing worse. No sexual content and no graphic or triggering violence.

I love these books so much, they're always a treat to be savored.

Five stars, Miss Seeton, may she live forever!

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Watch the Wall, Miss Seeton (A Miss Seeton Mystery)

by Hamilton Crane and Heron Carvic

Reviewed by annieb123 on Mar 16, 2019

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