Aunt Dimity's Good Deed (Aunt Dimity Series #3)

Nancy Atherton?s growing number of fans will certainly be delighted by Aunt Dimity?s latest appearance in the honey-colored English cottage she bequeathed to her "niece," Lori Shepherd. Thanks to Aunt Dimity, Lori?s life has taken on fairy-tale proportions: she?s financially set for life and happily married?or so she thinks. When Lori?s plans for a second honeymoon to England with her workaholic husband fall through, she begrudgingly takes along her father-in-law?who promptly disappears, leaving behind a mysterious note. Inspired and guided by the ghost of Aunt Dimity and her inimitable blue journal, Lori?s search for the elderly gentleman turns into a harrowing mission to uncover a centuries-old family secret?complicated by mistaken identities, falsified deeds, family feuds, and Lori?s unseemly attraction to her husband?s beguiling English cousin. In a delightful chase that takes her all over the English countryside, Lori discovers the true meaning of marital bliss, and Nancy Atherton?s fans, new and old, will savor a masterpiece of old-fashioned fun.

Thanks to Aunt Dimity, Lori Shepherd was lucky enough to have had a fairy-tale courtship complete with a Handsome Prince and a cozy, honey-colored castle in which he popped the question. It all happened so quickly, so effortlessly, that Lori fell in love with her blue-blooded prince before she really knew who he was. And maybe that's where she made her first mistake. Now married for two years to said prince - Bill Willis, a workaholic lawyer who is, she admits, "honest and scrupulously considerate about his socks" - Lori finds herself inconsolably depressed. She loves Bill dearly but all he does is work, work, work - even their honeymoon was interrupted by a flurry of faxes. And to make her feel even worse, her busybody aunts-in-law keep badgering her about when they will have a new little Willis! But how will that ever happen if she never even sees her husband? Seeking to recapture the romance in her young marriage, Lori plans a second honeymoon at Aunt Dimity's English cottage. But at the last minute, Bill, true to form, can't make it, so Lori's reliable as-the-sunrise father-in-law stands in (how romantic!) - only to disappear minutes after their arrival, with Lori's pink flannel bunny, Reginald, in tow. Inspired by Aunt Dimity and accompanied by her very precocious twelve-year-old friend Nell, Lori packs the car and sets off on a backroads search for Willis, Sr. Nell proves herself a helpful guide (keeping Lori on the right side of the road!) as well as a mistress of disguise, while Lori finds herself aghast at her own unseemly attraction to Bill's dashing English cousin, Gerald. Soon Lori, Nell, and the ghostly Aunt Dimity find themselves at the center of a centuries-old Willis family scandal that, if revealed, could mean the end of life as they know it, for Willises on both sides of the Atlantic.

Publishers Weekly

If you're looking for arch, cancel the trip to Chartres. Here's the third in a pointedly cute series featuring the ghost of "Aunt" Dimity, the dead friend of heroine Lori Shepherd's mother. Lori plans a second honeymoon for herself and her overworked husband, lawyer Bill Willis, in the idyllic English cottage Lori inherited from Dimity (Aunt Dimity's Death, 1992). When a case keeps Bill in Boston, Lori heads overseas with her father-in-law, William Willis Sr. He suddenly disappears, taking Lori's pink flannel bunny, Reginald, and leaving an enigmatic note about family business. Further clues come from Dimity's ghost via her leather-bound journal, in which Lori observes Dimity's handwriting materialize on the page. Lori tracks Willis Sr., accompanied by her friend Emma's precocious 12-year-old stepdaughter, Nell, and Nell's teddy bear, Bertie, through the picturesque countryside to London. There she finds the British Willisesincluding sexy Gerald, efficient Lucy and bumbling Arthurwho are at odds, their family law firm in disarray. The plot hangs on an 18th-century feud that divided the family, resulting in murder and theft, and leading to present-day blackmail; the villain is easily identified. At the end of this amusing but silly tale, Bill and pregnant Lori move to England, delighting Aunt Dimity's ghost. Author tour. (Oct.)

Nancy Atherton is the author of twelve other Aunt Dimity mysteries, many of them bestsellers. The first book in the series, Aunt Dimity's Death, was voted "One of the Century's 100 Favorite Mysteries" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.