Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Aunt Dimity's Christmas
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Nancy Atherton
Class/Genre: Mystery Cozy
Series: Aunt Dimity # 5
Viking, Oct 1999, $22.95, 224 pp.
Who walks among us and changes us in inexplicable ways? Lori Shepherd is unaware that the question exists, but soon that simple query will haunt her every thought until she attains answers. Lori fully focuses on the upcoming Christmas holiday that she plans to celebrate in the same manner as when she was a child. She desperately wants her first Yuletide season in Aunt Dimity’s Finch, England cottage to the best ever for her beloved family. However, her thoughts of paradise on earth abruptly change when her brood finds an unconscious tramp lying in her hallway.
Lori insures the intruder receives proper medical attention, but resents his interrupting her plans. However, her deceased Aunt Dimity, using the magic blue book asks Lori to learn who the man is. Lori visits him at the nearby hospital where she watches the comatose individual open his eyes and smile at her. This brief interlude leaves Lori to believe that Kit Smith is a good person. Her research into his life provides evidence that anyone who meets Kit even fleetingly seems to become a better individual. Could this homeless bum be an angel?
This novel is not a typical cozy mystery in the strictest definition of the sub-genre. However, the quest of the two individuals to learn what they can about the mysterious stranger provides readers with all the basic elements of an investigative tale. As Lori peels one layer away, new questions surface. However, in the end, without saying one word, Kit teaches her the true meaning of Christmas. AUNT DIMITY’S CHRISTMAS is a strange, but special tale that warms the souls of those who read it.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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