Murder on Monday

Rating:
Summary: Murder on Monday
Review: A small village, a murder of a spinster and for what you may ask? The same quesion is falling on the tongues of all that live in this small peaceful place or at least it was small and peaceful until the unthinkable happened. Was it the neighbor or the house keeper? no one has the answer until she takes the job of finding out, who is she? a wife and mother with the need to know herself and her name is Lois Meade and she is the house cleaner. She not only cleans houses but knows a lot about the dirt behind the front door of many homes. She will find her self finding out more than she thought she knew about the personal lives of the towns people,secrets that no one was suppose to no. A must read- Larry Hobson-Author-"The Day Of The Rose'

Rating:
Summary: Murder on Monday
Review: A small village, a murder of a spinster and for what you may ask? The same question is falling on the tongues of all that live in this small peaceful place or at least it was small and peaceful until the unthinkable happened. Was it the neighbor or the house keeper? no one has the answer until she takes the job of finding out, who is she? a wife and mother with the need to know herself and her name is Lois Meade and she is the house cleaner. She not only cleans houses but knows a lot about the dirt behind the front door of many homes. She will find her self finding out more than she thought she knew about the personal lives of the towns people,secrets that no one was suppose to no. A must read- Larry Hobson-Author-"The Day Of The Rose'

Rating:
Summary: Bucolic Shenanigans
Review: Lois Meade is the focal figure of the book. She is married to Derek, has two young sons and a 14-year old daughter Josie who gives her any amount of trouble. Lois supplements the family income by cleaning houses in the small neighboring village. Five houses per day of the week, with a total of five customers: Dr. Andrew Rix, the local physician, and his wife Mary; Professor Malcolm Barrett and his wife Rachel; Nurse Gilliam Surfleet; the Reverend Peter White, and Dallas Baer, whose wife Evangeline owns an art gallery.

And then there is Gloria Hathaway, age 38, who is murdered right in the beginning.

Who did it? The police are investigating, of course. But Lois, who knows the suspects and can snoop on them once a week, also gets going on this murder. She gets sidetracked only once, when her daughter gets involved with a suave but creepy teenager named Melvin Hallhouse.

Ann Purser does a magnificent job in developing the individual characters, presenting them in full three dimensions. Every one of her five suspects has a different occupation and curriculum vitae, and that makes the book even more interesting. For once, the police are not the bumbling nerds without feeling one normally reads about. But whenever somebody comes to a full stop, they must have some tea.

Slowly but inexorably the skeletons are dragged out of the closets until the truth is revealed. It is absolutely fascinating watching this process and being led astray while following the wrong scent.

This mystery is pure joy.

Rating:
Summary: ideal village mystery
Review: Lois Meade loves her family though her teenage daughter is driving her crazy. She also supplements the income brought in by her electrician husband by cleaning homes in the nearby village of Long Farnden. She especially takes pride in keeping her mouth shut, as she knows plenty about her clients.

One of Lois' customers Gloria Hathaway sits on the parish council. During a session, Gloria went to make tea, but soon is found strangled to death. PC Keith Simpson needs help to solve the homicides as Gloria made many enemies so that the motives are abundant. He asks Gloria to do some sleuthing when she cleans the homes of the residents of Long Farnden. Though it goes against her nature not to gossip, Gloria agrees to snoop. Soon she finds a blackmailer's dream, though she would never use the information for personal gain, as she uncovers the dark secrets of some of the village's leading citizens. This shock her as she had no idea what was going in this quiet village.

MURDER ON MONDAY is the ideal village mystery due a strong blending of a police procedural with an amateur sleuth cozy that fans of both sub-genres will appreciate. The story line feels authentic mostly because Gloria feels more like a real person than a character and the secondary cast provides the village, family, and mystery depth. Ann Purser will gain plenty of fans for this tale and readers will look forward to her future "day of the week" novels.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: ideal village mystery
Review: Lois Meade loves her family though her teenage daughter is driving her crazy. She also supplements the income brought in by her electrician husband by cleaning homes in the nearby village of Long Farnden. She especially takes pride in keeping her mouth shut, as she knows plenty about her clients.

One of Lois' customers Gloria Hathaway sits on the parish council. During a session, Gloria went to make tea, but soon is found strangled to death. PC Keith Simpson needs help to solve the homicides as Gloria made many enemies so that the motives are abundant. He asks Gloria to do some sleuthing when she cleans the homes of the residents of Long Farnden. Though it goes against her nature not to gossip, Gloria agrees to snoop. Soon she finds a blackmailer's dream, though she would never use the information for personal gain, as she uncovers the dark secrets of some of the village's leading citizens. This shock her as she had no idea what was going in this quiet village.

MURDER ON MONDAY is the ideal village mystery due a strong blending of a police procedural with an amateur sleuth cozy that fans of both sub-genres will appreciate. The story line feels authentic mostly because Gloria feels more like a real person than a character and the secondary cast provides the village, family, and mystery depth. Ann Purser will gain plenty of fans for this tale and readers will look forward to her future "day of the week" novels.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Read something else
Review: Never could connect with the main character in this book. She mostly seems cold and impersonal to me. She's described as "nice" by other characters in the book, but she's mostly condescending and rude to them, as when she tells the postman to "bugger off" after he tells her "good morning". Didn't feel any warmth or affection for her family either. They are superficially drawn and seem to have little connection to each other. The husband is uninvolved and disinterested in his family's life. Mostly disagrees with wife on everything. The village seems lackluster and full of unhappy, discontented people. Nothing charming or engaging about it to make one feel that it's "cosy". Bleak and dreary is more like it. Not much to the story line either. I figured out the basic plot early on and I am usually the last to know what's going on. Don't recomend this book at all.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasing British mystery
Review: Not a typical heroine, but a nice murder mystery set in a small British town. The story unfolds well, with not too many clues, but enough to make the ending fit well. I enjoyed it and will look for more by this author.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasing British mystery
Review: Not a typical heroine, but a nice murder mystery set in a small British town. The story unfolds well, with not too many clues, but enough to make the ending fit well. I enjoyed it and will look for more by this author.

Rating:
Summary: An English village cozy
Review: This book epitomizes the English village who-dun-it, brought up-to-date. To be sure, there is the thatched cottage, the vicar, the doctor and the district nurse plus a cast of other worthy individuals. But this village has a cleaning lady with attitude and a certain lack of respect for worthiness.

The writer is no stranger to writing books about life in an English village, and this experience with the setting and the characters stands her in good stead here. Unlike other writers who only dream their English village, this one actually knows what they, and their inhabitants, are like.

The plot is sound, the pacing is good and the dialogue is first rate - one of the best features of the book. It was a fun read - I look forward to reading more mysteries by this writer - and finding out what happened between the cleaning lady and that dishy policeman.