Scotland Yard asks its famed "MissEss"-- retired art teacher Miss Emily Seeton-- to investigate a respected Geneva bank when a flood of counterfeit banknotes hits the market.
Not entirely sure of what they want her to do and completely new to air travel, mayhem quickly ensues when Miss Seeton boards a plane for Genova instead of Geneva. Crooks and police alike try in vain to keep tabs on her, wondering if she's a genius or merely a senile old lady. And while all these people try to keep her under surveillance, she innocently hums the fraudsters' musical password as she wanders from one place to the next on a very dangerous trail.
~
I loved the first two Miss Seeton mysteries Picture Miss Seeton and Miss Seeton Draws the Line. So much so that I gobbled up the rest of the books by Heron Carvic to squirrel away when I needed to read something guaranteed to make me laugh. Unfortunately, book three (Witch Miss Seeton) is where the series began to unravel. The author began bringing in multiple plot lines, many more characters, and the humor that I loved so much devolved into farce. As you can tell by that last sentence, I don't really care for farce, humor being so subjective.
In Miss Seeton Sings, not only are there multiple plot lines and many more characters, Miss Seeton and her lethal umbrella aren't even in her English village anymore-- and her execrable French only had the power to make me smile a time or two. No, Miss Seeton does her best work in her village.
Although it was amusing to see how she and her umbrella escaped death time and again, I began getting angry with Scotland Yard and the other police agencies who just turned her loose and left her completely in the dark. I know there's some humor in there somewhere that completely escaped me, but I'm not going to worry about it.
I will say that, if you are a lover of farce, this is the book for you. If you're not, you might want to leave it alone.
Miss Seeton Sings by Heron Carvic
eISBN: 9780993576331
Farrago © 2016
Originally published in 1973.
eBook, 274 pages
Cozy Mystery, #4 Miss Seeton mystery
Rating: C-
Source: Purchased from Amazon.
Oh, sorry to hear this disappointed you, Cathy. I'm not one for farce, myself, so I understand exactly what you mean! I hope the series picks up for you! As for me, I may try the first two books, because the character sounds great.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I don't think I'll be picking this series up again anytime soon.
DeleteToo bad this one disappointed you. There are always some clunkers, I think, even in the best of series.
ReplyDeleteYes, but I think this book clunked me past the point of no return.
DeleteI'm not a big lover of farce either...I only like it in very small doses.
ReplyDeleteYes, and the doses were way too large in this one.
DeleteShe sounds like a fun/interesting character almost guaranteed to grow old to you after one or two books. Sort of like Three Stooges movies; I laughed at the first one, and could not make it through the second one or any that followed. Same gags over and over in both cases. I'm curious enough, though, to read the first one now, but I'll know to stop then.
ReplyDeleteYou're a stronger human than I, Gunga Din. I only watched one Three Stooges movie, and I wanted to throttle Moe so badly that I never watched another! LOL
DeleteBut you do make an excellent point about Miss Seeton being a two-trick pony at best. (I know there's a pun in there, but I'm too tired to think up something else.)
Good thing it was on my kindle, or I might've thrown it at the wall.
ReplyDeleteThat bad huh? Yikes.
ReplyDeleteParts of it were, yes. If it had all been that bad, I would've stopped reading it.
Delete