Theft on Thursday by Ann Purser

Title: Theft on Thursday
Author: Ann Purser
ISBN: 0425207471
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, 2006
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Genre: British Cozy, Amateur Sleuth, #4 Lois Meade
Rating: B-
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line: "She done 'im in," the old man said with relish.

It's been a few years since we last saw Lois Meade. Two of her children have flown the nest, and her musically-inclined son, Jamie, is ready to fly away to university himself. Lois's housecleaning business is going well, and she's seen very little of Detective Inspector Hunter Cowgill.

The biggest news in Long Farnden is the new vicar and his godson. The vicar came to his calling rather late and is having a difficult adjustment to the locals, and his godson, Sandy, is constantly on the prowl for a pretty girl.

All this fades to the background when Sandy, Lois's mother, and the verger all fall victim to a very nasty flu-- and Cowgill asks for Lois's help in gathering information on a group that seems to be a nightmarish blend of the Ku Klux Klan and Satanists.

Although I liked how the plot was constructed, this book fell a bit flat for me, and I think I can trace my dissatisfaction to the characters. For me, there just wasn't enough Lois and too much of characters I didn't care for: Sharon the naive gossip, Sandy the lech, the lady of the manor Mrs. T-J, and the rather indecisive vicar.

However, Theft on Thursday is still filled with what I love about this series: a wry sense of humor, the life of a middle class family in an English village, Lois dealing with her business and anything else that's thrown in her path. Even though the group of arson-loving KKK/Satanists show that city life all too often encroaches upon the countryside, Ann Purser's Lois Meade series is one of the best traditional British cozy mystery series to be found.

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Weeping on Wednesday by Ann Purser

Title: Weeping on Wednesday
Author: Ann Purser
ISBN: 0425201430, Berkley Prime Crime, 2005
Genre: Cozy, Amateur Sleuth, #3 Lois Meade mystery
Rating: B
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line: "Hello?"

The villagers of Long Farnden don't quite know what to think of the Abrahams of Carthanger Mill. Wits have likened the Mill to a setting straight from the Hammer horror films, and rumors have always surrounded the Abrahams. But... when Enid Abraham applies for work at New Brooms, Lois Meade decides to give her a try.

While Lois is making sure her two new employees meet her exacting standards, Lois's husband begins receiving anonymous letters insinuating that his wife is having an affair with a local policeman. People begin disappearing and strange things begin to happen, and Lois wonders if Carthanger Mill holds the key to a terrible secret.

I enjoy this series. Lois is a wild child who grew up, settled down, and now has children who are giving her grief. The Meades are a loving family, and Lois extends that caring behavior to the people who work for her.

It's fun to see this series mature. When I read the first book, I saw it painting itself into a corner by having Lois cleaning the houses in just one village. The second book in the series had her broadening her horizons, but it presented another problem: constantly meeting the policeman in the woods to pass along the information she'd gleaned. This third book in the series addresses that. (You simply cannot get away with something like that when you live in a village!) I'm definitely looking forward to book four. Lois is becoming one of my favorite characters.

Terror on Tuesday by Ann Purser

Title: Terror on Tuesday
Author: Ann Purser
ISBN: 0425197530, Berkley Prime Crime, 2004
Genre: Amateur Sleuth, #2 Lois Meade mystery
Rating: B

First Line: "I used to carry a knife," Lois said conversationally, "when I was at school."

When I read the first book in the series, Murder on Monday, I found it to be lacking a bit in mystery, but I enjoyed the characters so much that I wanted to see where Purser went with them. I also wanted to see if Lois mopped herself into a corner. Having one cleaner constantly stumbling over corpses would be problematic-- just how many people would continue to hire her to clean their houses? I also wondered about Inspector Cowgill insisting on always meeting her in the same place. Lois lives in a small village. No matter how out-of-the-way the meeting place is, sooner or later everyone in the village is going to know what's going on. Purser dealt with both of my questions very well in this second book in the series.

Lois came into a bit of money at the end of Murder on Monday, and she and her family have moved to a different village and instead of a small council house, they now have a much larger one with plenty of room to spread out and still have a place for Lois to set up her own cleaning business. It's not long before she's interviewed applicants and has a crew working for her. One day she decides to take a short break in an old chapel and comes across a body dressed in a suit of armor. Once again, Inspector Cowgill has her searching for clues, and when the murderer almost kills her husband, Lois takes the investigation very seriously indeed.

I like the direction in which this series is going. Purser has an excellent cast of characters to work with, and having Lois run her own cleaning company means that she has more time for investigation and an entire crew of cleaners who can help her search for clues. The mystery didn't flag in this second book; although I guessed quite a bit of what was going on, I still didn't have all the plot threads tied and tidied by book's end.

This is a series that I'll be continuing on with, and I'd suggest it to anyone who prefers good characterization, amateur sleuths and cozy mysteries.

REVIEW: Murder on Monday

Title: Murder on Monday
Author: Ann Purser
ISBN: 0425192970/Berkley Prime Crime
Protagonist: wife/mum/house cleaner Lois Meade
Setting: Long Farnden, a small English village, present-day
Series: #1
Rating: B-

First Line: In the damp, raw cold of a winter's evening the women sat in rows in Long Farnden village hall, not listening to an elderly Land Girl's memories of "Life on the Farm During the War."

Lois Meade was a bit of a rebel when she was a teenager. If someone told her to do something, she almost always went out of her way to do the exact opposite. Now she's happily married, and once the third child arrived, she decided to clean houses to earn some extra cash. When Gloria Hathaway is murdered in the Long Farnden village hall, Lois realizes that all the people she works for knew the murdered woman. Having recently had her application for Special Constable rejected, Lois doesn't exactly jump at the chance to help the police with their investigation, but as she cleans house after house, she can't help noticing things. Could one of her employers be a cold-blooded killer?

Ann Purser does an excellent job of delineating her characters. Lois is Every Woman. She's married to a likable bloke, one of her children is a typical teenager, and she works for a living. Although she takes pride in her work, her family comes first--and her family life doesn't always run smoothly. This first book in the series sets up the characters quite well, but I sussed the killer quite early. The book lacked any real suspense, the mystery seemed to drag a bit, and my interest flagged. I have ordered the next book in the series because I would like to see the "house" Purser builds from her foundation of characters.