Book Review: Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton

I read the first few Aunt Dimity books when I was in high school and I remember really liking them, but then I never read more than about the first 4. So when I saw the first Aunt Dimity book at the library, I decided to reread it. And I really enjoyed it again. I remembered pretty much nothing about Aunt Dimity's Death from my first reading, so I was very into the book the whole time. Aunt Dimity's Death is a mystery book, though not a murder mystery. I usually don't care too much about mysteries that have no murder in them, but it really works for this book.

Now for plot synopsis...Lori, our main character, heard bedtime stories about Aunt Dimity from her mom, but never knew Aunt Dimity was a real person until she received a letter that Dimity Westwood had died. Lori is at a particularly low point in her life, which in some ways makes her very willing to follow out the crazy conditions of Dimity's will, which include moving to a cottage in the middle of nowhere England. Lori is accompanied by the son of the lawyer who is handling the estate. The son, Bill, is approximately Lori's age, but is much more cheerful than Lori and tries his best to fight through Lori's bad mood. For about the first half of the book, it is a pretty standard mystery, with lots of entertainment for the reader. About half way through the book, the ghost of Dimity makes an appearance. Cha! All of the sudden, the mystery book turns into a mystery paranormal! But in a way that really doesn't have you questioning that a ghost is a character in the story. It works and doesn't make the book seem any less real than before.

I really enjoyed the story and found myself really caring about the characters. While reading, I was trying to remember why I stopped reading the Aunt Dimity series and at the moment, I have no idea. I'm pretty sure my mom owns the whole series, so they must be consistently good. I think I'll chaulk it up to being in high school and therefore incredibly busy. I am really looking forward to reading the next book in the series, after reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman that I started a couple weeks ago, but got distracted from by Aunt Dimity. Maybe her ghost encouraged me to read her book again?

**Yeah...I really have been planning on blogging more, but what with Doctor Who (and now Torchwood), lovely weather, and Jenny coming to visit me, I haven't been. I will blog more soon. I promise!**