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THIS OLD SOUSE
by Mary Daheim
William Morrow, July 2004
320 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0380978695


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Beware a visit to the old neighborhood. Cousins Renie and Judith visit Renie's old neighborhood to check out a Spanish-type villa (sticking out like a sore thumb in the Pacific Northwest) which Renie used to pass as a child and whose inhabitants are so secretive that no one has seen them for some 40 years.

Ever curious, Judith and Renie try to exact information from the milkman and the mailman, but neither has ever seen the mysterious Bland family. Once a year, a parcel from Austria is delivered, but payment is left outside the house, and the parcel simply disappears inside.

At first, the house was just a matter of curiosity, but things heat up when Judith opens the trunk of her car only to find the body of the Bland family's milkman.

Judith has a very full plate. Her husband, Joe, a retired policemen turned private investigator, is away on a case involving insurance fraud, and she is desperate to solve the murder before Joe learns that she has been up to her old detecting tricks. Her cantankerous mother, Gertrude, is immersed in a movie script about her life, a script filled with distortions, some of Gertrude's making, some not.

Judith also has a full house at her bed and breakfast, where Lois and George Greenwalt have managed to find everything sub-standard. The crowning moment for them comes when Gertrude's cat, Sweetums, accosts Mr Greenwalt, apparently causing a heart attack. His wife hold the B&B responsible for the behavior of the 'homicidal pet.'

To add another layer to a cake that is in danger of toppling of the plot's weight, Judith's son, Mike, appears with his three children in tow. His wife has left the family to 'find herself.'

The trail finally leads to Austria and Impressionist art confiscated by the Nazis and 'liberated' by Allied soldiers after the war.

In character creation, Daheim has a knack for developing cranks. By far the most vivid characters are curmudgeonly mother Gertrude, the demanding Mrs Greenwalt, and Elsie Bruce, who is addicted to buying jewelry from a TV shopping channel.

Unlike many mystery character, Renie and Judith are not caught in a time warp. They have advanced in age in each of the series' books, and, even with Judith's artificial hip, they are moving merrily into late middle age.

Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, August 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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