Book
Someone to watch over me : Grace & Favor mystery
Record details
- ISBN: 9780060199418 :
- ISBN: 0060199415 :
-
Physical Description:
print
216 p. ; 22 cm. - Publisher: London : HarperCollins, 2001.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Women detectives -- Fiction |
| Genre: | Mystery fiction. |
Available copies
- 3 of 3 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 3 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawson Creek Municipal Public Library | F CHU (Text) | DCL094885 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Prince Rupert Library | CHUR (Text) | 33294001213446 | Adult Fiction - Second Floor | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Trail and District Public Library Main Branch | MYS CHU (Text) | 35110000377651 | Adult Mystery Books | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Monthly Selections - #1 September 2001
Lily and Robert Brewster were carefree and very rich siblings until the Crash of 1929; now they live in Grace and Favor Cottage, a lovely mansion in Voorburg-on-Hudson, New York. They don't own anything: their great uncle Horatio's will permits them to live amid splendor, but they have to spend 10 years proving they can actually support themselves. Times are hard; many of the men in town have no work at all in 1932, and the women are doing what they can. A body in the icehouse is exciting but very long dead; when a local woman's ne'er-do-well husband also turns up dead, Lily and Robert find sleuthing to their liking. A subplot involving the veterans who camped out in Anacostia Flats in Washington and were dispersed by government militia adds a darker historical note to the marcelled hair, yellow Dusenbergs, and other, more frivolous signs of the 1930s. ((Reviewed September 1, 2001))Copyright 2001 Booklist Reviews - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2001 September #2
Because Lily Brewster and her brother Robert live in a big house and drive a Duesenberg, their neighbors in Voorburg-on-Hudson assume they're well off. They don't know that the pair, wiped out in the crash of '29, will inherit their late great-uncle Horatio's estate, including that grand house and automobile, only if they satisfy his executor, Elgin Prinney, that they can support themselves for ten years. And what better way to support themselves than investigating the odd murder-like the case of a mummified corpse Robert finds in Horatio's long-disused icehouse, or the more recent demise of local vegetable grower Roxanne Anderson's lecherous husband Donald? Both these pale homicides are eclipsed by a subplot in which Jack Summer, editor of the newspaper Lily and Robert don't own, goes to Washington to report on the Bonus Army March-an episode that has precious little to do with the murders but at least generates some emotional warmth when President Hoover sends in troops to fire on the veterans of the world war. Even the home-front intrigue has less to do with crime and punishment-the tiny mystery breaks every rule for plotting the detective novel-than soap opera, as Lily's heroic sacrifice in getting her hair permed twice in order to pump a key witness upstages any interest in whodunit.The lack of momentum in Lily's and Robert's hardcover debut won't surprise Churchill's fans, who may well be curious to see how she handles a tale set in the '30s, the spiritual matrix for her contemporary Jane Jeffry series (Mulch Ado About Nothing, 2000, etc.). Copyright Kirkus 2001 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2001 September #3
After two paperback originals in this cozily charming series (Anything Goes and In the Still of the Night), Churchill makes an auspicious move to hardcover. In the long, hot summer of 1932, lovely Lily Brewster and her elegant brother, Robert, who've been left penniless by the 1929 crash, are living at a Hudson River estate, thanks to the generosity of their late Uncle Horatio. They must oversee their uncle's interests with the aid of lawyer Mr. Prinney and his hardworking wife, mindful that nothing will be officially theirs until they've occupied the place for 10 years. While Lily joins the Voorberg Ladies League to do her charitable best for the local village, her brother tends to the estate grounds. Robert discovers a long-dead body in an old icehouse, and no one knows who he was or how or when he was put there. Then a fresher body turns up, that of the out-of-work husband of one of Voorburg's hardest-working Ladies Leaguers. As Lily pursues one puzzle and Robert the other, Jack Summer, editor of the local paper, treks to Washington, D.C., to investigate a gathering of veterans seeking government relief from the Depression. Churchill neatly ties the disparate threads of the story together, all the while underscoring with subtle compassion the era's tragedies of daily life, major and minor. In contrast to the author's long-running Jane Jeffry series, which has become predictable, this one is still fresh and winning. (Nov. 13) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2002 February
Adult/High School-When the stock market crash of 1929 takes the family fortune with it, Lily and Robert Brewster are lucky enough to inherit their great-uncle's home in New York state. Under the provisions of the will, they must live there for 10 years and earn their own salaries before the inheritance will legally be theirs. They take in boarders and begin plans to renovate the estate, until a mummified body of a murdered man is found in the ice house. Robert begins working on solving the crime just as Lily becomes involved in solving the murder of an acquaintance's husband. Churchill aptly describes the day-to-day life of people coping with the hardships of the Depression. She details the roles of wives, mothers, and single women in this era of poverty and harsher moral standards. Men face the challenges of finding employment and providing for their families. The result is a historically accurate portrayal of the people and the time. The mysteries add another dimension to the historical novel, each plot complementing the other.-Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
