Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage

by Nancy Atherton

Overview

In the twenty-fifth installment of the bestselling Aunt Dimity series, when an inscrutable newcomer arrives in Finch, Lori is determined to befriend him—and in the process discovers Finch's own heart-wrenching past

It's early May in the small English village of Finch and the air is crackling with excitement: a newcomer is about to move into Pussywillows, a riverside cottage with a romantic reputation. Will the cottage's newest resident prove yet again its enchanting ability to matchmake? But when Crispin Windle arrives, no one knows what to make of him: seemingly a loner, he repels every welcoming gesture and appears altogether uninterested in being a part of the community. Soon, the townspeople have all but dismissed him.

Only Lori and Tommy Prescott, a young army veteran who recently moved to Finch, refuse to give up. They orchestrate a chance meeting that leads to a startling discovery: a set of overgrown ruins. They are, Aunt Dimity shares, the remains of a Victorian woolen mill that once brought prosperity to Finch.

As the three explore, they stumble upon the unmarked graves of children who died working at the mill. Heartbroken, Lori, Tommy, and Mr. Windle get to work on the seemingly impossible task of identifying the children to give them a proper burial. And as Mr. Windle works tirelessly to name the forgotten children, he slowly begins to open up—giving the romantic cottage a chance to heal his heart as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593295779
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Series:	Aunt Dimity Series
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	102,021
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Nancy Atherton is the bestselling author of twenty-four Aunt Dimity mysteries. The first book in the series, Aunt Dimity's Death, was voted "One of the Century's 100 Favorite Mysteries" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

03/28/2022

In Atherton’s gentle 25th paranormal cozy featuring Lori Shepherd, a self-described “friend, neighbor, gossip-monger par excellence, and community volunteer,” and Lori’s confidante, the late Dimity Westwood (after 2019’s Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold), the residents of the Cotswolds village of Finch are all atwitter, because a mysterious man has bought Pussywillow Cottage. The house is said to be enchanted, and it’s believed that anyone who lives there is destined to find true love. Unfortunately, the new owner, Crispin Windle, a 75-year-old retired professor with an air of sadness, doesn’t live up to the locals’ expectations. Aunt Dimity, who communicates via elegantly handwritten messages penned in an old blue journal, urges Lori to offer the elderly man her friendship. This act leads to Lori’s discovery of a harrowing secret buried in Finch’s past. Those who want to escape into a world where all problems can be resolved through kindness, without the need for fisticuffs or firearms (or much crime solving), will be satisfied. Those seeking action, excitement, or a knotty puzzle should look elsewhere. Agent: Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2021

In a series starter from the ever-popular Armstrong, homicide detective Mallory is in 2019 Edinburgh when she experiences A Rip Through Time and winds up in one of the city's alleyways in 1869, inhabiting the body of strangled-if-not-quite-dead housemaid Catriona Thomson and soon hunting for a killer (50,000-copy first printing). In Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage, the redoubtable sleuth and her English-village neighbors fail in their attempt to befriend standoffish newcomer Crispin Windle until they discover the ruins of a Victorian woolen mill—and the graves of children who worked there, whom they seek to identify (30,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for July 2021). In Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride, crusty but beloved widow Nonna Maria—who lives on the isle of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples and was inspired by the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Carcaterra's grandmother—intervenes when a young bride-to-be declares that she's afraid of her fiancé. In Haines's Lady of Bones, Mississippi-based Sarah Booth Delaney of the Delaney Detective Agency is attending a party alit with jack-o-lanterns when she's approached by a woman seeking her vanished daughter, who has been investigating the disappearance of young women in New Orleans every Halloween for the last five years (40,000-copy first printing). The internationally best-selling author of the "Dark Iceland" and "Hulda" series, Jónasson sets his new standalone during an Icelandic blizzard, with four frantic friends sheltering in an abandoned hunting lodge and facing a reignited tragedy that likely makes them wish they were all Outside (50,000-copy first printing). In Klingborg's Wild Prey, Inspector Lu Fei of the Chinese Police travels to a remote region of Myanmar to find a missing 15-year-old girl in a case involving the illegal trafficking of exotic animals (50,000-copy first printing). In Robert B. Parker's Revenge Tour, Lupica assigns PI Sunny Randall the thankless task of investigating actress friend Melanie Joan Hall when Melanie's manager turns up dead, her bank account looks to be wiped out, and details of her past suddenly seem more imagined than real. In Paretsky's Overboard, a seriously injured teenage girl discovered by V.I. Warshawski on Lake Michigan's rocky shore subsequently vanishes from the hospital, and the iconic detective must chase down a monstrous conspiracy with pandemic-ridden Chicago as backdrop (100,000-copy first printing). Pursuing a massive drugs-and-weapons shipment being shepherded across the U.S.-Mexican border by former cops with the warning "You talk, you die" written on their bodies, Patterson/Paetro stalwart Sgt. Lindsay Boxer suddenly has 22 Seconds to decide what her fate will be. Second in the new series from librarian Weaver, who launched her writing career with the delightful Amory Ames mysteries, The Key to Deceit has breaker-and-enterer Ellie McDonnell again approached by stuffed-shirt good-guy Major Ramsey in World War II London: he wants her to discover which side the female spy found bobbing in the Thames was on (40,000-copy first printing).

Library Journal

The caring community, its quirky characters, and the warm depiction of family life will appeal to readers of Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow cozies.”—Booklist
 
“Those who want to escape into a world where all problems can be resolved through kindness, without the need for fisticuffs or firearms…will be satisfied.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher