If you like Agatha Christie with a simpler format here you go. The cover has been redone for modern age but the story stays the same.

Bonjour, Miss Seeton is volume 21 in the series, and, yes, Miss Seeton travels to France along with a lot of the rest of the village of Plummagen, who have been inspired to go there after viewing Olivier's movie version of Henry V. Even though Miss Seeton is along to help manage the schoolchildren while they are visiting the estate of the Comte de Balivernes, she inadvertently meets the Comte himself when she wanders off alone, and he is instantly smitten by her. The Comte and his beautiful daughter visit Plummagen in turn and, of course, there ends up being a murder to solve, some fraud artists to catch, and an undetonated Nazi bomb found where Britain is attempting to begin to dig a tunnel to France as an alternate means of circumventing the channel. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the new and unique plot twists in this latest reissued Miss Seeton mystery. Thank you Netgalley and Farrago for allowing me to review this book.

Three strands of village life wind through this addition (the second to the last) in the Miss Seeton series. In one, the village recluse has died and left his estate to charity. This unleashes a string of village activities aided and abetted by a national charity that raises money to give electric wheelchairs to children. These efforts will climax, as does the book, in a bulldozer race between villages at the mouth of the Chunnel.

Because of a showing for charity ofHenry V, the local children go on a day trip to France accompanied by Miss Seeton and the elder Colvedens. While at a chateau, they meet a charming count who was a colleague of Sir George's in the War. The widowed count and his daughter are invited to visit on the race weekend.

The third string involves the Nuts. When Bunny invites her cousin to stay for an indefinite period, tempers become strained.

There's plenty of fun, appearances from all our favorites, a murder, and, at the end, a wedding, to keep us all amused.

By the 1970s the United States was well caught up in the Cold War. World War II was still around in the movies, Korea already largely forgotten and Vietnam was the hot war of the moment. England (James Bond notwithstanding), France, and most of western Europe were somewhat less of an ICBM target but still vividly bore the scars of the global upheaval of 30 years prior and thus its memories remained much fresher. One is reminded of this in almost every Miss Seeton novel and especially so in this one where the traditional rivalry with France over the centuries is contrasted with the more recent alliance against Germany.

Inspired by watching the Olivier film of Shakespeare's "Henry V" the school and many of the villagers of Plummergen take a field trip over the Channel to visit (briefly) the now-empty fields of Agincourt and a chateau whose gardens are being created after the image of a Monet painting. A number of other threads are entangled in the narrative (yes, of course neighboring Murreystone is part of the puzzle) but although the book STARTS with a murder one must remain patient as the context in which it occurred is carefully drawn.

While, inevitably in a long series (#21!), some of the nuances of character by-play may be missed by a newcomer, the author provides a fully rounded picture of village life with appropriate sketches of the main characters so one can enjoy this novel as a standalone--although I'll bet you end up doing what I did and reading them all in order not only for their delightful whimsy but for their portrait of a time gone by.

Of course, I've had the advantage of snagging the titles from Netgalley as they were reissued, but the whole set is now available (I'm reading the final volume almost as I speak). Love, love, LOVE Miss Seeton!

Miss Seeton is as charming as ever. Armed only with her sketchpad and brolly, she solves the mystery and saves the day. This is great for fans of humorous and cozy mysteries.

Miss Seeton has some wild adventures. While this one wasn't as funny as the others, I did enjoy reading it.

I voluntarily read an ARC of this book provided by the publisher and NetGalley.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Farrago for an advance copy of Bonjour Miss Seeton, the 21st novel in Heron Carvic's eponymous series and the 13th written by Sarah J. Mason using the pseudonym Hamilton Crane.

Plummergen is in the grip of charity fever with everyone doing their bit, except in Lillikot where the Nuts are at odds, exacerbated by a visit from Nora Blaine's cousin. This may change when Eric finds a body on the kitchen floor.

Bonjour Miss Seeton takes the series in a new direction with the author using a flashback technique. The body is discovered and then it flashes back over the events of the past month and finishes with a flourish in current time.

There isn't much in the way of a crime plot in the novel it is all about the characters and their interactions with a heavy emphasis on romance. Obviously Miss Seeton's drawings solve the crime but otherwise don't play a large part.

I liked the change of emphasis as there is none of the too stupid to be funny speculation that the Nuts usually indulge in and instead the novel concentrates on giving the reader a birds eye view of the goings on behind the closed doors of Lillikot (The Nuts' home).

Bonjour Miss Seeton is funnier and brighter than many of the recent offerings but as both are caused by the characters I would suggest that to get the best from the novel the reader should read some of the previous novels first.

I enjoyed Bonjour Miss Seeton and have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.