This one is quite a fun! I would like to have a more consistent internal logic, yet the charm of the oldschool movies is quite catchy. Enriched by a British humour, young love/s and some dark crime, this cozy mystery novel offer a nice (if one-time) entertainment for your lazy afternoon. Get a cuppa of tea to it!

Emily Seeton, aka Miss Seeton, Miss Ess, or the Battling Brolly, is the fictional heroine in a series of British cosy mystery novels written in part by Heron Carvic; then following Carvic's death, by Roy Peter Martin, writing as Hampton Charles (I guess preferring to focus more on his own "The Superintendent Otani Mysteries" under the name of James Melville); then picked by Sarah J. Mason (writing as Hamilton Crane), before branching out on her own with the “Trewley & Stone” series .

In each book, we find Miss Seeton using her skills as an art teach as she randomly draws psychologically and, perhaps, psychically informative sketches that allow Inspector Delphick of the Yard, and his assistant Bob Ranger, to solve the crime. The primary storyline is the seemingly naive and oblivious Miss Seeton finding herself in awkward situations, then managing to provide enough random clues and insights for the detectives to use to solve these mysteries.

I have read a number of titles in the series (of which there are 23 - 22 and a prequel). The character of Miss Seeton is standard cosy fare (elderly spinster involved in solving crimes); the villagers, distinctly unique (reference "The Nuts"); the crimes predominantly local with a few trips further afield; the community, typically English of the 1950s style. Whilst the first five stories were original and charming, as the series goes on, it does get a bit repetitive, and with so much crime in one sleepy village, I'm surprised Scotland Yard has opened a branch there! In the end, Miss Seeton comes across as a poor man's Miss Marple crossed with Inspector Clouseau as the final author, I feel, struggles to provide anything original with which to involve our heroine.

Again, nice bit of fluff. She's misplaced and mis-assigned in this one, too, though not as badly as in Sings. And the young cop with her is nearly as good at noticing things as she is (though his focus is rather different). And the way she stumbles into behaving like a pro - in this case, a pro gambler - is always amusing.

The books are quirky and humorous Miss Seeton is just a little scattered brain sometimes but can always get herself out of the trouble she actually got herself into by accident