Case of the Dotty Dowager, The

Henry Twyst needs professional help. The eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth believes his mother has gone round the bend, she’s seen a body on the dining room floor, when clearly, there is no on there. He relies on the help and the discretion of the WISE Enquiries Agency to get to the bottom of things. The ladies (One Welsh, one Irish, one English and one Scottish) get right down to business. They discover that all is not all as peaceful as it seems in this quiet Welsh village and that something has indeed gone very wrong at the Chellingworth estate.

A delightful new cozy series with a lovely setting and four loveable heroines

The Case of the Dotty Dowager is the first in a new series featuring the women of WISE Enquiries.

Henry Twyst fears the worst when his elderly mother calls to tell him there is a dead body in her dining room. When he arrives, the alarm is set, the household staff is asleep, and there is no sign of a dead body. The only evidence that his mother may not have imagined the entire event is a bloody bobble headed hat.

In need of an explanation for the Dowager's experience, but desiring discretion, Henry employs the women of WISE Enquiries. Carol (Welsh) provides research and computer support. Christine (Irish) blends with the aristocracy and has a wide variety of contacts. Mavis (Scottish) is an experienced nurse and Annie (English) has a gift for gab and putting people at their ease. Together they form a cohesive and the effective investigating team.

Some of the many aspects of this novel that I enjoyed:
1). The skillful use of accents and regional dialects to add to character 2). The friendship between these very different but all very likeable women 3). How the four take advantage of their respective talents for the benefit of the investigation 4). The wonderful and loving relationship between Carol and her husband

These aspects together with a creative and complex plot combine to make an impressive debut mystery. Well written and unique, The Case of the Dotty Dowager will delight mystery lovers of all ages.

I received a copy of The Case of the Dotty Dowager from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

A brilliant addition to Classic Crime Fiction. The ladies (if they'll forgive me calling them that) of the WISE Enquiries Agency will have you pacing the floor awaiting their next entanglement.

Henry Devereaux Twyst is the eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth and, up to now, his concerns have mostly been of the financial kind; plus a nagging sense that, since his elder brother died, he really needs to provide an heir to inherit his ancestral home. Not that Chellingworth Hall is always a blessing, as the responsibility for the upkeep is immense and necessitates opening his home to the public for part of the year, which he is both grateful for and yet resents. However, one night he receives a call from his mother, Althea, the Dowager Duchess, informing him that she has found a corpse in the dining room. Trudging across the grounds to the Dower House, Henry wonders whether his elderly mother is imagining things and, possibly, whether the formerly sprightly lady of nearly eighty is possibly facing dementia. His fears are confirmed when he arrives to find no body anywhere. Was his mother delusional, or has the body simply disappeared?

For help, Henry contacts Christine Wilson-Smythe, a member of the WISE Enquiries Agency in London. Christine has an aristocratic background and is happy to take the job on, as the agency is facing a financial crisis as well as various personal issues and problems. Carol Hill, their computer expert, is pregnant and looking for a quieter way of life, Mavis MacDonald has a serious ill mother and Annie Parker needs money to help pay her bills. Despite Annie’s unwillingness to leave London, three of the women – Annie, Christine and Mavis, head to Chellingworth Hall in Wales to discover what is really going on.

At first, I must admit that I struggled with this book. The characters all seemed a little stereotypical – the warm hearted Annie, treated very much as the naughty child of the group, the wealthy Christine, calm Carol and motherly Mavis, seemed too disparate a group to really work together well. However, as the mystery went on, I warmed to the characters more. I particularly liked some of the characters of the periphery of the story, such as Alexander Bright, who grew up neglected and liable to turn to crime, before becoming a successful businessman and antiques and art expert. The mystery was enjoyable and so was the country house setting. To be honest, the whole mystery was wrapped up a little too neatly to be believable, but it was an enjoyable, cozy mystery, and I would certainly read more novels featuring the members of the WISE agency. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

Who could pass up such a charming title? Four women from the four corners of the British Isles have formed the WISE agency and are hired by Henry, Duke of Chellingworth, to investigate his mother's delusion that she saw a body in the dining room. This is a most entertaining and often amusing mystery tale. All the characters are well drawn, with the straight talking Annie from London being especially memorable. The Duchess, who is far from dotty, is another delight. The plot involving antiques and the use of modern technology is both original and informative.
A most promising first installment in this new series.

Cozy, entertaining, and delightful. I LOVED this book! The first in a new series, I found myself enchanted by the characters, the town, and the story. Mysteries are beginning to be my new favorite genre and this one is now one of my favorites as well. What a great book!

The ladies of the WISE -- Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England -- represent all those nations, and shows off the special skills of the impressively diverse consortium. But having a great group and a great business idea may not be enough to keep the wolf from the door, so when a Stately Home in Wales has a little problem with a disappearing corpse and a remarkable theft in an equally remarkable display, the WISE Agency jumps at the chance.
The four agents not only are completely different characters, but they also have completely different experiences in this blend of adventure and cozy puzzle.
It's fun to follow each of the stories, and exciting when they meet together at the end of the book in a well-constructed solution to the mystery. I hope to see more in the series!

Henry Deveraux Twyst is the eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth, living on the estate of Chellingworth Hall in Powys, Wales. He receives a late night telephone call from Althea, the Dowager Duchess (i.e. his mother) claiming that she has found a dead body on the floor of the dining room. When he arrives – guess what – the body has vanished. This seems to confirm his suspicions that his mother may be losing her faculties, when she produces a woolly hat that she found next to the body – a hat covered in blood.
Enter the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency – WISE standing for Welsh, Irish, Scottish and English – a quartet of female sleuths with a variety of skills. Going undercover in the Hall and the surrounding village, there seems to be little to go on. Nothing was stolen from the Hall and the alarms weren’t disturbed. But when one of them goes missing, it seems that someone is very concerned about the truth coming out...
This is the first in a new series from author Cathy Ace – she’s also written four other mysteries featuring Cait Morgan. Not read those, I’m afraid. What’s slightly odd about this series is that it starts with the second act – there’s an untold tale of a serial killer that brought the women together. I wonder if the author intends to write that as a flashback or whether this will remain untold forever... Anyway, we open with the agency struggling for money until the case turns up.
It took me a little while to settle with the characters, but the writer does a good job of making them work. The variety of ages and personalities make a set of distinct characters and the story soon moves on at a rapid pace.
To clarify, before I give a couple of problems that I had with the story, I really enjoyed reading it and will look out Cathy’s other series at some point. But...
1) It’s not really a whodunit per se. More of a “what’s going on” but that’s revealed a little too early for my tastes. It’s much more of a cozy-thriller than a mystery.
2) For a tale about four strong women, a large amount of the deduction and heroics is given over to a fifth character who happens to be male. I was surprised how much of the “action” was given to him – he’s an interesting character, possibly the most interesting in the book, but it did seem to undermine the female leads.
But nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable read. Well worth a look.
This review copy was provided by Severn House via Netgalley.

The Case of the Dotty Dowager By Cathy Ace Severn House July 2015

Review by Cynthia Chow

The women of WISE Enquires Agency represent the four nations of the United Kingdom, and they are as diverse as their countries of origin. Consisting of four ladies who are Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and English, the agency came to be after circumstances had them solving a serial killing together. Just shy of their one year anniversary, the enquiry agency has been hired by Henry Devereaux Twyst, the eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth. The nebbish, longtime bachelor tasks the agents with determining the mystery of the disappearance of a body from the floor of Chellingworth Hall; or if he fears is more probable, whether his mother is going senile. The fact that Althea Twist was the only who claims to have seen the non-existent corpse would lend credence to her being a little off her rocker, if not for the bloody bobble hat inexplicitly left behind.

The Dowager Duchess of Chellingworth is not someone who appreciates being looked upon with condescension, so she is more than willing to have the WISE agents investigate both her home and the Welsh town of Powys. What Althea Twyst is far less amenable towards is the influx of tourists who traipse through during Open Season. Chellingworth Hall is as expensive to maintain as it is rich with history and social prestige, and it survives through the six months of being open to the public. When a million-dollar theft of a very unique collection is discovered, the question isn’t so much by whom, but when.

Although the agents of WISE are dissimilar as a result of their different nationalities, those very distinctions make them uniquely perfect for their roles within the agency. The maternal and very pregnant Welsh native Carol Hill provides computer assistance from their Sloane Street office and very capably dispatches the agents according to their particular skillsets. Working-class English Annie Parker chatterboxes her way into being underestimated, Scottish retired army nurse Mavis MacDonald confidently carries authority and knowledge, while young upper-class Irish Christine Wilson-Smythe brings both diplomacy and social connections. Althea Twyst is a delightful character herself, having a fondness for Monty Python and distaste for pretension. Author Cathy Ace has crafted a very fun and modern blend of mystery and Downtown Abbey, and the women of WISE prove to be funny, original, and always engaging. This is a very entertaining mystery that revels in the conflicts between classes and cultures within the United Kingdom, all while highlighting four very capable enquiry agents.

This first in a series featuring the detectives of the WISE Enquiry Agency, four women from the four nations of Great Britain (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England), is a witty and fun country house mystery. An elderly duchess in a grand manor house deep in the English countryside is certain she saw a dead body that has since disappeared. Her son thinks she has gone senile but the duchess knows what she saw and has the bloody knit cap she picked up near the body to prove it. Only the unique skills of the WISE detectives can solve this mystery quickly and discreetly.

The Case of the Dotty Dowager by Cathy Ace is a new cozy mystery series that is coming out July 1st. The main characters are four women who make up the WISE Enquiries Agency. Each of the women have their own method, heritage and strengths to find out the truth: Carol (Welch), Christine (Irish), Mavis (Scottish) and Annie (English). Their name even is an anagram of their heritages.

Harry the Duke of Chellingworth is worried about his mother Althea (the dowager). She claims to have seen a dead body in the dining room one night, but when her son comes over to check it out – there is no body. The fact his mother might be seeing things is a concern for Harry. He approaches WISE Enquiries to help discover the truth and what they find is much more sinister than anyone expected.

The Case of the Dotty Dowager was cozy mystery that I really enjoyed. It was fun, with great characters and a nice plot that wrapped up well. I enjoyed some of the secondary characters as well. I immediately went on line to see if I could find another in this series, but this is a new series with a new author. I will watch and wait (sigh)for the others!

The Case of The Dotty Dowager by Cathy Ace was a fun British cozy mystery. It is the first book in A WISE Enquiries Agency Mystery series. Henry Devereaux Twyst is the 18th Duke of Chellingworth. He was not raised to be the Duke. He was enjoying his life of painting watercolors until his older brother died. Now Henry is responsible for Chellingworth Hall (in Wales). Henry gets a late night call from his mother, Althea (Dowager Duchess of Chellingworth). Althea swears there is a dead man in her dining room. She called her son instead of waking up any of her staff (she has a cook, lady’s aide, and gardener/handy man). When Henry arrives at the house, he finds it locked up tight with the alarm on. Althea is in her bedroom with her dog, McFli and a fireplace poker in her hand. The body is gone! All that remains is a bobble hat that Althea picked up and took with her to her bedroom. Henry doubts his mother actually saw a body (he has been hearing rumors that she has been talking to herself).

Henry awakens the staff. All of them were sleeping very deeply and were hard to awaken. None of them heard a thing. The police are called the next day, but they do not believe the Dowager Duchess. Henry decides to call the WISE Enquiries Agency (they think detective sounds to American). Annie Parker, Mavis MacDonald, Carol Hill, and Christine Wilsom-Smythe make up the agency. Their individual skills complement each other. Carol is pregnant and cannot venture far from home. Her job is getting information (online and via phone) as well as keeping them all updated. Mavis will stay with the Dowager, Christine will visit Henry at Chellingworth Hall, and Annie will go to the local village. Each will investigate and keep the others updated. Did Althea see a dead body in her dining room? If so, where did it go? And most importantly, why were they in the Dower House?

The Case of the Dotty Dowager was an amusing British cozy. I give The Case of the Dotty Dowager 4 out of 5 stars. I liked the nice mix of characters as well as the lovely setting. I did not, though, like Annie Parker’s character. I found her very abrasive and hard to understand. She has such a thick accent that it is hard to figure out what she is saying. Mavis’ Scottish accent was much easier to figure out (of course, I have been watching a lot of Outlander). I think if Annie’s was toned down just a little, she would be a more pleasing character (they have her as loud, clumsy, and rude). Overall, The Case of the Dotty Dowager had good writing, great mystery, lovely town, and some interesting characters.

I received The Case of the Dotty Dowager from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.

Excellent start to a new series. A good mystery with interesting characters. I will be sure to look for future titles.

The Case of the Dotty Dowager is the new novel from award-winning mystery author Cathy Ace. It is the start of a new series for Ace and fans of the traditional mystery genre are already raving. Despite a title which calls to mind Masterpiece Theater, The Case of the Dotty Dowager is actually set in the Welsh countryside, not far from Anwen-by-Wye during contemporary times.
Unlike most mystery novels, rather than featuring only one protagonist, Ace has populated The Case of the Dotty Dowager with four main characters. Each of these ladies is a member of the WISE Enquiries Agency, an independently run private investigation firm. The WISE in the agency’s name is an acronym created from the first letter of each ladies’ country of origin: Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and English. Each of the women bring with them to the agency a different set of skills and by working together, they feel they can solve any case.
Readers are going to immediately bond with these four women. At various times throughout the novel, each of these characters becomes the focal point so it is important that they be easily distinguishable from each other and Cathy Ace has certainly managed that.
The Case of the Dotty Dowager is a relatively short novel, coming in at 213 pages, so getting to know these characters quickly is very important to the reader’s enjoyment. I would bet that if a group of readers were gathered to discuss this novel, each of them would have a different favorite character. However, by the time readers get to the end of the adventure, they will long to know more about each of the ladies.
The crime at the center of The Case of the Dotty Dowager is an interesting one. Althea, Dowager Duchess of Chillingworth, is awoken by a noise in her dining room. After investigating, she is shocked to discover a body lying on the floor. By the time her son, Henry Twyst, arrives from the main residence, the body has mysteriously disappeared. Fearing that his mother may be losing her marbles, Henry enlists the aid of the WISE Enquires Agency to discreetly investigate the matter.
In addition to the WISE ladies and the Twyst family, there are many other unique and quirky characters who feature throughout the novel. In the course of the investigation, Annie is required to infiltrate the local village and get to know the townsfolk. Meanwhile, Clementine Twyst brings a strange gentleman named Alex Bright with her to the Chellingworth Estate. Each of these characters become suspects while also adding local color to the storyline.
The character of Alex Bright also allows Cathy Ace to introduce another interesting element to the novel. It seems that Mr. Bright is fascinated by antique dentures and when he discovers that the Twyst family is in possession of some coveted specimens, he insists that Clemmie take him home for a visit.
Fortunately for the WISE Enquires Agency, they are able to successfully help the Twyst Family without causing a social scandal, but only after a few misadventures. Since their business venture is in sore need of a financial influx, a successful case with notoriety is sure to help.
Readers looking to get into a new series on the ground floor would do well to pick up The Case of the Dotty Dowager. Severn House is a publisher dedicated to their authors, so I fully expect to be reading about enquires by the WISE women for a long time to come.
Gordon Bennett! The Case of the Dotty Dowager was a quick, fun read which is perfect for lazing away a summer afternoon. Cathy Ace has written a traditional mystery that even Dame Agatha would approve of.

The Case of the Dotty Dowager introduces what promises to be a delightful and somewhat different cozy mystery series. Splitting the detective role among four women (three field agents, one tech expert) is a daring choice, since most mystery novels focus on a single detective or perhaps a partnership. But it worked for me. I found myself increasingly warming to the four main characters as I read, particularly the three field agents: Christine, Mavis, and Annie. Three other significant characters may play an ongoing role in the series as well, but I can’t tell you who without spoilers.

The first third of the book focuses mainly on establishing the characters and their relationships, and laying out the problem to be investigated. The dowager duchess claims to have found a body in the dining room. When her son, the duke of Chellingworth, goes to see, there is nothing there. Is she perhaps going senile, as Henry fears, or did she really see something? Only a single clue remains: a bloodstained knit cap.

I fell in love with the dowager duchess, Althea. She’s strongminded, practical, and has a sense of humor. The latter is sadly lacking in her son, who seems a bit beaten down by the weight and financial woes of the duchy. Henry isn’t a bad sort, but he is, to borrow an older British phrase, a bit of a wet. There are other, secondary characters connected to the estate; once the field team arrive on the scene, we’re also introduced to several residents of the nearby village, including a pub owner and his wife.

Setting is one of the delights of this book: we get both the traditional stately home (two, actually, since the dowager lives in the Dower House) and the village. Another delight is the diversity of characters. This isn’t the Britain of Christie and Sayers, but a very modern Britain with a significant minority population and much more internal migration – for instance, the owner of the pub in the Welsh village hails from London’s Bethnal Green. The four main characters are Welsh (Carol), Irish (Christine), Scottish (Mavis), and English (Annie), which gives the author plenty of scope for writing dialog and accents. The Welsh speakers “sound” so Welsh that I could hear the accent in my head, while Mavis’s Scots accent broadens when she visits home, and seems fairly accurate to me. I’m not as familiar with today’s Cockney/East London speech, but for the most part, it worked pretty well as spoken by Annie and a number of secondary characters. The MCs also come from varying class and ethnic backgrounds as well: Carol is from a Welsh town or village, and is a computer whiz; Mavis was a nurse and matron of a retirement/nursing home; Annie grew up in working-class London and is of Caribbean descent; Christine is from an upper-crust, privileged family. They all get along surprisingly well, and have a real affection for one another.

I found the mystery satisfyingly hard to figure out. By about two-thirds of the way through the book, I thought I had a handle on who the villain(s) was or were, and was beginning to vaguely guess what they might be up to, but I still had no idea who the (still missing) body was, nor how it tied into whatever was going on. The case proceeds the way I imagine a real investigation often does, with information coming in piecemeal, sometimes sparsely and at other times quite a lot at once. The book’s pacing is therefore a little uneven, but generally speaking it starts slowly (due to the need to establish so many main characters), picks up around the one-third mark, and picks up quite decisively around the two-thirds mark. There’s even a bit of personal danger to spice things up – and hints of romance for several main and secondary characters, though those remain unresolved by the end of the book.

The overall tone is a little lighter and more humorous than Cathy Ace’s Cait Morgan series, but not fluffy: serious crime is taken seriously, and there’s no idealization of either village or upper-class life. All in all, this is a welcome debut, and a series I will definitely be keeping an eye on!

From the very first page of The Case of the Dotty Dowager, I was immediately caught up in the mystery and couldn't stop turning the pages. The story is told in third person from multiple points of view, which I enjoyed and found to be an interesting technique for keeping my attention.

I really like the four women of WISE. They are different ages (20s, 30s, 50s, 60s), nationalities and ethnicities, are from different backgrounds, and have different work experiences prior to forming WISE. They work very well together despite, or perhaps because of, these differences.

I also really like the allegedly-dotty dowager, Lady Althea. She is a Monty Python fan, with a great sense of humor. Her son Henry, not so much. I like Henry anyway, despite his lack of appreciation for all things Monty.

I think you'll like Henry also, and his mother Althea, and the WISE women — Carol, Christine, Mavis, and Annie — and all the other characters (except the despicable evil-doers, of course) created by Author Cathy Ace in her wonderful new cozy mystery The Case of the Dotty Dowager: A cosy mystery set in Wales. The second book in the series, The Case of the Missing Morris Dancer: A cosy mystery set in Wales, is available for pre-order from Amazon US and will be released on February 1, 2016.

I loved this story.
Very solid and entertaining mystery.