A cosy mystery set in the green Welsh countryside sounded
enticing so I picked up a copy to give myself a taste of
tradition. Henry Twyst, a Duke, is shortly going to marry,
and has amiably complied with Welsh forms such as reading
the banns as poetry at the village green, ahead of the
wedding on St. David's Day, first day of March, celebrating
the patron saint of Wales. More is to come in THE CASE OF
THE MISSING MORRIS DANCER.
Stephanie, the Duke's intended, is a professional event
planner but complying with all the local traditions seems
beyond even her abilities. Abducting the bride - surely the
locals won't go that far? But someone seems to have made
the leading Morris dancer disappear. Interestingly there is
something of an age gap between the couple, though nobody
makes an issue of it. Annie Parker and Christine Wilson-
Smythe run a women's enquiries agency nearby where there is
an
inordinate amount of chat about previous cases and ongoing
love lives. Those who have read the first instalment in
the Wise Enquiries series may be delighted;
newcomers
like me wade through to the next case. Aubrey Morris, the
lead dancer and odd-job man, is their new assignment; the
Morris dance by a group of men is a fertility rite the
villagers insist must be performed, and they need young
Aubrey. Wherever he is. And they need the antique,
valuable props, which are also missing.
The varied women of the agency breathe life and character
into the tale. Annie is of immigrant Cockney parents,
direct and smart. Carol is a Welsh girl married to an
Englishman and expecting their first baby. Christine has a
flat in Battersea, London, and parents in Knightsbridge, so
we get the impression that the agency is a hobby job. The
contrast with the simple and venerable village customs and
their practitioners is well done. We learn about Morris
dancing and the Welsh cakes being baked for the feasting.
The constant switching among protagonists could be
distracting to those who aren't used to it.
I've been lucky enough to attend a wedding in Wales, with
the lovely red Welsh gold rings, and if you get such an
invitation, go! The next best thing would be reading Cathy
Ace's enjoyable frolic THE CASE OF THE MISSING MORRIS
DANCER. You'll be willing the imperilled wedding to
succeed.
The Women of the WISE Enquiries Agency are back in a
witty and intriguing new mystery.
The Anwen Morris Dancers are to play a pivotal role in the
imminent nuptials of Henry, eighteenth Duke of
Chellingworth. But it looks as though the wedding plans
might go awry unless Mavis, Annie, Carol and Christine can
help Althea, the Dowager Duchess, by finding a missing
Morris man and a set of ancient and valuable artefacts in
time for her son’s wedding.
Anwen-by-Wye might look like an idyllic Welsh village where
family values reign and traditions still mean something in
a
modern world, but what will the WISE women find when they
peer behind the respectable net curtains?
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