31 March 2025.
ASIN: B0DW6LD9VN
Henry Twyst, eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth, is one of nature’s worriers, and he has several reasons for anxiety: he is the head of the family, the owner of a large, historic house, which is constantly in need of renovation and repair, and also the owner of the surrounding estate, including many properties in the local village of Anwen-by-Wye. Added to this are his concerns about being a good husband to his adored wife, Stephanie, and a doting father to his one-year-old son, and this is both a joy and burden to a man of sixty. At the moment, Henry’s main cause for concern is that his recently acquired brother-in-law has announced that he wants to consult him. Henry’s relationship with his sister, Clementine, has always been difficult. Henry gave up his life as an artist in order to do his duty when he unexpectedly inherited the Dukedom, but Clementine has always been fickle, taking up interests and people and then abandoning them. Henry fears that his brother-in-law is about to confide in him that, after just a few months, Clementine is bored with her marriage.
All of this is very worrying for a man who is naturally indecisive and easily confused. To add to his troubles, while he is distracted, his headstrong mother, Althea, the Dowager Duchess, involves him in painting the backdrops for the local Christmas pantomime she is organising. Despite being in her eighties, Althea is a whirlwind of energy and determination, and soon it seems as if preparations for the Tale of Mother Goose will engulf the whole Chellingworth estate and the small village of Anwen-by-Wye.
Unlike most of the villagers, the four women of the WISE Enquiries Agency have little time to spend on the pantomime. They are fully occupied with their busy personal lives and have just acquired a new client. However, Mavis, the oldest of the WISE women, lives at the Dower House with Althea, and she is concerned that Althea is over-exhausting herself by immersing herself in the pantomime preparations. Before she married the seventeenth Duke of Chellingworth, Althea had been a dancer, and she has invited a colleague from that time to stay at the Dower House and is paying him to adapt and produce the pantomime. Mavis has finely honed instincts from both her previous career as an army nurse, and her present job as an enquiry agent, and these tell her to distrust Oswald Featherington. However, she doesn’t want to spoil Althea’s pleasure and accepts that her friend has the right to spend her money as she wishes, so apart from a few discreet enquiries, Mavis’s hands are tied.
The WISE women’s new client is Pauline Thomas, a fortune teller who has been suffering a series of mishaps, which have left her with several injuries. Pauline suspects that somebody is targeting her and is sure that they are pushing or tripping her. Apart from her personal safety, she is aware that many potential clients feel unwilling to trust a fortune teller who cannot foresee her own accidents. She has also been receiving an unusual number of extremely bad reviews for her business, which is having a serious impact. The WISE women are divided in their opinions regarding whether Pauline can really foretell the future, but they agree to take Pauline’s case. This is very time-consuming, as it involves both electronic and personal surveillance. Matters take a serious and sinister turn when a fatality occurs and neither means of surveillance spots it.
At around the same time, another suspicious death occurs some distance away, which the team feel sure is related to the local crime. The case is now in the hands of the local police, which means the WISE women have to rethink how they can contribute to the investigation without risking their good reputation and livelihood by annoying senior police officers, who feel that such matters should be left to the professionals.
The
Case of the Unfortunate Fortune Teller is the eleventh book in the series
featuring the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency and the other inhabitants of
Anwen-by-Wye, and it is an excellent addition to a warm, enjoyable series. The
book has an interesting, multi-faceted plot and is filled with lively,
eccentric and engaging characters. This is a delightful read, which I
thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer:
Carol Westron
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