I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Miss Seeton at the Helm
by
Hampton Charles
cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Farrago on July 28, 2016 and has 217 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Miss Seeton By Appointment, Advantage Miss Seeton
Eighth in the not-Heron-Carvic series about Miss Seeton and said to be revolving around Miss Seeton. This story may start in England but it quickly switches to a cruise in the Greek islands in 1972. It’s been at least a year since Miss Seeton, By Appointment, 6.
My Take
Yeah, well, this will be my last Miss Seeton story. I can’t take it. Charles is screwing with the characters. He has them doing things they’d never do and Miss Seeton is even less involved than ever. I hate this. And I am so missing the original Miss Seeton . . . sigh . . . I miss the original Sir George as well. He was much more intelligent in the previous five and one does wonder how someone who takes his magisterial duties so seriously and is such “a shrewd old boy” can be depicted as such a dumb cluck.
It does sound like Sir Wormelow and Miss Seeton had a lovely time at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. She’ll go on to thoroughly enjoy the arts on view during her cruise too. It is such a treat for her! Especially when Szabo and Tump, honorary members of the Plummergen gang, come along as well.
It’s a twisty tale with the personal lives of the lecturers and passengers intertwined. Charles does paint a scummy picture of Witley, although MissEss paints him as Cupid, hmmm . . .
It’s an incestuous cruise what with so many of the passengers and/or lecturers knowing each other . . . having been involved with each other. Add in that bit of “mob” flavor with one of the characters threatened with his own demise if he doesn’t cause another’s death and it goes from campy to creepy.
It seems that Sir George is not the only character who did well in the war. There’s a wee bit of impressive back history on The Oracle as well. Hmm, I wonder if that’s where he picked up that nickname?
Charles does play up the relationship Mel has with Miss Seeton as well as her cooperation with Delphick and Scotland Yard. It’s a friendship that influences how Delphick accepts Mel’s help. That “cooperation” gets help from Captain Papagiannis as well with his romantic perspective.
The blackmail scheme and the demands did not make sense. Charles keeps tossing these odd non sequiturs out there and expects them to make sense. The affair. The blackmail. The weird payment demanded by a character that is totally out of left field. Blodwen allowing Witley to treat her like a doormat and suddenly, very suddenly getting over it?? The unexpected suicide. The sudden ability of the cops to arrest the primary bad guy? What held them up before?
It is a character-driven story — and Charles is using third person global subjective point-of-view, as we’re getting perspectives from a number of characters. And it’s the characters who pack in the action in this meandering story that has so ticked me off.
The Story
Lucky Miss Seeton is thrilled to be “awarded” a luxury cruise from Venice to the Greek islands, for her services as official artist to Scotland Yard. But also on the good ship Eurydice are her friends, Sir George and Meg, Lady Colvedon, who know all about Miss Seeton’s talent for tripping up wrongdoers. And by coincidence of course, there are a couple of well-known warring art experts.
This voyage is heading into stormy waters, but by the crook of her brolly MissEss untangles the truth and brings them all safely into harbor.
The Characters
Miss Emily Seeton, a retired art teacher, is also on retainer with Scotland Yard for her insightful caricatures of those around her. She’s also known, in the press, as the “Battling Brolly”. Martha Bloomer does for her and secretly works with Lady Colveden on Miss Seeton’s wardrobe.
Sir George (retired major general, Bt, DSO, and JP) and Meg, Lady Colveden, live in Plummergen, where Miss Seeton lives in her inherited cottage. Nigel is their son but doesn’t appear.
The Reverend Arthur Treeves is the vicar in Plummergen. Mr Meredith lives at Eventide Home and likes to play chess. Mr Jessyp, the headmaster of the Plummergen primary school, likes theatrics and is a leading light in the Brettenden Amateur Dramatic Society (B.A.D.S.), a.k.a. the Baddies.
Mel Forby, a.k.a. Amelita Forby, the former fashion reporter, is the star reporter at the Daily Negative and a friend of Miss Seeton’s. She’s also become the paper’s Art and Saleroom Correspondent. Thrudd Brunner is a free-lance foreign correspondent (Miss Seeton Sings, 4) who is in a relationship with Mel.
The Eurydice is . . .
. . . a cruise ship run by Heron Halycon Holidays with guest lecturers. Mungo Macallister, whose Scottish accent comes out when he’s stressed, is the captain. The gay Marty Hussingtree is one of the stewards — he’s resting from the theater.
Passengers include Sir Wormelow “Wonky” Tump, who is the custodian of the Queen’s Collection of Objets de Vertu (Miss Seeton, By Appointment, 6). We met Ferencz Szabo, a.k.a. Frank Taylor, a dealer in rare antiques and objets d’art, in the same story and the two men became good friends with Sir George along with Cedric Benbow, the photographer from Miss Seeton, By Appointment. Carlo Crivelli is a wealthy Italian collector. The gorgeous Dr Dorcas Bookbinder specializes in the history of art with a special reference to the Venetian School. She and Miss Seeton are thrilled with each other’s interests. They’re both also into yoga. Juliana Popjoy, an antiques dealer in Bath, is with the sexy Dickie Nash, a professor at Cambridge specializing in Byzantine history who’s addicted to gambling. Mr and Mrs Giles Golightly — she knows a lot about the voyages of Ulysses. The “Sophocles” passenger disapproves of poor grammar.
Lecturers include Professor Adrian Witley, the obnoxious chap who specializes in archeology and is on a television show Ask Me Another. Ashley Browden, Bishop of Bromwich, used to lecture in classics at Cambridge. Dr Blodwen Griffiths is a coin expert and university lecturer.
Scotland Yard
Chief Superintendent “the Oracle” Delphick pushes for Miss Seeton’s trip. Sergeant Bob Ranger is still Delphick’s partner and off on his honeymoon with Anne Knight, Dr Knight’s daughter. Sir Hubert Everleigh is the assistant commissioner (crime) and Delphick’s boss. Inspector Madison is with the art fraud investigation unit.
Athens
Harold Withers is the second secretary in the consular department. Captain Zenophon Papagiannis is the Greek police officer assigned to the murder investigation.
The Duchess of Windsor is recently widowed. In a shocking development, Reginald Maulding resigned as Home Secretary in 1972.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a light blue sky with a few clouds above a deep purplish blue of the Eurydice steaming from left to right. The water is an odd gradient of colonial blue to a softer green, although a veil of blue covers the “Seeton” in the title. At the very top is the series info in purple. Her shoulder next to the ship’s prow, Miss Seeton is a silhouette in a pinkish red in a battle stance, holding her umbrella which rings a life preserver. Two icons appear behind her: a pinkish red bust and an orange bottle upended over a glass. At the very bottom is a Venetian gondola. The title is a’slant and crosses Miss Seeton’s ankles in various shades of yellow with the author’s name below that in a more orangey yellow.
The title is merely relating that Miss Seeton at the Helm is indeed on the ship, but she’s not central to the story. Not in my opinion.
