The Luck Runs Out (1979)

Substance: Peter Shandy and his new bride become embroiled in another run of mysteries at Balaclava College when happenstance turns into too many coincidences. Shandy actually does a bit of detection, but the Rube Goldberg plot of the perps is simply too preposterous.
Style: Airy persiflage and good-humor abound. ( )

In this second book in the series, the late Ms. MacLeod departed from the first in that the murder victim was very likeable. The uncharitable among readers might think of a character or two whom they would rather see as the dead body (my hand is up and waving), but they're supposed to be that annoying. This time we get more complete names and position titles for some of the faculty. We also get to meet the three youngest of the seven Svenson sisters, one of them the only one to inherit Thorkjeld's disposition instead of Sieglinde's. Fans of big, beautiful women will welcome the introduction of the lovely Iduna Bjorklund, old friend of Helen Shandy.

Robbery is the order of the day. As if the loss of roughly half a million dollars' worth of silver and gold from honest craftsmen weren't enough, the college's prize sow has been pignapped. If you've ever lost your not-yet-saved important document to a power outage or some other computer problem, you may have some inkling of how Professor Stott feels about Belinda's loss. After all, she's the end product of nearly 30 years of his life's work -- and about due to have her first litter.

The Balaclava County Draft Horse Association's annual competition is coming up. Will the Balaclava Brigade prevail against the Lolloping Lumberjacks of Lumpkin Corners and the Headless Horsemen of Hodderville? (Be sure not to miss the story about the year someone from Hoddersville put itching powder in the back of Svenson's overalls just before his start at the Senior Plowman Event. It's no wonder his nickname among the college students is "King Kong".)

Professor Shandy has to track down Belinda, solve a few red herrings, and help ensure the right person gets arrested. There are colorful characters aplenty, witty dialog, a good vocabulary, and a fun way of telling the readers How Things Turned Out at the end.

There are also some genuinely good, decent characters behaving decently as a contrast to the mean-spirited characters who don't seem to be happy unless they're putting others in the wrong, even if they have to make up the facts to do it.

I like Balaclava Agricultural College's work-study program, how its endowment fund is handled, and its policy about students and booze. That reminds me -- another introduction here is to the Balaclava Boomerang, made of home-hardened cider and homemade cherry brandy. It sounds pretty potent.

Ch.8 is where we learn that one of Helen's grandfathers was a Deacon Marsh.

Yes, this cover is among the reasons I got very tired of skulls on the covers of mystery books, but the horseshoe is proper to the story. Pardon me while I move on to rereading book three. ( )

This was some fun fluff reading. Peter Shandy is a professor at an agricultural college in Massachusetts. The college is having a run of either bad luck or someone is out to sabotage them before their big contest. It moves beyond the practical joke stage when someone is murdered. Now Professor Shandy must unravel the tangled clues or one of his good colleagues will be put in prison for the crime.

I enjoyed the lightness of spirit in this book, along with the many references to Viking deities and literary folks, though I admit, some of it seemed thrown in to show how clever the author is. The mystery was solvable, but not spoiled by that fact. Though I never laughed out loud, I did get some smiles from this and I will read more of this author's work. ( )

The president of Balaclava Agricultural College enlists the help of Professor Peter Shandy when Miss Flackley, the farrier, is found dead in the pen of a prize sow and half a million dollars worth of silver is discovered stolen from the local silversmith ( )