Heron Carvic (1913–1980)

The Unsinkable Miss Seeton!

This crime novel from 1968 is along the lines of Agatha Christie—but lighter, with less mystery, and with more humor. It's the first in the Miss Seeton series.

Of course, the comparison with Miss Marple can't be avoided. Both are older women with an admirable polite steadiness. Miss Seeton is slightly younger (early 60s?), never married, on the verge of retirement as a school art teacher. Where Miss Marple is an astute sleuth with a cynical knowledge of human show more nature, Miss Seeton is merely an accidental witness to a murder and subsequently finds herself in the center of more murders, embezzlement, and a powerful drug ring. Miss Seeton's talents are also the tools in her survival: an astute intuition about people that she captures in her drawings, an ability to keep her head even while not fully understanding all the evil-doings around her. And she has that trusty umbrella she carries in all weather.

Like Miss Marple, she's got "nice old lady" hutzpah that is frequently underestimated.

Being written almost 60 years ago, there are undoubtedly a few old-fashioned ideas within but frankly none at all compared to the extreme offensiveness we endure by a current U.S. presidential candidate, publicly and regularly.

Speaking of its age, I don't know why but I also got a thrill coming across some of the back-in-my-day expressions not much in use today, like "pep pills" and "gas bag." I also dug the scatterings of literary and classical references. For example, I had to look up "Niobe," which was an important concept in one of Miss Seeton's drawings. I like when something I'm reading sends me off to Google where I pick up more tidbits of general education. It mildly surprises me that in older novels the authors assume their readers come to the work more well-read than we apparently are now. Have you noticed that?

I can't gauge how this novel stacks up in its genre. I don't read much crime or mysteries and have never read a cozy mystery. I can say, though, it was a fun read that takes place in a small, quaint, and gossipy English village with lots of kettles being put on. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. The writing was good, straight-forward, and refreshingly clean (of errors, of vulgarities). And a big kudos to Mr. Carvic for making each of the many characters distinguishable from one another in their speech and thought.

I enjoyed the little step back in time. In spite of all the criminality and danger, it was oddly relaxing.

And an old lady protagonist is always going to tickle my now old lady heart. show less

Having been recommended by someone whose opinion I trust, I was in the mood for something light and decided to try the first book in the Miss Seeton cozy series. I had no idea what I was getting myself into!

Delightful, charming, and hilarious are words that I seldom use, let alone throw around with abandon as I am doing now, but... I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book! If I didn't have any self-control, I'd be reading all the books in this series one right after the other like potato show more chips or cookies.

Miss Seeton is Miss Marple on laughing gas. She's a spryer Miss Marple, too, and you'll never believe the adventures she and her umbrella get into. To Scotland Yard's credit, Detective Chief Superintendent Delphick (known as The Oracle) knows that Miss Seeton's ability to identify the killer means her life could be in danger-- especially since they know who they're looking for: "...he had a nasty feeling that when she'd stuck her brolly into César Lebel, she'd stuck it into a hornet's nest." Fortunately for Miss Seeton, Delphick sees her for the astute person she is. Unfortunately, Detective Sergeant Ranger has the typical youth's opinion that she's merely a dotty old woman carrying a lethal umbrella-- but that opinion may change as the two police officers try their best to keep her alive.

Miss Seeton is about to retire, and she's inherited a nice little cottage down in a village in Kent. Wanting to try country life on for size, she moves in for a few weeks-- and she takes Delphick's murder investigation with her, little knowing how much difficulty the villagers are going to add. The people of Plummergen are a riot, even "the Nuts," Miss Nuttel and Mrs. Blaine, horrible gossips who are "the parish substitute for a Hollywood scandal sheet." As broad as the comedy may be, I'm from a small village and I recognized many of Plummergen's characters. (My village had its own version of the Nuts, among others.)

The killer tries time and again to do away with Miss Seeton. If you have a hard time understanding how murder attempts on a poor little old lady could be hilarious, all you have to do is read Picture Miss Seeton. I spent most of this book either smiling or laughing out loud. This book is light and fun and addictive. It's just what I needed, and I've decided: I. Need. More. show less

To truly picture Miss Seeton, you must imagine a younger, less conventional Miss Marple, one who gets caught up in farcical situations through no fault of her own. While the mystery is clever and the novel is quite funny, it’s the darling Miss Seeton and her can-do spirit that really captured me.

London art teacher Emily D. Seeton, a kind, dutiful forty-something spinster, encounters a murder of a French prostitute that turns out to be part of a larger scheme. Brave — or perhaps foolhardy show more — she drives off the murderer with her trusty umbrella. Miss Seeton can’t describe the murderer when pressed by the police — but she can draw a perfect rendition of him. Her artistic ability comes in handy more than once.

Unbeknownst to Miss Seeton, that makes her a target of a crime ring, one that tries to track her down during her holiday in the Kent countryside. The village characters that author Heron Carvic describes remain as fresh and funny as they were nearly 50 years ago; truly, despite being first published in 1968, Picture Miss Seeton has aged quite well. I can’t wait to read the next in the series, Miss Seeton Draws the Line.

Special thanks to Farrago for re-releasing this little gem. And thanks to whomever for making most of the re-released Miss Seeton books available on Kindle Unlimited. show less

Miss Seeton is the best sleuth you’ve never heard of. London art teacher Emily D. Seeton, a kind, dutiful forty-something spinster, is a younger, less conventional Miss Marple, one who gets caught up in farcical situations through no fault of her own. Her creator, Heron Carvic, intended her as a parody of the dithering, but perspicacious Miss Jane Marple, but readers won’t even notice because Miss Seeton proves absolutely delightful.

This set includes the first three novels in the series: show more Picture Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton Draws the Line and Witch Miss Seeton. While the last doesn’t live up to the first two, the box set is certainly worth it for Picture Miss Seeton and Miss Seeton Draws the Line. In both of those, Carvic plots an excellent mystery, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with the darling Miss Seeton, her optimism and her sense of duty.

Unbeknownst to Miss Seeton herself, she has an incredible gift for intuiting clues through her pencil drawings, drawing on — what? Intuition? Subconscious observations? Psychic messages? We don’t know, and readers won’t care as they enjoy Miss Seeton’s exploits in these novels. Readers will also enjoy Carvic’s sly send-up of the snoopy, judgmental harridans that populate every British village. Although the novels are more than 40 years old, the writing is as fresh as ever.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Prelude Books and Farrago in exchange for an honest review. show less