On This Page
Description
It's 'set an artist to catch an artist' . . . When a flood of perfectly faked banknotes hits the market, retired art teacher Miss Emily Seeton, the Yard's famed 'MissEss', is chosen to investigate a respected Geneva bank. Somehow, the forger is also mixed up in the theft of valuable paintings. But Miss S. is new to air travel - surely the names Geneva and 'Genova' must be the same place? Bamboozling both the crooks and the police who vainly try to keep tabs on her, innocently humming the show more fraudsters' musical password, she trips gaily along the dangerous trail. Serene amidst every kind of skullduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella! What people are saying about Miss Seeton: Miss Seeton is a hoot! I was torn between laughter and eye rolling with each page turn. The characters are loveable and thoroughly British. This is a perfect specimen of classic British mystery. What a joy Miss Seeton is. Why did I wait so long to read them? Splashy characters, lovely setting, and just plain funny." I've become a Miss Ess addict. Great characters that get better with each book. A must for anyone who loves a good British cozy with a twist, and surprising revelations of what a good brollie can do in a pinch." What a great series. This is one of the best in English light reading mysteries." Miss Seeton is a delightful sendup of the amateur sleuth. If your doctor has prescribed laughter as the best medicine, run and buy the entire series as fast as you can." Editorial reviews: A most beguiling protagonist!" New York Times Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting." San Francisco Chronicle This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can't stop reading. Or laughing." The Sun Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life." Publishers Weekly Fun to be had with a full cast of endearingly zany villagers . . . and the ever gently intuitive Miss Seeton." Kirkus Reviews Miss Seeton is the most delightfully satisfactory character since Miss Marple." Ogden Nash I think, on the whole, Miss Seeton is the most loveable and entertaining of any of today's fiction detectives. May she live forever." London Mystery Selection. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I loved the first two Miss Seeton mysteries Picture Miss Seeton and Miss Seeton Draws the Line. So much so that I gobbled up the rest of the books by Heron Carvic to squirrel away when I needed to read something guaranteed to make me laugh. Unfortunately, book three (Witch Miss Seeton) is where the series began to unravel. The author began bringing in multiple plot lines, many more characters, and the humor that I loved so much devolved into farce. As you can tell by that last sentence, I don't really care for farce, humor being so subjective.
In Miss Seeton Sings, not only are there multiple plot lines and many more characters, Miss Seeton and her lethal umbrella aren't even in her English village anymore-- and her execrable French show more only had the power to make me smile a time or two. No, Miss Seeton does her best work in her village.
Although it was amusing to see how she and her umbrella escaped death time and again, I began getting angry with Scotland Yard and the other police agencies who just turned her loose and left her completely in the dark. I know there's some humor in there somewhere that completely escaped me, but I'm not going to worry about it.
I will say that, if you are a lover of farce, this is the book for you. If you're not, you might want to leave it alone. show less
In Miss Seeton Sings, not only are there multiple plot lines and many more characters, Miss Seeton and her lethal umbrella aren't even in her English village anymore-- and her execrable French show more only had the power to make me smile a time or two. No, Miss Seeton does her best work in her village.
Although it was amusing to see how she and her umbrella escaped death time and again, I began getting angry with Scotland Yard and the other police agencies who just turned her loose and left her completely in the dark. I know there's some humor in there somewhere that completely escaped me, but I'm not going to worry about it.
I will say that, if you are a lover of farce, this is the book for you. If you're not, you might want to leave it alone. show less
Cute. Like most Miss Seeton books (well, Heron Carvic's, anyway), it's a nice bit of fluff. Miss Seeton is appealingly fluffy, though there are rather more serious things going on around her than usual - two major deaths, one of them a villain and one a good guy (in several senses of the word). She does _notice_ things, even if she forgets that she saw them afterward...if the good guys are there to hear her babble, things get fixed. Nice these are being re-released.
Miss Seeton goes to Switzerland because an important banker had heard of “The Battling Brolly” and wanted to have Scotland Yards best detective on the case of the forged currency. But Miss Seeton doesn’t stop there she is off to Spain, Italy and France.
As I keep saying this series makes me smile but if you look and listen carefully there are issues discussed that are talked about in politics today.
As I keep saying this series makes me smile but if you look and listen carefully there are issues discussed that are talked about in politics today.
Miss Seeton is drafted by the Foreign office to put a stop to a counterfeit ring. Despite protests from Scotland Yard that missess wouldn't know counterfeit from monopoly money and her own modest denials of any banking expertise, off she goes to Geneva. Or was that Genoa?
Hilarity ensues as the battling brolly wreaks havoc all over Europe, all while spotting some stolen masterpieces, jewel thefts, espionage, and a murder or two.
Hilarity ensues as the battling brolly wreaks havoc all over Europe, all while spotting some stolen masterpieces, jewel thefts, espionage, and a murder or two.
Review of the series can be found here @ Melisende's Library
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Crime and Mysteries to Read
746 works; 31 members
British Mystery
469 works; 14 members
Books Read in 2015
3,299 works; 129 members
Books With Complete Sentence Titles
374 works; 15 members
Books Read in 2020
4,379 works; 124 members
Next in Series
85 works; 1 member
Books Read in 2022
5,164 works; 111 members
Books Read in 2025
4,090 works; 97 members
Author Information
Born in London, England, Heron Carvic was a successful novelist, dancer, actor, designer, builder, decorator, and market gardener. He was educated at Eton College, was famous for writing numerous crime novels involving the title character of Miss Seeton. The books in the mystery series include Picture Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton Draws the Line, Witch show more Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton Sings, and Odds on Miss Seeton. In 1969, Carvic was awarded a special citation form the Mystery Writers of America, and his first Miss Seeton novel, Picture Miss Seeton, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award. Carvic was a member of the Writers Guild of Great Britain and the Crime Writers Association. Carvic lived in Kent, England. He died in February of 1980. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Miss Seeton Sings
- Original publication date
- 1973
- People/Characters
- Thrudd Banner (Thaddeus); Borden (Detective Inspector, Fraud Squad); Madame de Brillot; Delphick (Detective Superintendent, the Oracle); Sir Hubert Everleigh (Assistant Commissioner); Jonathan Feldman (show all 20); Roland Fenn (Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Special Branch); Thomas ffoley; Vee Galam (Vanda Galam, Vincent Gardnor); Tom Haley (Detective Constable, Fraud Squad, Thomas E. Haley); Anatole Librecksin; Lilianne; Elio Mantoni; Bob Ranger (Detective Sergeant); Emily Dorothea Seeton; Heracles Stemkos; Mousha Stemkos; Natalie Stemkos; Karl Telmark; Xerxes Tolla
- Important places
- Genoa, Liguria, Italy; Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Paris, France; London, England, UK; France; Italy (show all 7); Switzerland
- Dedication
- For Pamela with love and gratitude
- First words
- The words - what were the words?
- Quotations
- Sir Hubert Everleigh surveyed his crowded office. If any more departments wished to be represented at these conferences - or as he privately thought of them, these Seeton Sessions - they'd need to be held in the board room.
The F.C.O. gentry were not to be hurried. They liked to weigh pros with the same deliberation with which they balanced cons, and they preferred to brood over everybody else's estimate of a situation before coming to some such... (show all) momentous decision as that final judgment should be deferred until some later date.
"It's nice to know," remarked Delphick, "that the F.O. can now sleep o' nights." - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Nobody else in the world'd come trotting home clutching a dish with the joint already on it and then innocently serve it up to customs.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 189
- Popularity
- 172,607
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.72)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, French
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 13
- ASINs
- 6
