country village mystery

YUCK. What a compendium of stereotypes and cliches - offensive ones, at that. I disliked her Miss Seeton mysteries, but hoped she was better on her own - note to self, never pick up anything by her again. The book begins with several chapters of establishing that there's not a decent character in the village - following the "literary tradition" that an English village is full of sexual perversion, madness, and feuding. All the men are obsessed with sex and beer; all the women are obsessed with men, gossip, and feuding. Those who escape that set of stereotypes are a) mad or b) clueless. And no one as innocent and therefore fun as Miss Seeton. Oh, incest causes mental retardation and madness, and a homosexual speaks in falsetto, wears fancy clothes, and minces when he walks. I repeat, YUCK. I was seriously considering dropping the book, and I don't do that - what I start, I finish. It did improve, slightly, when the cops showed up - there was less of the backbiting and some faint indications of decency, between Trewley and Stone. But the elaborate plots they set up to explain this and that suspect's involvement...sheesh. Then the answer came by inspiration (there were some clues, but nothing that really indicated the logic path Trewley took, to me). And then...Stone's choice was bad enough, but Trewley supporting her? Aww, poor baby, he couldn't father a child and therefore his reputation must be protected... honestly, Mason has Trewley think several times about how warped procreation or the lack of it could make a person (which I guess was a hint) - but reading her stuff, I wonder if she's talking about herself. She's certainly obsessed with sex. Boring, not particularly well written (too predictable, except where stuff happens via author fiat), and utterly full of offensive and mostly sexual stereotypes. She's on my Do Not Read list. ( )