Eleven Twelve Dig And Delve (Grasshopper Lawns #6)

A nice mix of the familiar and the uncanny

Traditional Scottish Prayer - From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!

There’s a newcomer at the Grasshopper Lawns retirement village, and she’s an absolute battle-axe. One requirement of residency is to have an interesting past and Beulah Quinn’s past has been interesting to the point of scandalous. Now nearly eighty, she was notorious for her lovers and her political machinations and has been described variously as the most beautiful woman of her day, a widow-maker, and a full-blown witch. Now, though, someone is trying to kill her; and family is family. To Edge’s horror, her aunt is moving in.

Anyone who has ever thought of a friend moments before the friend rang, or changed their mind in response to a subconscious uneasiness, knows that the thread of the unknown still runs through our lives. For some, it isn’t a thread, and it isn’t the unknown.

This is a step outside the series, an exception, hence the Halloween tag. There are no broomstick sorties, no star-scattering sparkling wands, but there is a kind of ancient power: the sort we all have to some degree, that flash of the uncanny. For most of us, it is intermittent, unreliable. For Beulah Quinn, it is a way of life.

In this story the unsuspecting Edge and her friends are suddenly in the middle of something that strains their credulity, but when it comes to finding answers in a race against time, with Beulah Quinn’s life at stake, it is their experience that tips the scales. The actual rescue, well, there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. And yes, quoting the Scottish play would have been more appropriate.

There is, of course, murder to be solved, and the alert reader has all the clues (and red herrings) that every Grasshopper Lawns story provides. There’s also a free short story lead-in, for once, in which Vivian’s grandchildren find a pre-Roman burial mound with a more recent body in situ. It is a light-hearted story, a summer day cameo, and you don’t need to have read it to enjoy this book, but you are very welcome to it if you sign up on http://elegsabiff.com/ . (You can unsubscribe at any time, but if you stay on the mailing list there are occasional special offers and other intermittent free stories.)

The beta reader comments included words writers love to hear, like "really liked the build up - suspense, humour, excitement, danger." and "scary and yet funny". One extremely high-powered reader commented that she didn't usually read any stories about magic at all of any kind (too easily scared), but found all the characters and the general set-up very interesting, and was happy to carry on reading, intrigued by all the goings-on. Another said Whew! What a climax! They all finished it (always a gamble with beta readers, who have many calls on their time) and all had lively feedback. Good!