Book #26 in 2005
Finished: 9/10
Title: Aunt Dimity's Death
Author: Nancy Atherton
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 244
My Rating: 5/5

I hadn't intended to read this book right away, I got it in the mail on Wednesday from the swap site and when I opened the package I read the first page... And KEPT on reading! LOL

The story is about Lori Sheppard, a woman who has gone though a bad couple of years, she got a divorce and was dealing with her Mothers death. She didn't have much and was renting a room with 2 other roommates while she was doing temp work. Her prize possession was a pink stuffed rabbit that she's had since her childhood.

She came home from work one day finding a letter from a law office asking that she come to see them as soon as possible. She decided to go right away and took a couple of buses through the cold pouring rain. She arrived at the doorstep of a huge mansion looking like a drowned rat. She was then welcomed in as if she was an expected, old friend and given dry clothes to change into before she even learned the man at the door was Bill Willis one of the lawyers at Willis & Willis!
She soon found out that Aunt Dimity had died and left her a mission to complete. This was not something Lori ever expected because she thought Aunt Dimity was a character from stories her mother used to tell her as a child.. She had no idea that Aunt Dimity was an actual person!

Her mission included reading all the stories that her by her mother told her as a child.. She learned that they were actually written by Aunt Dimity. She also had to read 40 years of letters written between Aunt Dimity and her Mother and answer questions about both.

Willis Sr. Gave Lori 2 letters to start with, one was from her Mother and the other from Aunt Dimity. In her Mothers letter she found a photograph of a tree with the explanation that something about that photo upset Aunt Dimity so much that she nearly was destroyed. Her Mother was never able to solve the mystery of what that something was and it was her dying wish that Lori try and find out the secret heartache that Aunt Dimity took to her grave.

I found this to be a beautifully written story with mystery, love and strong bonds of friendship... I can't wait to read other books in this series.