Aunt Dimity Down Under by Nancy Atherton

Aunt Dimity Down Under is a lovely bit of fluff, just what I was wanting. This time around, Lori heads off to New Zealand, taking Reginald the stuffed rabbit and Aunt Dimity's journal with her.

Much lovely description of New Zealand follows, most of it fitting beautifully into the story and making me happy to travel along (Most: Aunt Dimity has a couple of those "I did my research" lines authors sometimes insert), some (unwarranted) scares, and the stray relative Lori is searching for is found and brought safely to the beautiful English village where she lives.

I'm glad to say that Lori seems to have outgrown her tendency fall for every handsome man she travels with; it was getting old a very few books into the series. Now, she travels happily with her native guide, and chats with her husband on the phone.

The Aunt Dimity books are not serious mysteries; even for cozies, they are cozy. Sometimes, that is just what I am looking for.

A New Aunt Dimity

Since I'm being highly distractible today, I may as well stop and point out that there is a new Aunt Dimity out (has been out since February, but I only just remembered to check; I miss Amazon's new-book-by notification, dead these many (two? three?) years). The two reviews I read said it's more travelogue than mystery, but that is ok; I don't really read the Aunt Dimity books for their suspense quotient. Anyway, I've now put Aunt Dimity Down Under on hold at the library. I'm something like third or fourth on the list, so it will be a little while until I get to read it, but that's ok. It isn't the only hold I have.

Also, I'm supposed to be reading Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire by Marcus Rautman (verdict so far: Informative but not scintillating--you have to already have an interest in Constantinople to keep going), and am actually reading Not a Girl Detective by Susan Kandel (verdict so far: Mildly interesting, prone to I-did-my-research infodumps and a bit longer than its story seems to warrant).