Rest You Merry

I'm so glad Charlotte MacLeod's mysteries are finally available in audio! I first read this story centuries ago - probably shortly after it was published in 1978 - and I've re-read it every few years since.

The story is set at a small, private agricultural college in New England. At the opening, Professor Peter Shandy has finally decided to take his revenge on all the faculty wives who have been after him for years to decorate his small house for the holidays as part of the college's "Grand Illumination". He hires a firm from Boston to put every flashing colored light, plastic Santa & reindeer, and recorded music device he can fit on his house, sets the timer, and takes off on a holiday cruise! He comes back a few days later to find one of the most persistent busy-bodies dead on his living room floor. It's meant to look like an accident but Shandy knows it can't be, and his efforts to figure out what really happened are the basis of the mystery. Along the way we are introduced to some of the people that live in the small college town of Balaclava - and they have more than their fair share of interesting characters!

This is a classic cozy mystery, the first in a series that is well worth reading or listening to. Some elements are rather dated at this point - no cell phones, for example, and some characters have somewhat dated views - but don't let that bother you. Enjoy meeting the residents of Balaclava, and look forward to more of their exploits!

The narrator of this audio is easy to listen to. He doesn't differentiate the character's voices very much, but it's still easy to keep track of what's going on. One irritant, however, is that he mispronounces words every once in a while, and it can be jarring to the ear. For example, he used the word "crochets" (the needlework) rather than "crotchets" (a quirk or eccentricity). But all in all, a great book to listen to!

This may not get you in a Christmas spirit, but it can ease X-mas headaches. It's a humourous, light campus cozy with a thread of old-fashioned romance.

No offence intended to Americans, but the few U.S. "campus comedies" and campus cozies I've come across just don't compare to most in the British "campus" tradition. Rest You Merry holds it own in both sub-sub-genres. Maybe McLeod's Canadian colonial genes helped her out there!

I've listened to at least one of each of the three MacLeod series on Audible and one other Prof Shandy mystery. This is my favourite to date. I enjoyed the narration. As someone points out in a later Shandy instalment review, McLain produces a couple of weird mispronunciations of isolated and pretty common words. This makes me think he may be site reading, which just raises my admiration for his talent.

As I'm not a fan of Christmas books, I almost skipped this -- but if you like cozies or campus comedies, this will delight no matter the season.