Ah, the fates have intervened again and a long misplaced email has called a book to my attention. Ann Blair Kloman wrote a wonderful suspense novel last year (… longer? Who knows? I age without consent) and has now written another.
And to think I almost missed it. Isobel’s Odyssey is a treat. Wonderfully reminiscent of my beloved Mrs Polifax series (Dorothy Gilman), Isobel Van Dursan has broadened her horizons.
A sweet widow (do not believe this) from the picturesque coast of Maine, she decides travel and piles of caviar-type accommodations whilst doing so is her new future. Why should she suffer in coach when the Admiral’s Club has such great chairs and champagne? She is equally resolute in her inability to suffer fools. Some less than others.
Certain people really have it coming and, if the two propensities can work together? … ahhh. Isobel’s niece Chloe married a particularly obstreperous individual with whom Isobel has taken great umbrage. What to do? How about a small electrical problem?
Indeed. Well, he asked for it. Who else is behaving poorly and asking for it? Quite a number of disreputable characters apparently. And if something were to happen, who would suspect a sweet American widow?
See where this is going? Just wonderful. The unlikeliest of scenarios when written with humor and zest is going to be a fun book.
Ann has nailed it again.
Jennifer Petty Mann grew up in New York City, moved to London, England, then back to Boston, and is now happily ensconced on the EightMile river in Lyme with three little ones. A former teacher, window dresser for Saks, and designer, she is taking her love of books to the proverbial “street.”