Description (from cover):
‘Meet the Women of the WISE Enquiries Agency. The first in a new series…
Henry Twyst, eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth, is convinced his mother is losing her marbles. She claims to have seen a corps on the dining-room floor, but all she has to prove it is a bloodied bobble hat.
Worried enough to retain the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency–one is Welsh, one Irish, one Scottish and one English–Henry wants the strange matter explained away. But the truth of what happened at the Chellingworth Estate, set in the rolling Welsh countryside near the quaint village of Anwen by Wye, is more complex, dangerous, and deadly, than anyone could have foreseen…’
My thoughts:
I really tried my hardest to like this book and I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t like the characters, the plot was horrific and it was some of the most spastic reading that I have read in a while. I tend to love English mysteries, but this one was a disaster. I hate to say it because I did sign up for this blog tour and I really wanted to like it, but I cannot lie and I do not do so on this blog. This blog is a safe haven for my opinions on the books that I personally read and while others might disagree, that is not my purpose here. I write this blog to share my experiences while reading a book and while it might not appease other people, I don’t write this blog to sugarcoat anything. Anyways, let me get off my little soapbox.
I found this mystery to be farfetched and chaotic. The chapters are never in the same person’s point-of-view and go back and forth between the characters. I got that because you are dealing with a bunch of different characters, but sometimes it just didn’t flow well or even make sense to me. The mystery was weird and ended kind of strangely. I would have liked to have seen more interaction with the characters and actually solving the mystery and less of other nonsensical stuff that the author felt I needed to be aware of. This was hardly anything like I thought it would be and I felt that it is something that I most likely will not continue with.
I hate that I didn’t like it because this is something that falls right into my type of reading. I go gaga over English mysteries and I thought that this book was something like that. Yes, it does take place in the United Kingdom, but that’s about all I enjoyed. Definitely was majorly disappointed in this book all around and I just don’t know if I have anything at all to say that I enjoyed about it. I utterly hate when this happens as I know how much a book is the heart and soul of an author. I wanted to like it, I really did, I just couldn’t.
Overall Rating: 1
Title: The Case of the Dotty Dowager
Author: Cathy Ace
Series: WISE Enquiries Agency Mystery #1
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Publication Date: July 1, 2015
Pages: 224
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
About the Author:
Born and raised in Swansea, South Wales, Cathy is, like her heroine Cait Morgan, now a Canadian citizen. “Cait’s Welsh Canadian, as am I. They say ‘write what you know’, so a short, plus-sized Welsh woman, who’s quite bossy, fits the bill! But Cait and I are not one and the same: she’s got skills and talents I don’t possess, and I’m delighted to say that I don’t usually encounter corpses wherever I go! I’ve also chosen to burrow even deeper into my roots by creating a new cast of characters in the WISE women who come from all four corners of the United Kingdom and work in a uniquely British setting – a ducal estate set in the rolling Welsh countryside of the Wye Valley in Powys, where I spent a good deal of time when I was young.”
With a successful career in marketing having given her the chance to write training courses and textbooks, Cathy has now finally turned her attention to her real passion: crime fiction. Her short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies. Two of her works, “Dear George” and “Domestic Violence”, have also been produced by Jarvis & Ayres Productions as “Afternoon Reading” broadcasts for BBC Radio 4.
This has been a stop on The Case of the Dotty Dowager blog tour hosted by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. Make sure you stop by all of the other stops.
July 6 – A Chick Who Reads
July 7 – Girl Lost In a Book
July 8 – The Bookwyrm’s Hoard
July 9 – Jane Reads
July 10 – Back Porchervations
July 11 – Socrates’ Book Reviews
July 12 – Brooke Blogs
Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours and Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
Girl Lost In a Book 
I would like to read this novel since I haven't ever read a book by this author. Thanks for this giveaway. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
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I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the book, but not every book is right for every reader! I was fine with the shifts from character to character, found that most of the main characters grew on me as I got to know them, and while I did find it a slow start, by the middle I was really enjoying it. You might try Cathy's Cait Morgan series. They're told from a single character's perspective, so you won't get the jumping around that you disliked in this book. And Cait is an interesting character; she has a photographic memory, and she is or was a victim profiler for law enforcement.
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