AUNT DIMITY SLAYS THE DRAGON

The advent of a Renaissance fair rouses village sleuth Lori Shepherd (Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter, 2008, etc.) from her boredom with costumes, rituals and contemporary felonies.

The quiet English village of Finch is gearing up for the usual summer activities when Calvin Malvern, aka King Wilfred, arrives to announce that he’ll be opening King Wilfred’s Faire on his uncle’s dairy farm. Peggy Taxman, who runs Finch’s activities with an iron hand, is not pleased, but the rest of the town enters so completely into the spirit of things that the local seamstress is overrun with orders for costumes. Lori soon finds a new friend in Jinks the jester, whose caravan is parked in the field near her house. He’s known Calvin for years because they’ve both worked in many Renaissance fairs. Lori’s twin sons are delighted to ride their ponies in the jousting parade. Only her lawyer husband Bill resists the festive spirit. Once the fair opens, Calvin has several close calls, almost falling from a gatehouse and getting nearly decapitated by a sandbag. Even that voice of reason, Aunt Dimity, Lori’s mother’s deceased friend who communicates by writing in a special book, can’t keep Lori from jumping to conclusions.

After enjoying Lori’s ditzy adventures, her fans may well hunt up the nearest Renaissance fair. Others may find this coziest of cozies a bit of a snooze.