The Tale of Holly How

The Cottage Tales, all three to date, are wonderful, beautifully researched, exciting, detailed, well-written, and a pure JOY to read. I have been familiar since childhood with all of Beatrix Potter's books, her home, her biography, have visited her farms in the UK, and own first editions of the actual Tales and the accompanying figurines. The Cottage Tales by Albert complement these books perfectly in every way. Susan Wittig Albert has struck the perfect tone in creating this magical and satisfying series. The animals are so fun! The characters speak the dialects so well. Everything is PERFECT. I love these three books and am recommending them to everyone I know. I cannot wait to see the new one!

This book is categorized as a mystery, but is actually just general fiction. Sure, there happens to be a light mystery/death in the book but this definitely isn't a whodunit with clues everywhere and townspeople clammering to solve the case. The writing is beautiful - very gentle and easy to read - and it is odd too, to read a half-fiction half-realistic account of Beatrix Potter's life. Much of the book is fictionalized, but Beatrix and her gentle nature, kindness, and spirit all come through. I feel, through the stories of Albert, that I am coming to know Beatrix Potter very well. The exact same cast of characters from the first book, The Tale of Hill Top Farm, are back and it was great fun to read about them again and to continue their stories. This book can stand alone, but would be more enjoyable if it was read after the first book. In this story, the main plot is about finding the new teacher for Sawrey School, and the mystery surrounding the potential candidate. I was lulled into a sense of peace and happiness reading this book and look forward to reading even more about these characters in the next installment.

2nd in the series featuring Beatrix Potter and her pets, this story returns to Swaney, England, where Beatrix has purchased Hill Top Farm with the proceeds of her children's books, much to the dismay of her parents. Hill Top is under renovations when the body of Ben Hornby, a local sheep farmer, is discovered. Beatrix involves herself in the investigation, along with the local police and solicitor, despite her depression from the death of her fiance. I love the way the mysteries intertwine - between the humans and the animals - unbeknownst to the humans, of course. These are definitely cozies - well-written and entertaining stories that I look forward to each time, in all three of the series the author writes.

This second title in the Cottage Tales series is just as charming as the first, "The Tale of Hill Top Farm." Set in England's Lake District in the early 1900s, each episode centers on the pastoral lifestyle found in Near and Far Sawrey. But even in a rural landscape, bad things can happen. Children's author Beatrix Potter, now a farm owner and part-time Lake District resident, helps to solve the mysteries that confound the people of her new hometown. She's aided by animals -- her own pets, the other domesticated animals of the community, and the wild ones who live nearby. The result is the kind of book Potter herself might have written for adults, if she had had the time and inclination. After reading the first book, I realized I didn't know much about Beatrix and her children's books, so I read "Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman" by Judy Taylor. (Another book that I highly recommend.) Now I can see that Susan Wittig Albert is tackling and mastering three tasks at once: weaving a ficticious mystery; setting it closely against biographical and historical fact; and sprinkling the story with the kind of animal insight and "dialogue" found in Potter's original tales. The result is a wonderful and engaging narrative that is simply a joy a read. Yes, it's "cozy," but it's also more comfortable and familiar than others of that genre. Though she's been gone for more than 60 years, Beatrix Potter's spirit lives today: not only in the reprints of her own work, but also in this new series by Albert. How lucky for us!

After the death of her fiancé, children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter buys Hill Top Farm in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey. After a period of adjustment, Miss Potter and the villagers accommodate one another as she has the farmhouse renovated so she can live there when she isn't needed by her parents in London, particularly her mother who is always demands Beatrix help her with her "nothing" crisis. Miss Potter buys sheep from local shepherd Ben Hornby, but when she arrives to collect them, she finds him dead with evidence proving he was murdered. Miss Potter also befriends sad Caroline, whose grandmother, Lady Longford doesn't want to know her since she disowned her granddaughter's father (her son) for not marrying the women she had picked for him. Caroline overhears the governess Ms. Marline plotting to pull a stunt with a person applying for the head school teacher position against her grandmother. Remembering Miss Potter's kindness on a previous excursion, she goes to her for help and she along with some of the locals set a trap to catch two very clever villains. THE TALE OF THE HOLLY HOW is a charming adorable amateur sleuth tale set in a village where animals talk to help one another in the tradition of Sneaky Pie Brown. There is a sub-plot involving villagers sponsoring badger baiting (forcing badgers to fight with money bet on the outcome) until all the animals work together to break up this vile practice. Susan Witting Albert enables readers to see the world threw the magical eyes of Miss Beatrix Potter. Harriet Klausner