Warring staff. ‘Accidental’ poisonings. Topiary of dubious intent. Throw in the full complement of the Toot Hansell Women’s Institute and dragons doing yoga, and DI Adams is starting to wonder if she might have made a small misjudgement signing up for this particular spa weekend.
And that’s before the dead body in the sauna and the storm that cuts them off from the rest of the world.
Now she’s dealing with a houseful of guests (and staff) who’re looking more suspicious by the moment, fending off protesters, and trying to keep everyone safe as the storm closes in. She needs to find the killer, keep the dragons hidden, stop the W.I. forming some sort of posse, and try to resist the urge to arrest everyone. And never mind the problem of the invisible dog.
Sure. It’s going to be a wonderful weekend.

‘Manor Of Life And Death‘ was a bit of a disappointment in comparison to the first two offerings in the Beaufort Scales series ‘Baking Bad’ and ‘Yule Be Sorry‘.

The book had a promising start with DI Adams agreeing to take a weekend spa break with the women of the WI at an English country house owned by Miriam’s sister. I liked the idea of seeing DI Adams’ off-duty self (although it turned out she didn’t have one, or at least one she was prepared to share. I was amused at watching invisible-to-those-not-in-the-know dragons joining in with a Yoga class on the terrace. And then there was the big ‘dog’ only DI Adams could see.

The dog was the main reason I was there. I prefer the DI Adams books to the Beaufort books, they feel sharper and better written, and the ‘dog’ is with DI Adams in her next DI Adams escapade, ‘All Out Of Leeds‘ so I wanted to read the book where they first met.

I settled down to see what kind of country house mystery Adams, the dragons and the WI would find themselves unentangling. There were lots of possibilities with sets of guests who probably weren’t who they claimed to be, strange creatures in the woods, an invisible dog, a talking cat and rivalries and resentments between the staff and within Miriam’s more-than-a-little-eccentric family, Add in a suspicious death in the sauna in the middle of the night and a massive storm that cuts the house off from the outside world and you have the makings of a fun mystery.

Unfortunately, these makings never really became a cake. The plot was chaotic. There was too much going on and no clear point of focus for viewing them through. There were funny lines and tense moments and surprises but they didn’t hang together. Adams, the WI and the dragons were all out of their element and that seemed to make it hard for the story to get traction.

I loved some of the scenes- the dragons in flight coming to the rescue, the encounters with the other forest creatures, the bitter struggles between Miriam and her unreconcilable sisters – but these got lost in the messy, over-stuffed plot.