Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired chief constable Alan Nesbitt, are invited to a weekend party at a stately home, now owned by an ex-pat American couple who have spent years restoring the place. Unfortunately, the boorish in-laws of the owners are also present, but Dorothy and Alan hope to spend their time with more salubrious company instead. A huge storm overnight strands everybody at the house, with no electricity and no way to leave the estate, and when a skeleton is found underneath an uprooted oak tree, and then a house-guest drowns while another one is badly injured, Dorothy and Alan must do their best to solve the cases on their own, before any other deaths occur…. I am mildly enjoying this cozy series, and it’s always fun to see how a writer takes on one of the classics of the cozy genre, that of the crime in an isolated house, with a limited number of suspects - and victims. There were some minor glitches in this book that should have been picked up by a copy editor or proofreader (spelling Alan “Allen,” for example, or referring to the presence of one character who has already left the scene), but it’s easy to overlook those errors and just enjoy the cozy setting; mildly recommended. ( )

Dorothy, recovering from knee surgery , and her husband Alan vacation at Branston Abbey, newly bought by an American couple. The sister and brother-in-law of the owner are staying there along with other guests. There is a horrific storm that leaves them secluded and without power and inspecting the damage they find an uprooted tree with a buried body. There are more murders and retired Alan is forced back into being a police detective. ( )

In A Dark and Stormy Night Dorothy Martin and husband Alan Nesbit get to experience one of those traditional English Country house mysteries. Branston Abbey sounds magnificent, but I can think of several items the new owners should buy for it. Those Moynihans may be rich Americans, but they're nice. Sadly, Mrs. Moynihan is saddled with a sister and brother-in-law who richly deserve their nickname of the 'Horrible Harrisons'. (Yes, the cast list has them as 'Harris,' but it's 'Harrison' in the book.)

There is indeed a stormy night that leaves everyone stranded at the abbey. There will be more than one body to be investigated before the book is over. I did get rather annoyed with Dorothy for insufficient thought about one of the other characters, but I wasn't living under the same conditions. I should probably cut her some slack.

Notes:

Chapter 1:

a. 'Pogo' was a famous American comic strip.

b. Dorothy has had her titanium knee replacements for 3 months.

c. P. G. Wodehouse is mentioned.

d. The exterior of Branston Abbey is described.

Chapter 3:

a. Branston Abbey and Upshawe history given

b. 'Jack the Lad' phrase used and explained

Chapter 4: W. C. Fields is quoted.

Chapter 5: Agatha Christie is mentioned.

Chapter 7:

a. The terrain around Branston Abbey is described. (Capability Brown did the landscaping 250 years ago.)

b. Joyce was the eldest child, Julie the middle one, and the youngest was their brother, Stevie, who was hit and killed by a car when he was a teen. He was their parents' favorite. They used to compare Julie unfavorably to him.

Chapter 8: Aaron Elkins' forensic anthropologist character, Gideon Oliver, is mentioned.

Chapter 9: Laurence Upshawe talks about his older second cousin, Harry Upshawe.

Chapter 10: Porridge is what we Americans call oatmeal. (Nice to know.)

Chapter 11: Dorothy invokes the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat of the poem 'Duel' by Eugene Fields. Alan presumes it's the American version of the Kilkenny cats limerick.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/duel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilkenny_cat

Chapter 13:

a. Pat Heseltine has stopped rereading Bleak House by Charles Dickens and is rereading Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, Dorothy Martin's favorite Sayers.

b. Dorothy learns Pat's first name.

c. Pat quotes Dorothy Parker.

Chapter 14: Pat is reading a bound volume of 'Punch' and parodies a line from Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' in describing it.

Chapter 16: Dorothy gets the vicar to talk about the abbey's purported ghosts. The old story about the bride who picked the wrong spot to hide is discussed.

Chapter 17:

a. Dorothy has never celebrated Guy Fawkes Day.

b. John Bates gives Dorothy some of the abbey's furnishings' history during a damage inspection tour.

Chapter 19: Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (the more politically correct title) is mentioned. Dorothy calls it 'the other title'.

Chapter 24:

a. Dorothy mentions the attacking trees in The Wizard of Oz. Because she mentions only Dorothy and Toto, I'm guessing she means the classic 1939 MGM film. There are attacking trees in the book, but they come much later, in chapter 19. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/wizoz10.html
(Yes, there are at least 3 other Dorothys mentioned in this book.)

b. Dorothy explains what a 'ha-ha' is in landscaping.

Chapter 25:

a. Miss Havisham's parlour from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations is mentioned. (Pip is taken to what he assumes is a dressing room in ch. 8 -- film version?)

b. Although we are told that the female of two detective constables is Price and Norris is male, and Alan addresses them as 'Miss Price' and 'Mr. Norris,' in the very next paragraph Dorothy refers to Miss Price, as 'Miss Norris'. (Tsk. Good thing it was only to the readers.)

c. DCs Price and Norris' CC is Sir Robert Bunyard.

Chapter 26: Dorothy gives Alan a lesson in vintage fashions. Mary Quant is mentioned.

Chapter 27: Joyce Moynihan quotes Lord Peter Wimsey on the subject of Bunter's coffee.

Chapter 28: Dorothy and others had been talking about George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, versus Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's musical based on Shaw, My Fair Lady.

Chapter 30:

a. Dorothy explains the difference between the American and British 'gutter press' (tabloids, supermarket rags).

b. Dorothy quotes Winston Churchill about a riddle wrapped, etc. (Alan is correct.)

Chapter 31: some more about Laurence Upshawe and the sale of Branston Abbey history is given here

I liked the traditional mystery aspect of this book. It's a bit of a cautionary tale, too.

Cat lovers, I'm afraid that Dorothy and Alan's cats, Sam [Samantha] the Siamese and Emmy [Esmeralda] do not appear in this one. Jane is looking after them behind the scenes. ( )

As Dorothy Martin and her husband Alan Nesbit head to a country estate for the weekend, the stage is set for a variation of Agatha Christie's classic locked house mystery, And Then There Were None. A hurricane-like storm hits soon after their arrival, uprooting trees and flooding the river. A body is found under one of the uprooted trees. Soon more bodies are discovered and other members of the party disappear. With communications cut off even in the modern age depicted in the novel, Alan, a retired law enforcement officer, takes it upon himself to gather evidence and begin the investigation even though he has no authority and lacks jurisdiction.Needless to say, Dorothy also gets involved. It's an interesting twist on the classic Christie novel. ( )

Dorothy Martin has reappeared in the mystery market, and I welcome her back! This time Dorothy and her husband, Alan Nesbit, head off to the English countryside for a relaxing weekend at a very large, newly restored country manor. Well, it would have been relaxing had a huge storm not blown through and cut the manor off from the immediate vicinity due to a rising river, hundreds of downed trees, and utility outages. This enables the mystery to become a classic locked room mystery. One of the guests is murdered after an old skeleton is found on the property, and two other guests turn up missing. It's very well written and suspenseful. The only thing I found questionable, as the survivor of a long-term power outage, was the cook's ability to turn out great meals and to provide ice for beverages. That might have stretched things a bit. Otherwise, however, it's a fun read. ( )