If you are a fan of old fashion 'Who Done It's', please buy books by Dorothy Cannell. As the other Reviewers have written, this one is another of the Ellie Haskel series you'll enjoy. I find it very disappointing when I'm not able to buy new books by an Author that does not disappoint their FANS. LIBRARIANS: Please take note **** Dorothy Cannell, Patricia Sprinkle, Anne George, Rita Larkin, Joan Hess, Carola Dunn, Tamara Myers, Margaret Marron, are some of the Authors we would like you to support. Please forgive me if I have misspelled any of these Authors.

Life in Merlin's Court has moved along, the twins are seven and Rose is 5. Ben's now has several new cookbooks under his belt. Ellie is more confident but still a romantic at heart and she's made a friend of Ben's cousin's rebellious teenage daughter, Ariel. Surprisingly, Ariel loves the same Gothic romances and black and white films as Ellie and they begin a written correspondence until Ariel's parents win the lottery and disappear from the family's radar. That is until Ariel shows up on their doorstep one stormy night asking for help because something is not right at Cragstone Manor, or Withering Heights as Ariel names it. Ariel is afraid and Ellie and Ben offer to help and of course Mrs. Malloy can't let them go alone into possible danger. So, they set off to return Ariel, finagle an invitation to stay a few days, and solve the puzzle before anyone else goes missing.

Ellie Haskell is back. I've missed my regular infusions of Ellie and have been a fan since I first met her in The Thin Woman. I figure it's best to let you know up front where I'm coming from. If you're a fan, you'll enjoy this opportunity to get reacquainted with Ellie, her husband Ben, and the irrepressible Mrs. Malloy. If you haven't read any of the previous books, don't worry you'll catch on quickly but you'll really want to go back and read all the previous books.

Withering Heights has it all: mystery, intrigue, skullduggery, misdirection, misunderstandings, family drama, hidden panels, locked rooms, dotty retainers, and modern sensibilities. What's not to like? Nothing. The dialogue is spot on for each particular character. The descriptions put you right there in the middle of things. The concerns are those we deal with everyday -- at least for the minor mysteries of inter-family relationships, love, and friendship.

It's definitely a book to cuddle up with and enjoy, closing the covers with a great sigh of satisfaction -- and impatient for another visit with the people of Chitterton Fells and Merlin's Court.

Dorothy Cannell gives you the perfect mystery to cozy up to on a blustery day. Her sly humor tickles the bones in the 12th of the Ellie Haskell mysteries.
No horror, just loads of clues down to "a wicked step-mother" in the imagination of a young girl. Ariel is as flighty as her name suggests but is she wronged or wrong?
Loads of new characters with no kids in sight, an old love for Val and Ellie having double doubts about her life will hold you in suspense though you may guess some "secrets" alone the way.
A comic fun read when you know Ellie will win.
Nash Black, author of TRAVELERS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

I enjoy this particular genre and enjoy reading the writings of a very good story teller. With this work, I was quite satisfied on both counts. This is yet another installment in the Ellie Haskell Mystery Series and is indeed, as others have indicated, a good addition. Dorothy Cannell has mixed the cozy mystry well with the gothic romance here. Our lady sleuth and her wacky friend join again to solve a possible murder in a gothic house in Scotland. I am certainly not going into a plot line with this review, as others have done a wonderful job of that here. Rather I would like to comment on the author's characters and style. This book is filled with both. From Ellie Haskell's eccentric housekeeper, to the strange little girl that pops into their lives, we have wonderful array of characters that keep the story going and keep it interesting. (Note: The only slight criticism I might have of the book, is that there possible could be a few too many of these characters and at first they are sort of hard to track). I also enjoy the author's easy style and genuine humor. She, at times, seems to be poking fun at the genre of book, the characters, and indeed, herself. This is done in a low key way and is quite funny.

There is not graphic violece in this one, no torid love affairs, no mayham, just good clean fun. The author's syntax makes for easy reading and, as I noted above, she is a natural story teller. I cannot see how you could go wrong with this one.
D. Blankenship

First introduced to readers in 1984's THE THIN WOMAN, Ellie Haskell has since --- over the course of 11 delightfully cozy mysteries --- gained a husband, three children, a career and a real penchant for crime solving. But in WITHERING HEIGHTS, her 12th adventure, Ellie's old demons come back to haunt her in what could be her toughest case yet.

Ellie and her outrageously flamboyant housekeeper, Mrs. Roxie Malloy, share more than just the love of solving mysteries. They both love old-fashioned Victorian Gothic novels, the kind with "a young woman who leaps at the chance to become a governess in a decaying mansion where Something Unspeakable is shut away in the north tower and melancholy music drifts up from the crypt." Ellie also recently has begun sharing her love of Gothic romances with her husband Ben's young relative Ariel, a troubled girl who seems to find solace in the escapist fantasies. That is, until Ariel's own family wins the lottery and disappears, presumably to hide away from money-grubbing relatives.

One rainy night, though, Ariel herself shows up at Ellie's home, begging for relief from her stepmother Betty, who has grown obsessed with the idea that the ghost of their newly purchased manor house still haunts his old property. Ariel encourages Ellie and Ben to intervene, and they agree, especially when Ellie learns that the manor is located in the Yorkshire moors, a short drive from the Brontës' legendary home. By a great coincidence, it just happens that Mrs. Malloy's younger sister Melody, with whom she hasn't spoken in 40 years, also lives in the same Yorkshire village. Figuring that it's high time for a reconciliation, Roxie decides to tag along as well.

Of course, a road trip to a new village means introductions to all sorts of quirky characters, from the displaced dowager, Lady Fiona, to the aptly-named cook, Mrs. Cake. Pretty soon, Ellie finds herself knee-deep in all their secrets and in more than one mystery.

But one secret in particular is eating Ellie up inside and causing all her old self-doubts and self-loathing to rear their ugly heads. Who is Valeria, the lovely and accomplished woman who seems to know Ben? Was she the real love of Ben's life, lost long before he met Ellie? And could Val's reappearance and Ben's sneaky behavior have anything to do with the menacing prophecy that Mrs. Malloy receives? "[A] woman of my acquaintance whose first name begins with E should stop living in a dream world, seeing as her hubby's old girlfriend is going to show up and this time around she'll stop at nothing to get him."

Dorothy Cannell's mysteries always have been enjoyable to read, but they have had a tendency to become formulaic after a while, particularly with regards to Ellie's somewhat chaotic home life. Removing Ellie from her home base --- and from her children, who are out of the picture for the entire novel --- revitalizes the plot considerably, giving this 12th adventure a new freshness. It also has a legion of new characters for readers to learn, a feat that can be a bit daunting for those accustomed to the regular denizens of Chitterton Fells.

Cannell adeptly plays with Gothic conventions and expectations, and particularly with Ellie's tendencies to fall into those somewhat overblown romantic notions. Ellie's character development is also notable, as her growing insecurities with regard to Val lead her to question everything about herself and her comfortable life. Cannell's many readers needn't fret too much, though --- it's clear that nothing really bad is going to happen to Ellie, and liberal foreshadowing and clue-dropping early on in the novel will lead many to guess (some of) the secrets even before the literary sleuths do. But there's nothing wrong with that --- Cannell's mysteries appeal primarily due to their humor (particularly the at-times wickedly funny dialogue) and their reassurances that, at the end of the day, all's right in Ellie's world.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl