I read Sins Out Of School, the eighth book in the series featuring Dorothy Martin, an American retired to the Cathedral town of Sherebury in southeastern England, years ago — maybe a decade. I had been reading them as audiobooks, and I was waiting for the ninth volume, Winter of Discontent, to come out in audio. Which it never did.

When I stumbled onto the ebook edition at my library, I wholeheartedly jumped right in. And it was as if Dorothy; her husband, retired policeman Alan Nesbit, and Dorothy’s reserved, bullying, but kind-hearted neighbor, Jane Langland, had hardly been apart!

In Winter of Discontent, Jane’s old flame, museum curator Bill Fanshawe, goes missing. At 80, police at first blame his age, but Dorothy and Jane both know that something has gone terrible amiss. The women realize that something in Bill’s Royal Air Force past has come back to haunt Bill, and the two them are determined to find out what.

Author Jeanne M. Dams renders some of the secondary characters — Jane Langland and her stiff upper lip, the naïve college boy Walter Tubbs, the snobby RAF Commodore John Merrifield — a bit too stereotypical. But vivacious, tenacious Dorothy makes up for it, and Dams also creates other characters — the patient Alan, the widowed Leigh Burton, and the loquacious, lonely Stanley Rutherford — that ring true to life. Best of all, Dams plays fair with the mystery, which is cleverly plotted. All in all, I’m glad Dorothy and I got reacquainted. I promise not to be such a stranger. 4 s Chi Dubinski798 1 follower

Dorothy Martin, a retired school teacher from Indiana, married Alan, a retired Scotland Yard detective. When their elderly neighbor Jane admits that she and her war time sweetheart Bill have reconnected after years, Dorothy is delighted. But Bill goes missing and Dorothy, who has a habit of becoming involved in local mysteries, investigates.
It's always a joy to find a new cozy series, and this one hits the mark. I have to go back and read all the others--looking forward to it. Fans of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Donald Bain's Jessica Fletcher should try this.2 s Ellen992 156

Winter of Discontent by Jeanne M. Dams.

Its winter in England and Christmas is approaching. Dorothy feels Christmas shopping is at hand and calls on Jane, her neighbor and close friend, to join her. Together they do some of the needed shopping for Christmas presents and decided to stop off at the Museum for a visit with Bill. Bill Fanshawe is the curator at the museum and long time friend and beau of Jane's. They enter the Museum and search high and low for bill but he's nowhere to be found.

This fantastic mystery brings Dorothy, Jane and Alan (Dorothy's husband and ret. police Chief)back into London during WWII. A mystery that delves deep into the heart and soul of those involved in a past long believed to be kept secret.

The last several chapters of this book kept me so involved I could not stop reading as Dorothy investigated each and every character.
The story ends with as Christmas miracle that made this book all that more endearing.dams my-favorites mystery-cozy ...more1 Chris45 5

Love Dorothy Martin the American in a English village solving crime! A gentle or cozy mystery with a whiff of Miss Marple (An other great British mystery characters!). The whole series is great!!1 Stephen Kessinger2

This book isn't worth the price.

This book could have great but the author was lazy.
Most Americans are much more technologically savvy and would have used the Internet to check that the Typhoon was a single seat fighter aircraft to improve upon the Spitfire. So the American sleuth would have called out Stanley's war stories of being a tail gunner in Typhoon aircraft. The author should have had used the Handley Page HP-52 Hampden four crew member bomber that fly pamphlet, mine laying and bombing runs until 1942 out of RAF Scampton, near Great Yarmouth on the east UK coast. The four crew members were pilot, second pilot, observer-navigator-bomb aimed, and wireless operated-air gunner. This aircraft and the 49 and 83 Squadrons would have made lies more believable. I know authors typically create fictitious locations for critical parts of their narrative, but there is still a Luftwich, but on the west coast of UK. It is located halfway between and a little south of Liverpool and Manchester. The "coded letter" as a centerpiece of this mystery leaves much to be desired. Even though I could match little known Indiana small towns to nearby European or North Africa cities there are no dates and times to give accurate intelligence. I feel cheated to have paid three to four times as much money for such a lazy effort to include history and try to deliver a spy thriller. Alison C1,215 13

Dorothy Martin’s neighbour and best friend, Jane Langland, is upset when Bill, an old friend of hers, goes missing; not only is he not the type to disappear suddenly, but the two of them were old lovers, reunited after a lifetime away and planning to marry. Jane is not a demonstrative woman, so Dorothy knows that her friend is very worried indeed; when Bill is found dead in a tunnel below the local museum where he worked, Dorothy is loathe to believe it was due to natural causes, and when Bill’s assistant is assaulted in the same museum, she knows that it was not…. I’ve been reading the Dorothy Martin series for some time now, but it is only with this entry, the ninth in the series, that I finally started seeing Dorothy as a whole person rather than a collection of attributes and eccentricities. The writing is crisper in this book than previously, and the author has finally stopped (more or less) mentioning how Dorothy is an ex-pat American trying to get used to the strange language and habits of the English. The final reveal at the very end of the book was perhaps a coincidence too far, but it had no bearing on the main mystery and so can be forgiven. I think one might do best to start with this book and then work backwards (if the reader wishes) to the earlier, less believable novels in the series; recommended. Kate1,960 1 follower

"SPOILS OF WAR
"When the body of Bill Fanshawe, curator of the museum in the quaint English town of Shrerebuty, is found dead in the Roman tunnels beneath the museum, Dorothy Martin's heart goes out to the octogenarian's close friend Jane Langland. But what at first looks a death of natural causes becomes suspicious when Bill's assistant is found bludgeoned in his office, barely alive.

"The case seems to revolve around a new exhibit that Alan, Dorothy's husband, was creating on Sherebury's role in World War II. Dorothy, a retired American schoolteacher with her own perspective on the war, discovers several secrets among the aging and eccentric RAF characters. A saga of treachery, heartbreak, and decades of deceit soon shockingly unfolds. And while few can still remember the war personally, there's a killer who refuses to forget ... with a vengeance."
~~back flap

No no no! Alan wasn't creating the exhibit -- Bill was. Geesh! Don't these get fact checked?

Once again, at the end if a convoluted hunt for clues, (almost) the least ly candidate proves to be the murderer. But it's a lovely jaunt among English eccentrics, and the reader will enjoy the trip.england mysteries read-in-2024 Blaine DeSantis961 131

Torn on this mystery. Once again it is a selection of a mystery book club and it is the first book I have read by the author and we jump in on Book 5, of about 15 she has written. Ploddingly interesting. Things are happening in Sherebury, England. A friends companion has died, another person has been assaulted and it all appears to tie into some sort of WW2 situation. Interesting use of WW2 in the plot as it had to do with an airfield near this town and some secrets that may have been buried for over 60 years. Lots of possible criminals, all of whom had stories to tell about the airfield and WW2.
What did I not : Dorothy Martin's neighbor and friend is a surly sort of person who speaks either in monosyllabic words or sentence fragments. Dorothy is also embarrassing for how little she know about WW2 as well as having moved to England and married and Englishman and still being clueless about the war. Also she is not an endearing character in my opinion. But the book is not bad and I give it a legit 3*** but will not read any others in this series.1 Sally742 12

An intriguing mystery in a small English cathedral town. Dorothy Marlin, a woman in her sixties from the United States, has married a retired police detective and moved to England. She has learned to fit in to small-town British life and become close friends with her next door neighbor Jane Langland, about ten years older. Jane’s friendship with Bill Fanshawe is a companionable one and looks ly to lead to marriage—until he disappears. His disappearance and several subsequent deaths are connected to what went on at a nearby air field during WWII. We’re the fliers there less effective than elsewhere? Was the small town less bombed than other places near the coast? Dorothy and Jane interview some survivors of that time—not all of whom live to the end of the book. Emma383

3/5 ?? I didn’t realize that this was a ninth installment in a series of cozy mystery standalones until after I had started it but I really didn’t mind it, and if anything, it spurred me to want to start this series. The mystery in this was very focused on world war 2 and sorting out the past by interviewing different people. It could be a bit dense or boring at times, and nothing had me on the edge of my seat, but it kept me intrigued throughout. It was such a short, relaxing (despite the murder) read that I did really enjoy! I d the dynamic between the lead and her husband. The story wasn’t particularly realistic or with any real stakes but I didn’t mind because I d the vibes and it kept me guessing in little ways.
Autor del comentario:
=================================