Aunt Dimity Goes West by Nancy Atherton

Released: 2008

Aunt Dimity Goes West is the 12th book in the "Aunt Dimity" series. Nancy Atherton gives us a break from rural England and we follow Lori Shepherd to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, USA.

Lori's husband secures her and their children a cozy cabin in the mountains for a week of relaxing vacation time. As soon as Lori arrives, she learns of the disappearance of the cabin's caretaker, and thus begins exploring and playing detective to find his whereabouts. As in all the other novels, Lori's geographical separation from her husband causes her hormones to kick in, which leaves readers privy to romantic chemistry between Lori and the new young caretaker overseeing things. I am still pleased to see that Atherton keeps these mysteries within the "cozy" genre, so fortunately, Lori remains faithful to her loving husband.


The piece of the book that becomes incredibly redundant is the ongoing doppelganger joke. It appears that in this sleepy Colorado mountain town, all of the regularly featured characters from England are duplicated and even have similar names. It is amusing at first to hear of the similarities between the townspeople, but it becomes eye-rolling after we learn every single person has their match.

The Aunt Dimity series begins with Aunt Dimity's Death and continues with Aunt Dimity and the Duke, and Aunt Dimity's Good Deed.