Beaton introduces a pair of engaging misfits whose struggles to cope with overbearing families and overweening circumstances teach them, eventually, to rely on each other. When diffident fortyish virgin Fellworth Dolphin's mother dies, he finds himself surprisingly relieved and freed from a bondage he was only partially aware of. That's nowhere near the astonishment he feels when he learns that, in spite of their penurious existence, he's heir to a large sum. In a moment of panic, when it seems an aunt might assume the tyrannical role his mother once played, Fell pretends an engagement to mousy waitress Maggie Partlett. In fits and starts, Maggie and Fell begin their separate transformations--she to a swan, he to a drake. One catalyst is the money and its questionable provenance--perhaps the result of an infamous train robbery that occurred many years ago and that Fell's father might have been involved with. The other is the transformation wrought by their shared investigation and their shared lives, as Maggie falls in with the pretended engagement for her own purposes. Various relatives and villains attempt to derail the couple as they journey, but there's never a question of where the author is taking her odd couple, and never a doubt they will arrive safely.

A nice, short cozy mystery. I liked it. A good one to keep in the car for when you have those unexpected waits.

snuck it onto the desk of a new employee in our office - I did not hear her mention it or ask where it came from all day -- if she does not journal it in a few days I will talk with her and reveal that I am the BXer that left it on her desk.

My co-worker now knows I am a BXer. She said she plans to read,register,release-but is busy with all the details of new job,new home,etc.

This was a charming little "cozy" mystery by M C Beaton. A little fanciful but fun. This book was placed on my desk at my new place of employment. It was a very kind gesture that came at a time when I was/am very homesick for my former life in my former home. I travel sometimes on my job and have been waiting for my current trip to Baltimore MD, so that I could help this little book "go far". Maybe some international traveller will carry this little book back to the hometown of its author who lives in a village in the Cotswolds in England.

this book was the first MC Beaton i ever read....i picked it up in the sheraton inner harbor hotel a year ago, staying there for a technology conference and having finished the book that i had brought (what horrors! ) i was itchy for a new one. i spotted this book on a library table in the hallway near the bar....i picked it up stealthily...looking furtively up and down the hallway...should i take it? not having a book is like an addict without crack...i HUNGERED for a new read. i took the book with me and read about the bookcrossing program....grinning with relief that i had not purloined someone's tome, i kept it and read it. and this one was delightful book! i'm going back to the sheraton for the same conference tomorrow and i'm gonna re-release the book back out into the wild! i hope the next person likes it as much as i did...AND if you haven't read MC Beaton....read the Hamish McBeth mysteries..they are cozy little books that feel as comfortable as a good warm wool sweater with a dram of whiskey! thanks keycollect and fiction1!.....and the journey goes on! being a school media specialist maybe i gotta get some bookplates of my own now! ....first book? jack finney's Time and Again! ~gwynethanne