Book Review: The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert (Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter #1)

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Characters

Cons: Uneven plot

The Bottom Line:

Part were interesting

But some other parts just dragged

Wish it were better

Miss Potter Solves a Mystery

When I first heard about this series, I was intrigued. Like many others, I have fond memories of reading Beatrix Potter's books when I was a child, so the idea of reading a mystery series starring her appealed to me. I didn't actually pick up the book until this year. The Tale of Hill Top Farm was cute, but not quite as enjoyable as I had hoped.

The book is set in October 1905. Beatrix Potter has already published the first few of her books and they have been greeted with huge success. Unfortunately, she has just lost her fiance. In an effort to get some independence from her parents, she has bought a Hill Top Farm in the Lake District of England. She loves the area and figures it is a good use of her royalty income.

She expects peace and quite in the village of Near Sawrey. But on her first visit, she realizes that's not to be.

Miss Tolliver passed away rather unexpectedly on her birthday. Her death was a shock to all, and the village is buzzing. Additionally, things seem to be disappearing around the village, and Miss Potter gets caught up in the middle.

All this is on top of the personal problems Miss Potter faces. She's still grieving the death of her fiance. And, while she may own Hill Top Farm, she must figure out a way to live there while keeping the current farmers there to run it for her.

***

I went back and forth on whether I enjoyed the book or not. The pacing is slow. I spent parts of the book waiting for something exciting to happen. At other times, I was so caught up in events that I couldn't put the book down. This is not a traditional mystery by any stretch of the definition. Surprisingly, that didn't bother me that much, and I did enjoy the story when it was moving forward.

The characters were interesting. I especially like the portrayal of Beatrix. I completely believed her temperament from the little I know about this period of her life. The majority of the characters are fictitious, yet they feel like real people.

Since the book is about Beatrix Potter, there are lots of animals in the story. While they can't communicate with humans, they can talk to each other and actually play an important part in the tale as well as having plot lines of their own. It's handled in a believable way but might bother those who don't like that kind of thing.

The writing brings the Lake District to vivid life. At times, the descriptive passages did slow the story down slightly. The bigger flaw with the writing style, however, was the dialect several of the poorer characters speak. While probably accurate, it made it hard to get into the book at first. I did get the hang of it by the end.

The book is full of "extras." For starters, there's a cast of characters that lists the humans, their pets, and their homes. I used it constantly through the entire book to keep the large cast straight. After the novel, there's a historical note, non-fiction references for those interested in learning more, and a few traditional English recipes.

If you are expecting a thrilling mystery, look elsewhere. Frankly, that may have been my biggest problem with the book. However, The Tale of Hill Top Farm does have a certain charm to it. It's best suited for those who love Beatrix Potter, the setting, or the time period.