Plummergen village folk are keen as mustard to beat neighbouring Murreystone and win the Best Kept Village competition. Art teacher Miss Seeton is asked to create some Before and After pictures, showing residents of The Street how to improve the look of their houses. Yet one of her sketches is worrying, showing her own cottage, Sweetbriars, amidst billowing smoke, all too reminiscent of the current spate of murderous arson being investigated. Then another, that looks at first like a cosy Wind in the Willows scene seems to hint at something very dark lurking in the shadows . . . Serene amidst every kind of skullduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella! What people are saying about Miss Seeton: “Miss Seeton is a hoot! I was torn between laughter and eye rolling with each page turn. The characters are loveable and thoroughly British. This is a perfect specimen of classic British mystery.“ “What a joy Miss Seeton is. Why did I wait so long to read them? Splashy characters, lovely setting, and just plain funny.” “I've become a Miss Ess addict. Great characters that get better with each book. A must for anyone who loves a good British cozy with a twist, and surprising revelations of what a good brollie can do in a pinch.” “What a great series. This is one of the best in English light reading mysteries.” “Miss Seeton is a delightful sendup of the amateur sleuth. If your doctor has prescribed laughter as the best medicine, run and buy the entire series as fast as you can.” Editorial reviews: “A most beguiling protagonist!” New York Times “Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.” San Francisco Chronicle “This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can’t stop reading. Or laughing.” The Sun “Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.” Publishers Weekly “Fun to be had with a full cast of endearingly zany villagers . . . and the ever gently intuitive Miss Seeton.” Kirkus Reviews “Miss Seeton is the most delightfully satisfactory character since Miss Marple.” Ogden Nash “I think, on the whole, Miss Seeton is the most loveable and entertaining of any of today’s fiction detectives. May she live forever.” London Mystery Selection

How do you catch an art thief? With artistic bait, of course. And who else but the talented Miss Seeton would provide a painting for Scotland Yard, hoping it will get stolen? Before the trap is sprung, a second thief strikes . . . in one of England’s most stately homes. Now Miss Seeton – incognito – is off to the scene to draw her own conclusions . . . Serene amidst every kind of skullduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella! What people are saying about Miss Seeton: “Miss Seeton is a hoot! I was torn between laughter and eye rolling with each page turn. The characters are loveable and thoroughly British. This is a perfect specimen of classic British mystery.“ “What a joy Miss Seeton is. Why did I wait so long to read them? Splashy characters, lovely setting, and just plain funny.” “I've become a Miss Ess addict. Great characters that get better with each book. A must for anyone who loves a good British cozy with a twist, and surprising revelations of what a good brollie can do in a pinch.” “What a great series. This is one of the best in English light reading mysteries.” “Miss Seeton is a delightful sendup of the amateur sleuth. If your doctor has prescribed laughter as the best medicine, run and buy the entire series as fast as you can.” Editorial reviews: “A most beguiling protagonist!” New York Times “Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.” San Francisco Chronicle “This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can’t stop reading. Or laughing.” The Sun “Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.” Publishers Weekly “Fun to be had with a full cast of endearingly zany villagers . . . and the ever gently intuitive Miss Seeton.” Kirkus Reviews “Miss Seeton is the most delightfully satisfactory character since Miss Marple.” Ogden Nash “I think, on the whole, Miss Seeton is the most loveable and entertaining of any of today’s fiction detectives. May she live forever.” London Mystery Selection

At the roulette table an elderly, ludicrously made-up woman in dazzling diamonds is making a killing. Who would guess the bejewelled high roller is actually retired art teacher Miss Emily Seeton, in disguise to help capture a mysterious crime boss? Miss S. must get a good look at the crook’s face to produce a sketch for the police, a simple task surely. It’s not her fault things escalate, and after half-blinding one baddie with the tail of her mink stole and whacking another with her handbag, she’s soon gambling for the very highest stakes – her own life. Serene amidst every kind of skullduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella! What people are saying about Miss Seeton: “Miss Seeton is a hoot! I was torn between laughter and eye rolling with each page turn. The characters are loveable and thoroughly British. This is a perfect specimen of classic British mystery.“ “What a joy Miss Seeton is. Why did I wait so long to read them? Splashy characters, lovely setting, and just plain funny.” “I've become a Miss Ess addict. Great characters that get better with each book. A must for anyone who loves a good British cozy with a twist, and surprising revelations of what a good brollie can do in a pinch.” “What a great series. This is one of the best in English light reading mysteries.” “Miss Seeton is a delightful sendup of the amateur sleuth. If your doctor has prescribed laughter as the best medicine, run and buy the entire series as fast as you can.” Editorial reviews: “A most beguiling protagonist!” New York Times “Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.” San Francisco Chronicle “This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can’t stop reading. Or laughing.” The Sun “Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.” Publishers Weekly “Fun to be had with a full cast of endearingly zany villagers . . . and the ever gently intuitive Miss Seeton.” Kirkus Reviews “Miss Seeton is the most delightfully satisfactory character since Miss Marple.” Ogden Nash “I think, on the whole, Miss Seeton is the most loveable and entertaining of any of today’s fiction detectives. May she live forever.” London Mystery Selection

Who should be hobnobbing with the great and the good at a Buckingham Palace garden party but little Miss Emily Seeton, retired teacher and artistic sleuth. It seems there may be a traitor amongst HM’s faithful retainers. But while Miss Seeton is viewing shrunken heads and other royal treasures with Sir Wormelow Tump, a plan is being hatched by a titled crook to steal valuables of a different kind – a fabulous set of Lalique jewellery. So the battling brolly must make the most of her royal appointment and literally ‘use her head’ to save the day. Serene amidst every kind of skullduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella! What people are saying about Miss Seeton: “Miss Seeton is a hoot! I was torn between laughter and eye rolling with each page turn. The characters are loveable and thoroughly British. This is a perfect specimen of classic British mystery.“ “What a joy Miss Seeton is. Why did I wait so long to read them? Splashy characters, lovely setting, and just plain funny.” “I've become a Miss Ess addict. Great characters that get better with each book. A must for anyone who loves a good British cozy with a twist, and surprising revelations of what a good brollie can do in a pinch.” “What a great series. This is one of the best in English light reading mysteries.” “Miss Seeton is a delightful sendup of the amateur sleuth. If your doctor has prescribed laughter as the best medicine, run and buy the entire series as fast as you can.” Editorial reviews: “A most beguiling protagonist!” New York Times “Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.” San Francisco Chronicle “This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can’t stop reading. Or laughing.” The Sun “Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.” Publishers Weekly “Fun to be had with a full cast of endearingly zany villagers . . . and the ever gently intuitive Miss Seeton.” Kirkus Reviews “Miss Seeton is the most delightfully satisfactory character since Miss Marple.” Ogden Nash “I think, on the whole, Miss Seeton is the most loveable and entertaining of any of today’s fiction detectives. May she live forever.” London Mystery Selection

Jody Blake demonstrates in this book that although the impact of African-American music and dance in France was constant from 1900 to 1930, it was not unchanging. This was due in part to the stylistic development and diversity of African-American music and dance, from the prewar cakewalk and ragtime to the postwar Charleston and jazz. Successive groups of modernists, beginning with the Matisse and Picasso circle in the 1900s and concluding with the Surrealists and Purists in the 1920s, constructed different versions of la musique and la danse negre. Manifested in creative and critical works, these responses to African-American music and dance reflected the modernists' varying artistic agendas and historical climates.

Reproduction of the original: Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama by E. Cobham Brewer

Every year when the harvest moon shines, families of noisy Cockney hop-pickers descend on the bountiful countryside near the village of Plummergen, home to Miss Emily Seeton, artist and Scotland Yard aide extraordinaire. But the holiday jollity brings no cheer for local police Superintendent Brinton, who is all too aware it’s a whole year since the gruesome “Blonde in the Bag” murder, and they are still no nearer a solution. Will MissEss be asked to set aside her newfound hobby of gardening and lend a hand? And where in her strange sketches of the Last Night of the Proms are the clues that might identify a brutal killer? Serene amidst every kind of skulduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella! What people are saying about Miss Seeton: “Miss Seeton is a hoot! I was torn between laughter and eye rolling with each page turn. The characters are loveable and thoroughly British. This is a perfect specimen of classic British mystery.“ “What a joy Miss Seeton is. Why did I wait so long to read them? Splashy characters, lovely setting, and just plain funny.” “I've become a Miss Ess addict. Great characters that get better with each book. A must for anyone who loves a good British cozy with a twist, and surprising revelations of what a good brollie can do in a pinch.” “What a great series. This is one of the best in English light reading mysteries.” “Miss Seeton is a delightful sendup of the amateur sleuth. If your doctor has prescribed laughter as the best medicine, run and buy the entire series as fast as you can.” Editorial reviews: “A most beguiling protagonist!” New York Times “Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.” San Francisco Chronicle “This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can’t stop reading. Or laughing.” The Sun “Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.” Publishers Weekly “Fun to be had with a full cast of endearingly zany villagers . . . and the ever gently intuitive Miss Seeton.” Kirkus Reviews “Miss Seeton is the most delightfully satisfactory character since Miss Marple.” Ogden Nash “I think, on the whole, Miss Seeton is the most loveable and entertaining of any of today’s fiction detectives. May she live forever.” London Mystery Selection