From Publishers Weekly
At the beginning of this slapstick sequel to The Spring Cleaning Murders, Ellie Haskell and her husband, Ben, have left their three children with his parents and are about to depart Chitterton Falls, England, for a romantic vacation in France. But before they can get away, Ellie's gallivanting father, Morley, who abandoned her after her mother's death, returns with an urn containing the ashes of his most recent girlfriend, Harriet. Morley is supposed to pass the urn to the deceased's closest relatives, who live near Ellie's home, but he's too distraught to part with the remains. As Ellie hears the tale of her father's short tryst and his beloved's sudden death, she suspects that Harriet may have been involved in some shady business. Her concern mounts when she meets Harriet's brusque relatives. Meanwhile, Ellie's cousin Freddy and her redoubtable housecleaner, Mrs. Malloy, worry over their parts in the upcoming parish play. As Ellie, Ben, Freddie and Mrs. Malloy try to cheer up the inconsolable Morley and convince him to relinquish Harriet's ashes, more people turn up searching for the urn, and Ellie begins to wonder what's really in the shoddy vessel and whether her father was involved in Harriet's demise. A forgetful pastor and Freddy's kleptomaniac mother provide additional humor for this oddball story dominated by daffy characters and physical comedy. The suspense is so slow going, in fact, that die-hard cozy fans may wonder what happened to the mystery in this novel, enjoyable as it is. Mystery Guild selection; author tour. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Delightful series heroine Ellie Haskell (The Spring Cleaning Murders, LJ 5/1/98) returns, this time to help her suddenly reappearing father escape an accusation of murder in Chitterton Fells. Wit, humor, and clear-as-a-bell prose. [Mystery Guild selection.] Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
an a murder inspire gaiety and merriment? Yes, if Barbara Rosenblat is narrating a Dorothy Cannell mystery. Meet Ellie Haskell, who--with her husband, Bentley--is readying herself for a trip to France when circumstances dictate otherwise. Ellie's long lost father appears on herdoorstop with Harriet, and then the trouble begins. Rosenblat voices the odd and the absurd with frivolity as the murder scheme, complete with gypsies, eccentric relatives, and hometown curiosities, unfolds. Harriet is guaranteed to keep you beaming. B.J.L. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Cannell's sweet and daffy cozies have an interior logic all their own, much as Gracie Allen's monologues followed their own path through George Burns' straight lines. Ellie Haskell is about to depart for a vacation with her dashing spouse when who should appear on the doorstep of Merlin Court but her long-lost father, who took off after Ellie's mother died and has scarce been heard of since. He carries the ashes of his ladylove, Harriet, to return them to her family in England. Ellie despairs of her vacation and instead is soon caught up in the local legend of St. Ethelwort, patron saint of virility, and, in no particular order, the return of her aunt the kleptomaniac; a fantastically absentminded vicar and his sturdy wife; and a funereal urn that is not what it seems. A local theater production of a homegrown farce forms the thrilling denouement, but the fun is in the descriptions of Ellie's lovely home, the overwrought dialogue, and Ellie's distracted adoration of her perfect husband, the chef and cookbook writer. GraceAnne A. DeCandido


From Kirkus Reviews
The trouble with Harriet, like the trouble with Harry in the Hitchcock film, is that she won't stay put even though she's dead. When decorator Ellie Haskell's father Morley Simons turns up at Merlin's Court, the home Ellie (The Spring Cleaning Murders, 1998, etc.) shares with her restauranteur husband Bentley, years after abandoning her, he's bearing an urn containing Harriet Brown's ashes and the interminable saga of her death in a car accident outside picturesque Sch"nbrunn, where the pair enjoyed an all too brief romance. But by the time Harriet's poker-faced relatives arrive to claim the urn, it's vanished. Has scatty Morley made away with it, as the wooden Hoppers claim? Has it been snatched by even scattier Rev. Dunstan Ambleforth, whose obsession with his 12-volume biography of Ethelwort, the patron saint of impotence, seems to make him act as strangely as his beatific subject? Or (quelle horreur!) is it possible that the ashes in the urn aren't really Harriet's after all? Readers hungry for the truth about these grave matters will have to wade through pages of arch double-entendres courtesy of the villagers who are rehearsing Murder Most Fowl, a new play by the vicar's wife Kathleen, and endless bustling by minor British types whose posturing suggests Golden Age mummies with dialogue balloons pasted over their heads. Still, anyone who agrees with Ellie's cousin Freddy that ``in this modern world, there just aren't enough curates or chaps in boaters showing up to play croquet on the vicarage lawn'' will be transported. (Mystery Guild main selection) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Dorothy Cannell is back, in a masterpiece of hilarity--with a nod to Alfred Hitchcock's comic film--that embroils sleuth Ellie Haskell with a prodigal father, a lost-cause saint, a litany of secrets, and, of course, a murder.

After her hard domestic labor in The Spring Cleaning Murders (pronounced "wickedly witty" by the Chicago Sun-Times) all Ellie Haskell wants is a romantic getaway with her dashing husband, Bentley. Their bags are all packed for a trip to France ...until the arrival of Ellie's long-lost father, Morley Simons, toting the ashes of his platinum blond lady love, Harriet--a femme fatale who has become a highway fatality. He has promised to return the ashes to her relatives. But when another accident makes Morley a murder suspect, Ellie must ask herself: is he a pawn in a deadly game? And how can she save him from arrest? Furthermore, how does an absent-minded vicar's obsession with eleventh-century St. Ethelwort--patron saint of virility--relate to the mystery and to the secrets of her own heart? Soon it's clear that love can be a very dangerous thing.


Download Description
Ellie Haskell and her husband, Ben, haven't had a vacation in years. Now their bags are packed, and they're ready to set off for a romantic getaway to France. But things go awry when a chain-smoking gypsy approaches Ellie with a dire prediction: "Take that trip at your peril!" Those ominous words ring true when her prodigal father Morley suddenly appears with an urn containing the remains of his ladylove, Harriet, whose untimely death in a car accident has left him bereft. When Morley loses the urn in a bizarre series of events, Harriet's family is furious, and a bewildered Ellie asks some probing questions: What exactly is in that urn? Is her father a pawn in a deadly game? Is this what the gypsy had foreseen? The answers are hilariously revealed in a caper so charming it could only have come from Dorothy Cannell.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ellie Haskell is in dire need of a vacation. Life has become increasingly hectic of late, with her busy work as an interior designer on top of taking care of the twins and baby Rose, and her husband Bentley's bustling cafe business. In fact, Ben and Ellie haven't had a holiday in years. But today their bags are packed for a long-awaited trip to France. With blissful daydreams of her romantic getaway dancing in her head, Ellie sets off to do some last-minute errands. Imagine her distress when she encounters a chain-smoking Gypsy who warns her, "Take that trip at your peril!" Trying to shake off her feelings of foreboding, Ellie returns home - but she is barely in the door when Ben stops her dead in her tracks: "Ellie. You have a surprise visitor." It is her prodigal father, Morley Simons, returning after many years. Far from greeting her with a face wreathed in smiles, Morley is sobbing into a hanky. Morley comes toting the ashes of his platinum blond lady love, Harriet - a femme fatale who has become a highway fatality. He's promised to return the urn containing her mortal remains to her relatives, who duly show up to receive the unwelcome news that Harriet has been temporarily misplaced. When another accident makes Morley a murder suspect, Ellie begins to question the urn's contents and must ask herself: Is he a pawn in a deadly game? Is this what the Gypsy had foreseen?

FROM THE CRITICS

Beth Amos

Author Dorothy Cannell brings back her witty and wily sleuth, Ellie Haskell, for another round of mirth, murder, and mystery in The Trouble with Harriet . With a cast of characters who are odd, eccentric, and vastly entertaining, and a plot that pokes delicious fun at things morbid and moribund, The Trouble with Harriet is an enchanting piece of high hilarity.

Ellie has planned a romantic getaway to France with her husband, Bentley -- a much-needed vacation for them both. The bags are packed, the kids are at their grandparents', and Merlin's Court -- Ellie's historic home in Chitterton Fells -- is under the watchful eye of Ellie's chatty helper, Mrs. Malloy. But before Ellie and Ben make good their escape, an unexpected visitor arrives: Ellie's long-lost father, Morley Simons, whom Ellie hasn't seen since she was 17. Morley isn't exactly alone, either. Tucked into a canvas bag he carries close to his heart is a rather unattractive urn that contains the ashes of his latest paramour, the platinum-blonde mystery woman who recently stole his heart before dying in a car crash: Harriet Brown.

Bereaved and bewildered, Morley tells his daughter that he has carried the ashes of his beloved here to hand them over to Harriet's relatives, who happen to live nearby. But as he tells more of the story surrounding his all-too-brief love affair with Harriet, Ellie becomes suspicious. First of all, Harriet told Morley she lived with reclusive friends who had no phone and wanted no visitors. She never gave him the address and never let him visit there. Plus the circumstances surrounding her death seem a bit contrived and unusual. Ellie can't help but wonder if her father hasn't been set up as a patsy in someone's elaborate and illegal scheme.

Ellie tries to ignore her suspicions at first, still hoping to get away with Bentley, but it soon becomes apparent that the trip must be postponed. Things get even more complicated when Ellie takes her father -- and Harriet's ashes -- along on a trip to the estate of Lady Grizwolde and her elderly husband, Sir Casper, where Ellie has been hired to do some interior decorating. Just before arriving at the estate, Ellie nearly runs over the absentminded vicar Reverend Dunstan Ambleforth, who is lurking among the nearby ruins of Saint Ethelwort, the patron saint of virility. Then, after Ellie convinces Morley to leave Harriet in the car while they go inside, the vicar decides to "borrow" Ellie's car and promptly disappears, along with Harriet's remains.

When she returns home, Ellie is forced to stall Harriet's dourly humorous cousins while hoping the vicar will show up. The situation takes a turn for the worse with the unexpected arrival of Ellie's kleptomaniac aunt, Lulu, who drops in for a visit and some rehab time. Accompanying Lulu is an all-too-convenient benefactor who gave her a lift from the train station, a gentleman named Mr. Price, who later demonstrates an unusual knack for showing up in the right places at the wrong times. By the time Morley's recent landlady, Frau Grundman, shows up for a visit and to make some goo-goo eyes at Morley, Merlin's Court is starting to look like a hotel for the eccentric. About the only person who isn't staying there is Harriet, who returns for a brief spell, only to disappear once again.

With a passing nod to Alfred Hitchcock and an outrageous plot that zips along like an episode of the "Keystone Kops," The Trouble with Harriet is a comically convoluted tale of love, lies, and larceny sprinkled with a dash of murder. Not even Ellie's chef of a husband could whip up such a perfect recipe for fun.

--Beth Amos

Library Journal

Delightful series heroine Ellie Haskell (The Spring Cleaning Murders, LJ 5/1/98) returns, this time to help her suddenly reappearing father escape an accusation of murder in Chitterton Fells. Wit, humor, and clear-as-a-bell prose. [Mystery Guild selection.] Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Yvonne Zipp - Christian Science Monitor

The Trouble with Harriet finds Ellie and Ben on the eve of a French getaway. A Gypsy prophecy (somewhat of a rarity in the English village of Chitterton Falls) is Ellie's first clue that she may be unpacking her bags....A cozy visit with the Haskell clan is never a waste of time...

Kirkus Reviews

The trouble with Harriet, like the trouble with Harry in the Hitchcock film, is that she won't stay put even though she's dead. When decorator Ellie Haskell's father Morley Simons turns up at Merlin's Court, the home Ellie (The Spring Cleaning Murders, 1998, etc.) shares with her restauranteur husband Bentley, years after abandoning her, he's bearing an urn containing Harriet Brown's ashes and the interminable saga of her death in a car accident outside picturesque Schönbrunn, where the pair enjoyed an all too brief romance. But by the time Harriet's poker-faced relatives arrive to claim the urn, it's vanished. Has scatty Morley made away with it, as the wooden Hoppers claim? Has it been snatched by even scattier Rev. Dunstan Ambleforth, whose obsession with his 12-volume biography of Ethelwort, the patron saint of impotence, seems to make him act as strangely as his beatific subject? Or (quelle horreur!) is it possible that the ashes in the urn aren't really Harriet's after all? Readers hungry for the truth about these grave matters will have to wade through pages of arch double-entendres courtesy of the villagers who are rehearsing Murder Most Fowl, a new play by the vicar's wife Kathleen, and endless bustling by minor British types whose posturing suggests Golden Age mummies with dialogue balloons pasted over their heads. Still, anyone who agrees with Ellie's cousin Freddy that "in this modern world, there just aren't enough curates or chaps in boaters showing up to play croquet on the vicarage lawn" will be transported. (Mystery Guild main selection)