Silly. The Peter Shandy books have been improbable and off-beat with wildly unlikely characters, but this one is just silly. Shandy and his side-kick Timothy Ames and the until this point minor faculty member, Daniel Stott of swine fame, are called to England to confer on an infestation of a noxious weed known as the giant hogweed (sounded a lot like kudzu - only it came in stalks instead of vines). Somehow they are transported back to some fantasy prehistory of the region where among other things, people, and creatures they encounter a semi-wicked (but reforming) witch who inadvertently tells Peter the spell necessary to destroy the giant hogweed.
MacLeod's mysteries tend to be light, funny, and slightly archaic in feel - but this was way beyond all of that. I am informed that the next one returns to her standard fare.
No comments:
Post a Comment