Bibliophilic Friday: The Thin Woman, by Dorothy Cannell (Review by Nancy L. Eady)

This English manor mystery with comedic twists launched esteemed mystery writer Dorothy Cannell’s career. First published in 1984 as a contemporary mystery, this book is funny and intriguing.  In spite of being almost 40 years old, the book is not dated, although it is refreshing to remember a world where our smartphones weren’t forever glued to some portion of our body. It also is the first of thirteen mysteries in the Ellie Haskell series. Ellie Haskell is the main protagonist in the series, at least through the first four books. (I still have several to read; I’m working through them in order.) 

When we meet Ellie Simons in The Thin Woman, she is single, an interior decorator and living in a flat in London with her cat Tobias. Ellie is overweight, as she freely admits.  Her friend Jill, thin and into most New Age movements she encounters, lives in the same building. When Ellie receives an invitation/summons to a family reunion with her Great-Uncle Merlin’s family, she decides to visit Eligibility Escorts, run by the widowed Mrs. Schumacher, to rent an escort for the weekend to pose as her boyfriend. During the family reunion, Ellie promotes her escort from pretend boyfriend to pretend fiancé. 

The fun really starts a few weeks after the reunion, when she learns that Uncle Merlin has died, and left most of his estate to her and her escort, Ben Haskell, on four conditions: 1) She and Ben Haskell have to live at the mansion, Merlin’s Court, for six months; 2) Ellie must lose four stone (56 pounds) in six months, 3) Ben must complete a novel which contains not one swear word within the same six months, and 4) they must discover the secret “treasure of the house.” If they fail to meet the conditions, then Ellie’s relatives inherit the estate in equal shares. 

Ellie narrates the book in a delightful voice—full of dry wit, keen observations, and touches of self-deprecating humor. The story contains enough twists and turns to captivate the reader, and the ending is both satisfying and unexpected. 

If you enjoy cozy mysteries with humor, try this book out—and move on to the second book, The Widows Club, which starts out with one of the most unusual, yet effective, strategies I have ever seen to keep the reader glued to its pages without sacrificing one iota of the humor and originality of The Thin Woman.