Madoc Rhys tracks theft of top secret military device

Not much mystery, but lots of coincidences. Janet, husband of Detective Inspector Madoc Rhys of the RCMP, just happens to be a witness to a crime and just happens to recognize the accent of someone who lived near her hometown. Otherwise a national security secret would never have been discovered and resolved. Uh, it wasn't so bad that I didn't finish it. ( )

Book three has Madoc and Janet safely married, but hardly safe -- not Janet, anyway. She narrowly escapes being killed twice before the third chapter. Ms. Craig/MacLeod comes up with a good excuse to move the Rhys and the action back to Janet's native Pitcherville.

It's good to see Bert again, not to mention Sam the hired man and Julius the cat. We also get to meet Annabelle and the three nephews. After the obnoxious rich family in Murder Goes Mumming, it's nice to spend time with a normal, loving family.

If you disliked Jase Bain from A Pint of Murder, join me in enjoying what happens to the old skinflint here, mwahaha.

I'd forgotten what the mystery was all about and whodunnit, but it didn't matter. I reread this series for the humor and characters.

Character facts for fans who have as much trouble remembering in which book they appear as I do:

Chapter 1:

Janet's new coat is made of handspun Welsh wool that her in-laws gave her.

Madoc gave Janet her watch for Valentine's Day.

Chapter 3:

Lady Rhys can badger as effectively long-distance as in person.

Janet lets people think they've badgered her if it makes them happy.

The newlyweds' house has a cupola on top and etched glass panels around the front door.

Janet shares most New Brunswick women's passion for antiques or reasonable facsimilies.

A lot ot their furniture is old stuff from relatives' lofts and attics.

Find Janet's response when Dafydd Rhys teased her about the Pitcherville pronunciation of her first name here.

Marian Emery of the Mansion, Pitcherville, gave Janet a decorated ironstone basin and pitcher set that had belonged to the late Mrs. Treadway, Marian's aunt and Janet's friend.

Janet has a light coral lipstick and a handkerchief with forget-me-nots embroidered in one corner.

Madoc's sister, Gwen, gave Janet some Welsh lavender cologne for when they visited Great-uncle Caradoc in Wales to take away the smell of sheepdip.

Janet's purse is made of good leather.

Chapter 4:

Janet is described as smelling like a finnan haddie.

What Janet didn't learn about reproche while she was growing up in Pitcherville...

Madoc's trousers bag at the pocket level. All Rhys' mens trousers do. Great-uncle Caradoc's bag the most and Daffyd's the least. Read the reason for both.

Madoc and Janet visited the ancestral sheep farm during their honeymoon.

Chapter 5:

Maman Dupree has a bamboo coatrack that falls over if too many coats are piled on one side.

Chapter 6:

The Rhys' house is spotless. It has new William Morris wallpapers, stripped woodwork, shining floors, and that old furniture from the relatives has a pleasing effect.

Janet explains why a place out back of Pitcherville is called 'Bigears'.

Chapter 7:

Annabelle Waldman is about twice the girth of slender Janet.

Bert has learned to keep his mouth shut because he lives with Annabelle, but he adores her.

Fred Olson's daughter, Marilyn, is finishing her schooling at Acadia and is engaged to a nice young man from Digby who helps out at his father's lobster pound while he studies to be a lawyer.

Fred Olson and Eyeball Grouse played one ol' cat at recess 40 years ago.

Chapter 8:

A couple of Canadian folk songs are mentioned.

Chapter 9:

Madoc likes Annabelle's fruitcake.

Old Jase Bain rarely commits an outright crime.

Bain was robbed on March 14th.

Chapter 10:

The Wadman's kitchen has an old daybed in a corner.

Annabelle's toaster has been hurling the bread out.

The Wadman sons look like their father.

Sam Neddick is whitting a duck and has a plan for it.

Sam's opinion of women who read too many books might be annoying, but Annabelle's response is fun .

Check here for the meaning of 'Pierre Dubois'.

Bert, Jr.'s voice has quit changing.

Charlie Wadman is learning to play the trombone. He does his practicing in the barn to entertain the cows.

The Wadman boys feel the prestige of having a Mountie uncle.

Chapter 11:

The livestock comes first at the Wadman farm.

Charlie and Ed argue about the fact that their mom gave their cat a saucer of cut-up ham for breakfast.

Bert and Annabelle have stern rules about fisticuffs at the table.

Madoc's Aunt Blodwin is psychic.

Bert and Janet have an Uncle Sid in Saskatchewan. They also have a Cousin Henry. Here's where you can find out what their Great-aunt Winoa said when she put mittens on the cat and why she did it..

Annabelle can blush a color that used to be called 'Schiaparelli pink'.

Annabelle keeps paperbacks in the preserve closet. She and Bert, Jr. have different reasons for her to keep them there.

The shade of dusty blue paint Rhys got for Janet is called 'Loyalist Blue'.

Chapter 12:

Janet bought Annabelle a Liberty scarf in London.

Annabelle has an agreeably low-pitched voice and a clever way of turning a phrase.

Madoc's eyes are dark like those of a scolded spaniel.

Chapter 15:

The nearest house to Jase Bain's is the old Henry Fewter place.

Madoc really wanted a pristine fielder's glove when he was 10.

Chapter 16:

Annabelle has a mending basket and a button box.

Finding things out appears to be Sam Neddick's one passion in life. More interesting hints about his past are in this chapter.

Rhys is mentioned as the Mountie who took down Mad Carew single-handed.

Chapter 18:

Charlie Wadman makes a claim about how he produced the whipped cream on his mother's dessert with his trombone.

Bert looks scholarly when he wears his reading glasses.

Janet went to school with Buddy McLumber's cousin Isabelle.

Annabelle tells Charlie he's not coming to the table looking like the Wild Man of Borneo. (My mother used to tell me to brush my hair because I looked like a wild woman from Borneo.)

Marion Emery is no longer a whiner. She tells funny stories about people she meets at flea markets.

Chapter 19:

Annabelle once got a kink in her leg sitting at a church concert while she was pregnant with Charlie.

Julius followed Bert and Maddoc into the barn, hoping one of them would squeeze a cow teat and send some milk into his wide-open mouth.

Bert compares Sam to 'The Men That Don't Fit In' by Robert W. Service.

Julius is a con artist when it comes to getting his family to give him treats. Bert called him 'Gander-gut'.

Sam has a weakness for pudgy blondes.

The Wadmans have a private telephone line now instead of a party one. Maw Fewter has made a comparison between being on a party line and soap operas.

Fred Olson still has two kids in college.

This is the chapter where Rhys addresses a suspect by his various aliases.

Fred Olson trained on skittish horses in his father's forge.

Chapter 20:

Here's where to find what Fred Olson said Jase Bain stinks worse than.

George Olson is in line for a hockey scholarship.

Find the euphemism George used when his father objected to the description 'shacking up' here.

Chapter 21:

Look here for why Millie Olson doesn't want a mink coat.

Chapter 22:

Here's where we learn an interesting, if somewhat damaging, method to keep a prisoner from trying to make trouble.

In the first edition, at least, there's an error: Madoc calls Armand Bergeron 'Armand Dubois'.

Joe Fiske took Elmer Bain's job as foreman at the lumber mill after Elmer moved away.

The author photo shows Ms. Crag (MacLeod) holding a siamese cat.

William Naegels did the cover with the author's name and the title enclosed in a blue box and a tire track running diagonally from left to right. I made a color photocopy of my 1988 paperback copy, the much nicer cabin among the snow and pine trees, before I gave it away. I hate boring covers! ( )

Mildly amusing. The luck just ran against the bad guys - it took some work to put it all together, but the first threads that got the whole thing unraveled were a matter of pure luck. A few characters a bit over the top (the hardware store owner, for one) but not the major characters. And at least two unrelated conspiracies going on simultaneously. This time I caught the descriptions of the stuff in Badger's house - remembered it was important from the last time I read it. Fun, no depth to it but well-written and amusing. And the general populace of characters were a lot more pleasant to know than the ones in Murder Goes Mumming. ( )