weather vane thieves foiled by Peter Shandy and wife

Ms. MacLeod was known for her screwball mysteries and Vane Pursuit is definitely screwy. This is also the book that introduces mystery writer Catriona McBogle. I don't know if it's true that Catriona was based upon the author, but it is an amusing idea.

Helen Marsh Shandy, curator for the Buggins Collection of the Balaclava Agricultural College library, is photographing the unique weather vanes of Praxiteles Lumpkin, great-nephew of the Fortitude Lumpkin who married Balaclava Buggins' older sister, Druella. As our story starts, she's taking a snapshot of the Lumpkin Soap Works weather vane. Enter Wilber J. Olson, Lumpkinton Chief of Police. Unlike Balaclava Junction's police chief, Olson has not improved since his first appearance. He's still a big jerk.

The soap works is mysteriously burned to the ground the same day that Helen photographed the vane. It's not the only Praxiteles Lumpkin vane-bearing building to burn down with no trace of the weather vane afterward. There's a market for those vanes -- is someone stealing them?

Helen and her old friend, Iduna Stott, drive up to Maine to visit another old friend, Catriona. If McBogle is an alter-ego of MacLeod, she certainly wasn't taking herself too seriously. Reporter Cronkite Swopes hears her name and asks if she isn't the woman who writes all those goofy books. (Mystery lovers who love cats will probably be pleased to know that McBogle is kept by two Maine Coon kitties.)

Both Shandys face danger in different locales. Helen, Iduna, and Catriona's peril comes by sea. Peter Shandy and Cronkite Swope's peril comes by land -- Woeful Ridge, to be precise. While running for their lives Peter and Cronkite meet Winifred Binks, destined to be yet another eccentric member of the supporting cast.

Sure, there are plenty of coincidences, such as Helen just happening to have read about something that provides a big clue, but who cares? This series is for people looking for some fun, especially people who love the skillful use of words.

Mark Hess is the artist for the cover with weather vane of an old-fashioned stereotypical robber carrying a blackjack in his right hand and a bag for the swag in his left. There's a whale leaping out of the water, near a boat, in the water in the background. There are buildings, trees, and a lighthouse in the background, too. They all look small. The foreground has trees. The vane is on top of what appears to be a cupola.

My copy is a book club edition (it says so at the bottom of the front dustjacket flap). If your copy's dustjacket is missing and you're wondering if it's a BCE or not, here are the dimensions of my copy: 8 & 7/16ths inches high by 5 & 9/16ths wide by 5/8ths of an inch thick.

For my fellow Shandy fans who like character facts and who, as also do I, have trouble remembering in which book they appeared:

Ch.1: Peter has a cousin named Gordy. Back when Peter was a kid, a pan of grease caught fire at the family farm and Gordy tried to put it out with water. Peter's grandmother had to use up her pickling salt putting the fire out.

Ch.3: Way back on the front dustjacket flap of book four, Something the Cat Dragged In, the Shandys' housekeeper was referred to as 'Martha Lomax'. That was a puzzler because Mrs. Lomax's name is Betsy. Here Induna refers to her as 'Martha Betsy Lomax'. Heh - shades of why the Incredible Hulk's real name is Robert Bruce Banner.

Cat McBogle reads two books a day. She stocks up when she goes to a bookstore and orders books by mail.

Ch.4: Cat's hair is still red because she dyes it.

Catriona's sweatshirt bearing a big paw pint and the words "footprints of a gigantic hound," may not be just a reference to the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery. There was a mystery bookstore by that name in Tucson, though now it's called Clues Unlimited. My mother took me to a Charlotte MacLeod signing there back in the 1990s.

Iduna and Daniel Stott performed an exhibition tango at the alumni ball the month before.

Ch.7:
Peter and Cronkite were either very lucky or the dogs used by the guys chasing them weren't bloodhounds. As I learned from watching "Mythbusters," none of the tricks our heroes and Miss Binks used would throw a bloodhound off the scent.

This is the chapter that contains the description of Miss Bink's unusual home.

Remember the case of the man found dead in a refrigerator that was shot full of holes and his death was declared a suicide that was mentioned in an earlier book? Ch.7 is where we find out who it was and why it was hushed up.

Ch.9: It's Edna's Diner in Squamasas that serves fried clam tacos.

One of Catriona's Maine coon cats is orange with russett markings and the other is black, gray, and white striped. The description doesn't give the cats' names, let alone which one is Carlyle and which is Emerson, but we learn which is Carlyle in chapter 18.

Ch. 10: One of Iduna's boarders in South Dakota was a sweet, deaf old man named Mr. Bjornstern. He's the reason Iduna can read lips.

Iduna used to be a soloist in her church choir in S.D. She's a mezzo-soprano.

Ch. 11 is where Eustace Tilkey tells about saxaphone-playing cousin Tramwell, his vaudville-mad Aunt Penelope, and what his Uncle Brockley did to her dream.

Ch. 12: Miss Bink's tandem bicycle is named Daisy Belle.

The Porbles' daughter and the Goulsons' son are engaged.

Tim Ames' daughter, Jemmy, and her husband, Dave Marsh, have another baby.

Ch. 13: Miss Binks' idea of light summer reading is The Brothers Karamazov or books by Henry James.

Ch.15: Officer-in-Charge Ensign Blaise of chapter 14 has suddenly been promoted to lieutenant in the third paragraph, but he's back to being an ensign by the ninth paragraph.

This is also the chapter where Helen remembers the story of a 19th century woman whose husband somehow managed to divorce himself from her although she was not divorced from him.

Ch. 16: Helen explains that Cat McBogle was born somewhere around Sasquamahoc. Cat claims it was in a smelt shack during the February freeze, but Helen suspects that part.

Cat's fields have black-eye Susans, white ox-eye daisies, and blue-purple cow vetch growing on them.

Ch. 17: The president's house at Guthrie's college is a two-story frame house painted a peculiar shade of yellow. Peter estimates it was built in the 1920s.

Ch. 18: Guthrie has a Lincolnesque jaw.

It was the orange/marmalade coon cat that Peter found on his chest when he woke up. Cat says he's Thomas Carlyle.

Ch. 19: Jane Austen is described as not a cat to hold a grudge beyond reasonable limits.

According to Cronkite Swope [when talking about the National Guard], the commandant of the Clavaton Armory is cousin to Mrs. Olson.

Ch. 22: District Attorney Wetzel's daughter, Abigail, is 8 years old and goes to day camp. It was her birthday cake that Iduna decorated with a sunbonnet baby with yellow ruffles and a bunch of daffodils. ( )