THE EMBROIDERED SUNSET

This is a plummy diversion pursued with providential abandon and discarding all the predictables of the genre (Miss Aiken calls it a "light romance") including the happy ending. It deals with young Lucy's attempt to find an aunt in a little English village where she had embroidered primitive paintings which seem artistically desirable to Lucy and financially profitable to her horrid Uncle Wilbur. But who knows just where Miss Fennel Culpepper is, and when Lucy catches up with a potty little old lady who is not quite as dotty as she seems, she wonders whether it really is her Aunt Fennel or just her look-alike friend. The story winds in and out of houses with pictures and nursing homes with negligent to evil attendants and rural bypaths. With so much going on, it has lots going for it along with humor and some genuine surprises.