Book Review - THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK By Susan Wittig Albert

You know, I'm not a nice person. I'm not one of those cutesy type of people who love animals and talk about them like they were one of my children. I don't like cutesy things and roll my eyes at others who think they are so cute that they can melt sugar. That's not me. I hate cutesy books, especially cutesy books where some of the main characters are talking animals that help solve mysteries and things like that. Nope, that just isn't me.

So I will ask you to please not tell my friends that know me as the evil person that I am that I am simply enthralled with Susan Witig Albert's Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. The cottage tales are a series of books featuring Beatrix Potter and a whole bunch of, dare I say it, talking animals. THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK is the latest novel in this series.

Beatrix Potter, yes the same lady who wrote PETER RABBIT, lives in London with her parents. After another argument with her mother Betrix takes the train and goes to her house at Hill Top Farm in the Lake District. It's there where she can write and draw the pictures for her newest books and be away from her demanding parents.

As luck would have it the Lake District had well over 30 inches of snow and there is no way for Beatrix to get in touch with her parents. For the first time in weeks a huge smile appears on her face.

But she soon finds out that a well liked man in the District, Hugh Wickstead, was killed right before the snow storm. He was in the woods and a tree limb fell on him. His trusty dog, Pickles, ran back to the house to get help hoping that Mr. Wickstead wouldn't die. But, alas, Mr. Wickstead did succumb to the blow.

The town decides that the poor man was killed because he had just dug up some buried treasure and everyone knows that buried treasures are cursed. So the townsfolk was sad that Hugh died but far from surprised.

But Pickles, the dog, was there when the limb fell and it wasn't a curse that killed Mr. Wickstead. The limb fell off the tree when a dragon landed on it!

Pickles tried to tell the town but what person listens to a dog anyway? I'll tell you who listens; the tour guide that leads the readers from this century back to Beatrix Potter's time. This guide gives the readers an inside view of all the happenings around the Lake District. We are invisible to all the people as we eavesdrop on all their conversations. We are also able to listen to the animals as they tell their stories that lead to the untimely event of Mr. Wickstead's death. You see, the animals loved him too.

Dogs cats, badgers, dragons, mice, hamsters, they all talk in the Cottage series and they all have their own take on the events and what the big people do.

Does this book sound as sugary to you as it does to me? If I read this review I wouldn't go near any of the Cottage series books, and I'd be wrong to avoid them.

Susan Wittig Albert is one of the best writers around. She's better know for her China Bayles mysteries, another excellent series to spend time with. Come to think of it. the China Bayles series has the same guide in the beginning of each book just so reader's remember the town and who the main characters are.

It might sound silly and on a review like this I guess it does but you will miss out on a good story from a great writer if you don't at least try it.

All I want to say is that THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK is not to be missed. It's like a Beatrix Potter book written for grown ups.