Thu 25 Sep 2025
Archived Mystery Review: CHARLOTTE MacLEOD – The Corpse in Oozak’s Pond.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
CHARLOTTE MacLEOD – The Corpse in Oozak’s Pond. Professor Peter Shandy #6. Mysterious Press, hardcover, 1987; paperback, March 1988.
The annual Groundhog Day celebration at Balaclava Agricultural College is disrupted by the discovery of a body floating in Oozak’s Pond (up above the methane plant). Since Chief Ottermole is more than willing, Professor Peter Shandy has another case to solve.
There are soon two more bodies, and a lawsuit against the college, all involving the many (many) members of the Buggins family. This is a “laugh out loud” sort of book, but the ending is such a muddle you would not want to read this as detective story at all.
— Reprinted from Mystery.File.4, March 1988.
September 25th, 2025 at 8:28 pm
Not a book for guys who read only PI stories or noir thrillers, but I enjoyed the first couple of Peter Shandy books, and thought this one would be more of the same. The humor was still there, but the detection? It had gone missing, and I didn’t read another.
September 26th, 2025 at 7:25 am
I liked Charlotte’s books, but this one killed the series for me. Unreadable, I’d say.
September 27th, 2025 at 3:04 am
Series killer for me too. Writers should never believe the critics. It turns out the comedy without the ‘Tec work was insufficent.