“Granny Skewers a Scoundrel” Using Her Knitting Needle!

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Granny Skewers a Scoundrel Granny Skewers a Scoundrel by Julie Seedorf opens the day after the conclusion of Granny Hooks a Crook, in which Granny tied up a criminal conspiracy. The day begins with Granny’s discovering her neighbor Sally dead on her front lawn, with just enough life to tell Granny that the grass has stopped talking to her. Worried about her safety, especially after never having heard about Granny’s job as security agent to catch all the shoplifters in her hometown of Fuchsia, MN, Granny’s two daughters and son are ready to make her either move in with one of her daughters or move to the wrinkle farm. So to keep them at bay, Granny uses her secret passage to get to Franklin Gatsby, and she announces to her children that she wants to introduce them to her fiance, which shocks Franklin as much as her children until he sees the humor in the situation and takes advantage of it with Granny.

Given a reprieve from the wrinkle farm, Granny discovers that her son Thor has moved in next door, since her two still-living, quirky neighbors who spend their time pretending to be on reality shows, have decided to move in together and now have an extra house to rent. But even the death of Sally and then another woman from Fuchsia doesn’t prevent Granny from hooking crooks with her umbrella handle and skewer scoundrels with her giant knitting needle disguised as a cane.

Life with Granny in it is never boring. My favorite characters were the critters Granny knows as the “shysters,” a set of animals of whom Granny shares custody with Franklin and who keep up to no good. First, in the prior book, Granny’s cat named Fish brought home his own pet, Little White Poodle. Then came Furball, followed by Tank, Granny’s names for the cat and dog Franklin calls Itsy and Bitsy. And now they have added a large dog, Baskerville, who had belonged to the villain of the previous book and now needs a new home. Baskerville keeps getting stuck in the doggie door and howling loudly, so Granny gets a friend to build a device that will open her window to his howls, keeping her doggie door safe for the other four shysters. Then, comes another animal. A woman has moved into Sally’s house claiming to be Sally’s daughter and, to Granny’s dismay, making the moves on Granny’s son. Sally has a pet goat, but Mr. Bleaty, as Granny has rechristened him, only wants to be with Baskerville, so the two become inseparable.

This book was so funny! You have to approach it expecting everything to be tongue-in-cheek and silly, or you’ll just find it dumb. The reviews on Amazon are very split between those who found the book to be too ridiculous and those willing to suspend disbelief for a few hours of great fun.

This book is read by Priscilla Finch, and I thought she was an excellent choice to read this book that requires a special balance between reading it straight to make it funnier and always keeping a twinkle in one’s eye, with the recognition of just how ridiculous some of this book can be.

Granny Skewers a Scoundrel outdoes the previous book in the series, Granny Hooks a Crook, with much stronger, more well-rounded characters and a much better plot. I highly enjoyed the book. I give it four stars.

To purchase this book for yourself, click here on Amazon.

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