Product Description

The newest Benni Harper mystery from the three-time Agatha Award Nominee and author of Dove in the Window. The ex-cowgirl, quilter, and resident sleuth of San Celina, California, is back-navigating her way through a stormy sea of puzzling clues to a home she never knew existed... Jacob Chandler knew everything about Benni Harper, and in his house were pieces of her life: a scrapbook of newspaper clippings that covered her life and work. When Jacob Chandler died, he left his home in Morro Bay and all its contents to Benni-the only stipulation being that she had to stay in the house for two weeks, alone, before the inheritance became hers. But Benni Harper has never even heard of Jacob Chandler. To discover whether he is her guardian angel or personal demon, she must follow the scavenger-hunt clues he has set up for her throughout his home. The waters are rough and the direction unclear as she finds herself setting a course to a time and place in her own past-a place Benni Harper and Jacob Chandler both knew as home...

"Earlene Fowler writes from the heart, and her Benni Harper is a true original." -Susan Rogers Cooper, author of Doctors and Lawyers and Such

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73282 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Released on: 2000-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425174081
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
A bizarre inheritance, a dangerous quest and a political battle are the main events of Benni Harper's captivating sixth adventure (after Dove in the Window). Benni's work at the San Celina Folk Art Museum is interrupted when she unexpectedly inherits the estate of a stranger named Jacob Chandler. His house in Morro Bay is worth $200,000, but Chandler's will stipulates that Benni can keep the windfall only if she lives in the house for two weeksAalone. As expected, her protective husband, police chief Gabe, is none too happy about this development. But Benni is unwilling to turn down the money, and more important, her curiosity is piqued. After all, why would someone she'd never met make her his sole heir, especially when it turns out that many others were expecting to benefit from his death? To find the answer, Benni embarks on a dangerous search for Chandler's motives, following a series of cryptic notes that he's left for her all over California. Meanwhile, Gabe has his hands full keeping peace between San Celina's mayor and Benni's formidable Gramma Dove, who leads a sit-in at the Historical Museum to thwart the mayor's plan to convert it into a restaurant. As Benni's inquiries lead to unsettling information about her mother, who died when Benni was six, Fowler captures her plucky heroine's secret anxieties, but offsets them with a good dose of humor. Benni's need to know the truth about her family imbues the novel with alluring intimacy and suspense. And Chandler's penchant for wood carving provokes engaging descriptions of that craft, which accompany Fowler's usual bits on quilting and food. Chandler's puzzles test Benni's relationships with her husband, father and grandmother in this excellent addition to a notable series.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In order to inherit a house from a man she never met, series protagonist Benni Harper (Dove in the Window, Prime Crime: Berkley, 1998) must spend two weeks alone in it. There, the folk art museum curator and sleuth follows mysterious clues her benefactor left behind. For series fans.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ex-cowgirl and California Central Coast resident Benni Harper has inherited the house of Jacob Chandler, a man she never met. Chandler's will requires Benni to live in the house for two weeks and to solve a mystery. Meanwhile, her grandma Dove and six friends barricade themselves into the Historical Society to thwart a development-oriented mayor, and Benni is pursued by a mysterious assailant. In this sixth Benni Harper novel, Fowler continues to deepen her characters--eccentric and sympathetic Californians and transplanted southerners--and her plotting appears tighter and better organized. There are some surprising and funny moments here, and Fowler's skill in developing a mystery in an interesting community will appeal to fans of Rett McPherson's Veiled Antiquity and Leslie Meier's Valentine Murder [both BKL Je 1 & 15 98]. John Rowen

Customer Reviews

It was light, entertaining, entrancing and fun.
I have enjoyed all of Ms. Fowler's Benni Harper mysteries, but I really enjoyed this last one. It took a different approach than the previous books, but still had all of the fun and excitement of the previous plots. The characters are interesting, the language is clean, there is no blood and gore descriptives, there is romance without explicit detail. It is just a light mystery that is entertaining to read. So refreshing in the choices of mystery novels of today. I hope she continues to write Benni Harper books, I look forward to what happens with her next.

This is fine storytelling
While quilting is not as integral to the story as the Elm Creeks series, the storytelling is superb. Fast-paced, witty and with enough chutzpah and machismo to keep Benni & Gabe from getting staid; and keep me grinning. Tying the title quilt block to the plot of the book is clever and entertaining.

I found this book darker than the other Benni Harper mysteries as Benni confronts suspicions of her parentage thanks to her previously unknown uncle, the late Jacob Chandler. She has to deal with a wealth of suspicious characters as she tries to survive the terms of Jacob's will. Benni and Gabe seem to be growing together as a couple and their wildly differing viewpoints are finally rubbing off on each other. Dove, as usual, is a stitch; leading the "San Celina Seven" to rescue the Historical Society museum from the money-grubbing, development minded mayor. Cousin Emory and temporary neighbor Rich Trujillo add a healthy dollop of Southern and Mexican spice to the plot. Eccentric potter Azanna Nybak, best friend Eliva, and even Scout the dog add body to this story. A fun read that left me wanting more.

Excellent Agatha Award Winner -- Definitely worth a read.
I've decided to try reading all those nominated for best mystery novel awards. Earlene Fowler's "Mariner's Compass", won the Agatha Award for Best Novel in the year 2000. I'm glad it did, because I might not have otherwise discovered this mystery writer, and Fowler's definitely worth reading.

The title, "Mariner's Compass", refers not only to an inheritance pointing out a complex scavenger hunt touching investigator Benni Harper's past, but to an old, historic quilt design. The interaction between the hunt for certain objects, their interrelationship with the people who hold them and Benni, and Benni's own personal journey is extremely well done and makes for a gripping novel. Fowler's descriptions of small seaside California towns are very evocative, and refreshingly positive. The novel's Prologue is touching and worth the price of the book.

Put some logs in the fireplace, get yourself a cup of hot cocoa and your favorite quilt, and curl up with this first rate yarn. You won't regret it.