Hamilton Crane Books In Order

Publication Order of Miss Seeton Books

Hamilton Crane is the pen name for Sarah J. Mason, the author a series of 13 sequels and the prequel to the highly popular mystery thriller novels the “Miss Seeton” series. As Sarah J Mason, she has also written several novels that include the “Trewley and Stone” detective fiction series of novels, and two freestanding novels. However, it is important not to confuse Sarah J Mason with Sarah Mason, the British romance novelist who has no middle name. Hamilton Crane has lived for about fifty years in Hertfordshire in England, and lived for a year in New Zealand and four years in Scotland. The Miss Seeton series of novels for which Crane is most popular for were originally written and published by Heron Carvic. Carvic wrote the first five titles of the series before making way for Hampton Charles who wrote as Roy Peter Martin. Hamilton Crane took up the series in 1991, when she wrote her first title “Miss Seeton Cracks the Case”, the ninth book in the series. She would also go on to write the prequel to the series that gave a background of the Miss Seeton character, eleven years before the events of the series. Hamilton Crane currently resides in Somerset, a few miles from the quaint city of Wells, which is just far enough from the big city of Glastonbury that she does not have to deal with the severe traffic snarl-ups.

MissEss aka Miss Seeton, or Emily D. Seeton is the lead character in the British cozy mystery series by Hamilton Crane. Even as three different authors have written the novels over the years, the lead character in the series maintains her character and MO. Miss Seeton is a character that can best be described as an absent-minded woman that draws informative sketches, which help Inspector Delphic and his sidekick Bob Ranger in solving crimes in the village of Plummergen. Being the lady that she is, she always finds herself in trouble for her ladylike actions and the eerie accuracy of her drawings. In the prequel to the series, Hamilton Crane looks into Miss Seeton’s past by explaining her psychic talent for knowing impossible things. Seeton is a spinster who lived during World War II England. She lived in fear of spies and rationing, lived in a house draped with blackout material, windows taped and boarded over, skylights pulled out, and wore a gas mask to go work in a plane factory. She is an art teacher that sketches pictures that predict the setting of a crime and sometimes points to the motivations of the criminal. Even as the drawings become very important in helping law enforcement solve crimes, she does the drawings in an absent-minded manner. When intelligent police officers analyze the sketches, they are highly accurate in pointing to the motivations of the person that committed a crime, making her an invaluable person to the police force. The police while initially treating her as a suspect gradually become amused and even though they are still horrified with her talent for solving the most complex of crimes.

Hamilton Crane’s Miss Seeton series is highly successful due to its lead character the almost clairvoyant Miss Seeton. Her sketches of the perpetrators of crime and their victims, which go as far as mapping their motivations, their pasts, and futures, make for an unlikely detective who is subject to good-natured mocking and admiration. The novels are sophisticated narratives that move from the points of view of Miss Seeton, village gossips Mrs. Blaine and Miss Nuttel, Sergeant Bob Ranger, and Superintendent Delphick of the Scotland Yard among several other characters. The setting of the novel in the quaint city of Plummergen, where the characters make a living and solve crime makes for delightful little stories that combine humor and thrilling detective stories. The crux of the narratives is Miss Seeton’s special sketches whose interpretation is not typically evident and requires some degree of skill to decode. Despite not being conversant with art, over time the police improve on their skills to use the sketches to solve many crimes in Plummergen. Village life is an important component in the series, particularly the gossip which many characters in the series use as their main form of entertainment. Over the course of the narrative new possibilities will usually arise on just who may have been involved in the commission of a crime. The narrative then moves along incorporating several subplots and intertwined stories that ultimately lead to an explosive conclusion.

“Miss Seeton Cracks the Case”, the ninth novel in the series by Hamilton Crane is an amusing and entertaining novel following the happenings in the village of Plummergen, where Miss Seeton is resident. Miss Seeton find herself embroiled in a police investigation as they investigate a spate of robberies. The chief suspects in the series are the Sherry Gang, who have been pretending to help old people with their shopping before drugging them with spiked sherry. While their victim is out cold, they rob them of anything valuable and make off to rob another victim. Another group has been involved in another type of robbery. The Turpins have revived highway robbery and target coaches full of the elderly that they hold up before robbing passengers of their valuables. Plummergen is the same old village thriving on gossip while the police depend on Miss Seeton to point them in the right direction. The novel is a light mystery read set in a quaint setting that would be an awesome read for the detective thriller or cozy mystery fan.

“Miss Seeton Paints the Town”, the 10th novel in the series by Hamilton Crane is a fast-paced story full of suspense and humor featuring the lead character Miss Seeton of Plummergen. The eccentric and beloved Miss Seeton is back to her best as she participates in the “Best Kept Village Competition”. The completion is aimed at helping the residents of Plummergen enhance the aesthetics of their homes by taking up the most creative ideas from sketches. In one of her drawings, Miss Seeton sketches her own house with black billowing clouds of smoke, which leaves the people perplexed. Could her house be next in line to be torched by arsonists? Given that she for the most part draws absent mindedly, she takes it upon herself to try to find who is the behind the recent spate of arson attacks in her village, that may just be targeting her house next. It is an interesting narrative with twists and turns of plot, that will have the reader engrossed right from the first page to the last.