Thursday 19 February 2015

Scott, Mary "Strangers for Tea"

 Scott, Mary "Strangers for Tea" - 1975

Another visit to Susan and Larry's farms in New Zealand. In this novel, Susan brings home a hitch hiker and so does Larry. Some new faces in the small community and a lot of young people that make the life in the backblocks more versatile. But one day, people miss money and everyone is afraid that one of their new friends might be a thief. An almost detective story this time but the two friends Susan and Larry solve this problem as well as they have solved any other obstacles thrown their way so far.

As always, a fun and easy read, sometimes very easy but the stories remind me of my youth and I love them.

This is the seventh book in the series by Mary Scott. And this is the list of all of them:
"Breakfast at Six" - 1953
"Dinner Doesn’t Matter" - 1957
"Tea and Biscuits" - 1961
"A Change From Mutton" - 1964
"Turkey at Twelve" - 1968
"Shepherd’s Pie" - 1972
"Strangers for Tea" - 1975
"Board, but no Breakfast" - 1978

Unfortunately, they are out of print and only available second hand. I have heard in the meantime that you can buy some of them as ebooks.

From the back cover (translated): "Te Rimu in the highlands of New Zealand is a peaceful area. Here three comrades have settled as farmers together with their wives: Paul with Susan, Sam with Larry, Tim with Anne. They lead a busy, sociable, yet quiet life. Until one day ...
Until one day, Susan brings a hitchhiker home, a young man with shoulder-length blond hair: David, who is looking for a job. And that's just life, a couple of days later Larry also picks up hitchhiker: Tom, a robust young man who is also looking for work.
The two strangers bring variety to the farmers' leisurely life. They gather other young people and found a youth club, the "gang". Suddenly, money is stolen everywhere, and when it is discovered that Tom has been in prison for car theft, suspicion falls on him. Cheerfulness and good humor have disappeared from the village ..."

Find all my reviews to novels by Mary Scott here.

2 comments:

  1. Glad to see you're still enjoying this series, we all need gentle reads from time to time. I'm getting better and will soon be looking for more challenging reading material.

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    1. Thank you, Janet, this is probably about my only literature that classifies as "easy" but it reminds me of my youth and my dreams of going to see the world.

      Other than that, I totally agree, we need challenging reading material. I'm just reading "Les Misérables" which is attempted in a Facebook reading group. I really love it. Maybe something for you?

      Get a lot better quickly. Best wishes,
      Marianne

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