The Curse of the Giant Hogweed

By: Charlotte MacLeod

Narrated by: John McLain

Chasing a vile English plant, Professor Peter Shandy and his friends go on a most peculiar trip.

The giant hogweed, a creeping menace known for crushing the life out of any plant foolish enough to get in its way, has put the hedgerows and pastures of the English countryside in jeopardy. Fishermen find their streams clogged, young lovers are caught with rashes in embarrassing places, and the English nudist colony has been all but exterminated. Only Peter Shandy, the famed horticulturalist responsible for the world's finest rutabaga, can save the day. But when Shandy and his colleagues set out to find hogweed samples, they stumble into an unusually mystical adventure. Quite by accident, Shandy trips through a publican's portal and finds himself conversing with a giant. Trapped in a land of castles, wizards, and knights, Shandy must use every scrap of his horticultural genius to get back home - lest the hogweed triumph in his absence.

©1985 Charlotte MacLeod (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A kooky whodunnit

MacLeod departs from ordinary reality to delve into the mystery of giant hogweed when Professors Peter Shandy, Dan Stott and Tim Ames enter a Welsh pub and find themselves a thousand odd years in the past. The narrator does a great job of bringing across MacLeod's hilarious plot, who in turn must have had a lot of fun putting this all in a funky olde english that fluffs up the pleasant silliness. I really enjoyed this escape.

More dated than the rest

This fable of yore is more dated than the rest of the series. I’ll give the next book a chance.

so weird

The Peter Shandy series is a fun cozy mystery series set in a fictional New England college town. In this book the characters are suddenly and apparently magically transported to fairy-tale medieval England. A very odd story, especially for a cozy mystery series.

Boring

Totally unexpected based on previous books. Very difficult to be into. Boring , not worth listening to.

Skip this one

This is an Alice-in-Wonderland-type story that disappoints this cozy mystery lover. Skip book 5 in this series and go on with the rest. Sorry I spent money on this one.