I have to say that I'm still fairly pleased with the Aunt Dimity series so far, even though the series as a whole fairly surprises me so far. Granted I'm only two books in, but Atherton has broken quite a bit of the regular norms of mystery writing as a whole. 
 First off, there is no whodunit mystery here. Not really. Just like the first book, this is ultimately about people discovering themselves and each other. It's these interactions that make the discoveries and daily actions so much sweeter. The mysteries are just sort of a little side bonus and aren't really that much of a driving focus of the work. 
 Secondly, Atherton breaks another rule by swapping out the characters almost entirely. Dimity plays a very small role, as do the fabulous Pym sisters, but other than that the cast here is entirely new. There's the potential for them to come back in a further book, but ultimately we have a new set to focus on. They're actually quite a nice set of characters. I liked Emma well enough, but much like the first book the side characters are the ones that really steal the show. 
 The other thing I noticed was that you didn't have to have read the previous book to enjoy this one. You'll be a little lost if you aren't aware that Dimity is a ghost, but since she's such a minor character here you won't be too left out. Of course another thing I noticed was that despite this having been written in the 90s, this book aged fairly well overall. 
 Overall I think I'm going to like this series. They're not your typical mysteries, but that's OK. Sometimes it's good to have something that is outside the norm. I still think that people who predominantly or only read the more hard-core mysteries might find this a little too fluffy for their reading purposes, but for the most part most readers will enjoy this. 
 EDIT: 
 I realized belatedly that this book actually goes back into the past of Emma and Derek, who were very much in the first book. I just saw them as different characters since it was set so long before the events of book one and because I suppose this shows that Atherton can take characters you're already familiar with and make them seem like new people in their own right.