Requiem For A Mezzo
By Carola Dunn

       The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple and her Scotland Yard beau, Alec Fletcher, are enjoying a production of Verdi's Requiem at the Albert Hall. One of the soloists is Bettina Westlea, Daisy's neighbor. Right in the middle of the performance she is poisoned. There is no shortage of suspects, as apart from her doting husband, just about everybody disliked her and had a motive to kill her. Daisy has to sift through the many suspects, including two suspicious Russians, a fiery Spanish woman, an adulterous Welsh tenor, and even Bettina's own mousy sister, Muriel.

      Just when you thought that this was going to be a series about country house murders, here is Daisy back in London and doing something different. We are still in cozy territory here, particularly as the murdered woman was so unpleasant. There is not too much tragedy here to mar a good mystery, and this is a true puzzle whodunit. This third novel in the series has improved on the first two with an even more tangled plot, replete with red herrings and colorful suspects galore. This is less a novel looking closely at post-war England than it is a straightforward detective novel, very classic era and thoroughly enjoyable, with the right light touch and plenty of plot. Effervescent and a real page-turner.