Die Laughing
Daisy Dalrymple Mystery, No 12

by Carola Dunn

For her twelfth case, Daisy has to visit the dentist. But handsome Raymond Talmadge has seen his last patient and lies in his own chair, dead from inhaling too much nitrous oxide. Accident, suicide, or murder? Soon Daisy and Alec start to uncover the sordid secrets about Talmadge’s love life, trying to solve the mystery before the killer claims another victim.

One mystery is certainly how Daisy’s tooth is agony one moment and fine the next without the attentions of a dentist, but, this aside, this book is another sprightly entry in this enjoyable series. Now a middle class matron living in St John’s Wood, Daisy is portrayed getting to grips with her new station in life.

Ms. Dunn has really got under the skin of the early 20th century period, when servants were hard to obtain, the war was a recent memory and going to the dentist was very different from today. Scandals abound and people gossip behind the lace curtains of suburbia, as the police try to find out whodunit. I didn’t guess who it was. This is not a tale packed with incident, and the plot is somewhat linear, but once again Ms. Dunn has chosen a new setting to write about and shows her impressive knowledge of the period. As usual, there is a lot more to enjoy in here than just a good story.

Reviews of other titles in this series

Death at Wentwater Court, 1
The Winter Garden Mystery, 2
Requiem For A Mezzo, 3
Murder on the Flying Scotsman, 4
Damsel in Distress, 5
Dead In The Water, 6
Styx and Stones, 7
Rattle His Bones, 8 [review 1] [review 2]
To Davy Jones Below, 9
The Case of the Murdered Muckraker, 10
Mistletoe and Murder, 11
Die Laughing, 12
A Mourning Wedding, 13
Fall of a Philanderer, 14
Gunpowder Plot, 15
The Black Ship, 17
Sheer Folly, 18
Anthem For Doomed Youth, 19
Gone West, 20