Daisy
Fletcher (nee Dalrymple) is back with another case, this time
to help discover who the heir to the Viscountcy is. Her cousin
Edgar has no children of his own, so the lawyer has come up
with a list of rather distant relations who might be in line
to be the next Lord Dalrymple. These number a hotelier from
Scarborough, a South African diamond merchant, a sailor from
Jamaica and a young lad from Trinidad. Trouble is, the sailor
has vanished and it looks as though somebody wants to get
rid of the other heirs too.
This
is a country house murder mystery set during the golden age
of classic detective fiction. The younger members of the cast
enjoy themselves in a rather Enid Blyton manner while the
adults detect, try to murder each other and get to know each
other. All this sounds idyllic if, like this reviewer, you
are a fan of that type of novel and it is, up to a point.
Everything happens at a very leisurely, one could almost say
desultory, pace; more so than in any of Ms. Dunn’s earlier
Daisy books. With this type of fiction this is not necessarily
a bad thing as the reader gets to see what all the series
characters have been up to and meet several new people. Drowsy
summer days pass in a dream of boating, village fetes and
butterfly hunting which makes for pleasant reading, although
I would have liked to have had a body earlier than two thirds
through the book. If you want some gentle entertainment and
are a fan of the series this one should please well enough,
although in a strong series it is not the best entry.
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
Heirs
of the Body, 21
Superfluous
Women, 22
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