Gone West

"Fresh Meat" by Victoria Janssen for Criminal Element.

Gone West, twentieth in the Daisy Dalrymple series by Carola Dunn, is set in 1926. As this is the first in the series I’ve read, I can safely say it can be enjoyed even if you’ve never tried the series before.

Daisy, though the daughter of a viscount, is not wealthy, so works as a writer of magazine articles and coffee table books. She is married to a Scotland Yard detective named Alec Fletcher, who also takes part in the story once the inevitable murder occurs.

What I particularly liked about this book is that, aside from the mystery plot, it gave a picture of England, eight years after the end of World War One, in which the effects of that war were still being felt in many show more levels of society. I especially liked how Dunn focused on how the war had affected women.

(Read the rest at http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/01/fresh-meat-gone-west-by-carola-dunn ) show less

It took me forever to finish this book.... I was utterly bored up until Chapter 14, when things became interesting.

A long-past school friend calls upon Daisy & asks her to come visit (investigate) the house where she is working as a secretary for a famous Wester author. The author has not been well & she believes he is being drugged.

As it turn out, because of the author's illness, the secretary has been helping to write his books, which have become even more popular & are earning more money; money which is used to keep the family farm afloat.

Although the Author's brother & sister are begrudging, they readily accept the extra income brought in by the increased popularity of the books.

Upon Daisy's arrival the Author begins to join the show more family before & during dinner, sipping his favorite Pink Gin cocktail... Unfortunately, one night after dinner he becomes more tired than usual, goes to bed early & ceases breathing... Dead from an overdose of Chloral Hydrate.

The characters were not really likable, being selfish & self-absorbed ungrateful leeches.... But I figured out, again, "who done it". show less

I didn't like this book as much as I liked most of the other books in the Daisy Dalrymple series. It seemed slower, the characters weren't as interesting, and the dialog didn't have the same snap, crackle and pop. Perhaps It was because Daisy and Alec were separate fpr most of the book or maybe because the supporting cast and stodgy environment was just more dull.

I love reading mysteries, although I usually don't read mysteries set in the past. It is always fascinating to get a look at how people lived in another time. The book seemed to move a little slow, but I felt that was echoed in the slower pace of life in the early 1900s. The book was very character driven, and the murderer was not readily apparent to me. It did seem a little abrupt, when the narrator would suddenly switch from Daisy to her husband, the Scotland Yard detective. Other than that, the book flowed along nicely. It was a relaxing read.

I received an ARC of this book from the goodreads first reads program.

Daisy is at it again. Asked by an old school chum to come for a visit Daisy agrees even though the women were never really close. Sybil, a widow who works as a secetary for a writer, has gradually moved towards actually writing the books when the author gets ill. She worries that her boss, who should be stronger by now, isn't and wonders if foulplay is the cause. Of course, the lovely man dies and Alec gets called in to solve the case. A nice depature from the more serious nature of the last book.

Daisy goes to an isolated farm to visit an old schoolmate who has vague suspicions that her boss is being systematically poisoned. When the boss turns up dead, the local doctor mentions Daisy's connection to Scotland Yard.

This series keeps chugging along. I'm not sure if the books are getting tired, or I am.

An old school friend of Daisy's, who works as a private secretary/assistant to a novelist, invites her to stay as she's concerned that something isn't quite right and wants a second opinion. Sylvia lives in with the family on a remote farm in Derbyshire. Everyone is very welcoming and Daisy is convinced that Sylvia's suspicions are unfounded, but then Sylvia's employer dies and the local GP, also Sylvia's beau, won't sign the death certificate and gets the local police to call in Scotland Yard to investigate. A good instalment in the series, although Dunn could have use Tom and Ernie a little more.