Death at Wentwater Court

Daisy Dalrymple finds herself in an awkward place at Wentwater Court. There to write an article for Town & Country magazine in her new job adventure, she finds the family at odds, and a corpse in the ice. What's a girl to do?
I was delighted with this story. It made me laugh, and to my surprise, it made me cry, too. Not many cozy mysteries have the power to do that, but Carola Dunn has a way with her characters. She endears them to us, warts and all.

Now, I am fond of this era of book, the interwar period is a sweet spot for my reading pleasure. This one falls well into the era and echoes many of the writers of the period. She does point out gently that the habit of letting upperclass killers away with it is abuse of privelidge, and I found it an interesting counterpoint to Agatha Christie et al.

Daisy Dalrymple is trying to break into journalism, visiting Wentwater Court to do an article for Town & Country magazine using the fact that she knows some of the people to get admittance. The next morning a body is found and she's pulled into the investigation. And pulled into finding the investigating officer interesting.

I liked it, I want to read the next book soon.

Digital audiobook performed by Bernadette Dunn

Daisy Dalrymple is the daughter of a Viscount, but she has made the rather shocking decision to make her own way as a writer. She lands an assignment for a series of magazine articles on country manor houses, and finds herself at Wentwater Court in January 1923 to begin research on her first piece. Lord Wentwater’s young wife has recently been the focus of some unwanted amorous attention, and several guests express obvious jealousy and animosity. So the atmosphere is tense and somewhat uncomfortable … and then one of the house guests drowns in an ice skating accident. Or was it murder?

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery debut. Daisy is a delightful central character and amateur sleuth. show more She smart, resourceful, observant, and compassionate. The plot is sufficiently complicated to keep the reader guessing; I identified the culprit only a few pages ahead of Daisy. I also like the developing new relationships between Daisy and Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher. I’m a little unhappy with how the book ends –but it’s true to the time, place and social class.

Bernadette Dunn does a fine job voicing the audio book. She reads at a good pace, and I was never confused about which character was speaking. show less

I was very taken with the lively mystery Death At Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn that is the first in the series of mysteries that feature the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple. Set in the 1920s, Daisy is the daughter of a viscount but prefers to earn her own living. On assignment for Town and Country Magazine, she arrives at Wentwater Court to write about the Earl and his family.

When a death occurs and the police are called, Daisy meets the handsome Scotland Yard Inspector Alec Fraser. Since everyone at the estate is under suspicion, Daisy acts as the liaison between the working class police and the landed gentry. Sympathetic, intelligent and inquisitive, Daisy figures out who the murderer is and is also able to suggest a solution that is show more most pleasing to everyone concerned.

Since Daisy seems to show a knack for crime solving I expect that she and the Inspector will be spending a lot of time with each other in subsequent books. Death at Wentwater Court is the first in this series of over twenty mysteries and I expect that I will be delving into a few more of these cozy mysteries as I enjoyed this one very much. show less

Reading this book was pure, unmitigated pleasure. Although it is the first novel of the series, it’s not the first Daisy Dalrymple mystery I’ve read. I have already read several others in no particular order and I have to admit: I enjoyed them all. I love the lead characters, I love the setting – England in the 1920s – and I absolutely adore [a:Carola Dunn|125558|Carola Dunn|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1240244764p2/125558.jpg]’s easy and expressive writing style. Especially her sweet British vocabulary, which makes the experience of reading her novels so delightful.
In almost every novel of the series, I discovered at least one word I didn’t know, a British slang or an oldie, which sent me to a dictionary. In this show more particular novel, I found two such little pearls: tippet and tommyrot. I’ll definitely use tommyrot somewhere in my own writing; the word sounds and feels funny.
This novel is a fair representative of one of my favorite genres: a cozy English mystery. The writer does a good job of introducing the protagonists of the series: the budding journalist Daisy Dalrymple and the Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard Alec Fletcher. At the outset, Daisy arrives at a country estate of an earl to write an article about his beautiful centuries-old mansion. The lives of the inhabitants of the mansion might look untroubled on the surface, but the currents of tension run underneath their illusionary complacency.
A couple days later, one of the guests at the mansion gets murdered. Reluctantly, the earl calls the police to investigate, and Alec Fletcher arrives on the scene. Together, Alec and Daisy find the murderer, and the beginning of their tentative romance made me feel happy for them both. Although she is an Honorable, a daughter of a peer, and he is a middle-class copper, the social chasm between them doesn’t seem as deep as it would’ve been before the WWI. The author’s depiction of the years between the wars, the years of profound change in England, might not be very deep, but it is lighthearted, tasteful, and true.
Dunn pays much more attention to details and the psychology of the murder than to physical action, so the plot moves slowly, but every minute counts. We also get to meet a score of wacky secondary characters (some reviewers say too many too soon), and each of them adds flavor to the story and complications to the investigation. As in every enclosed mystery, the number of suspects is limited, the motivations tangled, and the timeline deceiving. And although I could guess the identity of the murderer a bit before Daisy and Alec, it didn’t detract from the attraction of the story.
My favorite quote: “The Hampshire countryside surrounding the station was hidden by a blanket of snow, sparkling in the sun. Frost glittered on skeletal trees and hedges. The only signs of life were the train, now gathering speed, the uniformed man carrying her stuff across the line behind it, and a crow huddled on the station picket fence.” Simple and elegant.
Definitely recommended. show less

Carola Dunn starts the Daisy Dalrymple series with Death at Wentwater Court. Dunn drops the reader into the Hampshire countryside in the early 1920s. The reader is transported to the cold, snowy English countryside. Daisy Dalrymple is a likeable character both for her strength and her spirit. Her intelligence and insight also draws the reader to her side in most situations. When her plans to write an article for a magazine are interrupted by the suspicious death of a fellow houseguest, Daisy is drawn into the investigation and drawn to the Scotland Yard Inspector on the case. Class distinctions will have the reader biting his/her tongue to keep from shouting at the pages. During the course of the investigations, secrets are revealed show more that change the lives of the Wentwater family and their houseguests. Dunn immerses the reader in the stories of each of the guests so that the reader wants no one to actually be guilty at some points and to wish for guilt of most of the guests at other points. The characters engage, amuse, intrigue, and frustrate the reader in a way that keeps the mystery a mystery and explores human nature along the way. Dunn's first book in this English cozy series leaves the reader curious about what will happen with Daisy next. show less

This lighthearted Downton Abbey era 1920’s mystery totally charmed me. Daisy Dalrymple comes from a titled family, but after her brother was killed in the Great War and her father died in the flu epidemic their estate passed to a distant relative (shades of Jane Austen!) leaving the remaining female family members somewhat impoverished. Daisy is quite cheerful about working for a living though, and being a society girl doors open for her, so she’s off to Wentwater Court to to write a story for Town & Country magazine. Then nasty Lord Stephen Astwick dies in what looks like an early morning ice skating accident bringing police on the scene. Naturally Daisy is ready to help officials and the family in any way she can, placing her in show more the heart of the investigation. The handsome detective in charge isn’t, of course, in her class, but Daisy is an open minded young woman so who knows what may develop in the course of this series? This is the first of so far 21 books and another is coming out in June 2015 so I envision many happy hours of reading. show less