Murder on the Flying Scotsman

Thought I had read this one but it turns out that I definitely had not. So glad I bought the book. This mystery is very good but the story also furthers Daisy's and Alec's romance -- first kiss, relationship with daughter, etc. I am going to continue to read the older books in this series. I definitely remember the newer ones but the older ones are a wonderful surprise.

The novel is fast and intelligent, as I expected from one of my favorite series.
Daisy, a young journalist in the post-WWI England, gets on the Flying Scotsman, an express train to Edinburgh, and of course, there is a murder on the train, in a compartment next to hers. The situation is further complicated by:

a) The victim was a rich old man, and all his relatives are traveling on the same train, trying to make him change his will in their favor. Did any of them kill him?
b) Daisy’s special friend, Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard Alec Fletcher, has a ten-year-old daughter, Belinda. Having run away from her strict grandmother, Belinda stows away on the same train. Daisy has no choice but to take the girl under her wing. She show more doesn’t mind, she rather likes the girl, but of course, the grandmother, who already dislikes Daisy, would blame her for Belinda’s escapade.

The narration flows effortlessly from start to end, as the series protagonists, Alec and Daisy, investigate the murder. She is her usual charming self, kind and perceptive, and as usual, everybody confides in her, while his portrait is deeper than in most other books of the series, due to his daughter’s presence.
The novel is enriched by a set of colorful and diverse secondary characters, including the recurring personages of Alec’s colleagues, Tom Tring and Piper, as well as a host of suspects – the members of the victim’s extended family. There are so many of them that in the beginning I felt confused. But the writer helped me out by providing a graph of the family tree, the first such chart I have ever seen in a mystery novel.
Structurally, the tale is a typical ‘murder-on-a-train’ mystery, where almost every passenger in the car has had a motive and an opportunity for the crime. It’s up to Daisy and Alec to unravel the complicated pattern of people’s moves and incentives that had led to the murder.
This novel is not the best of the Daisy Dalrymple series, but it’s a solid mystery story nonetheless, and I read it with pleasure.
For the fans of the series – definitely a must.
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Locked room mystery set on a Train, the solution came across as a bit rushed.

I like Daisy and the interaction between her and Alex are great, it was also interesting to see her interaction with his daughter, Belinda. A family are going to Scotland for a final visit to a curmudgeonly patriarch. When the main beneficiary of this man's impending death turns up dead, the bickering family wonder who will inherit next, while wondering as well who killed the old man.

Interesting but more about the people than the death, and much more about Daisy and Belinda and their growing relationship than about the feuding McGowans, not the best of this series that I've read, but I enjoyed it.

Murder on the Flying Scotsman
3.5 Stars

While traveling from London to Edinburgh aboard the Flying Scotsman, the Honorable Miss Daisy Dalrymple becomes embroiled in another murder investigation when the elderly heir to a fortune is found dead on the train. Which one of his avaricious relatives is responsible?

Although Daisy and Alec are very likable characters and I am enjoying their slow-burn romance, they are no Hercule Poirot and this book is most definitely not Murder on the Orient Express.

The mystery starts out well with a host of obnoxious suspects that requires a chart to keep track (Daisy does, in fact, draw one up for Alec). Unfortunately, the constant back and forth questioning of each and every character slows the pacing, and show more the eventual revelation of the killer is obvious once a certain plot point is revealed.

The inclusion of children in a mystery and/or romance can be tricky, but Alec's daughter, Belinda, is sweet, and Dunn manages to weave her nicely into the plot.

On a final note, the audiobook narrator has changed from Bernadette Dunne to Mia Chariamonte, and suffice it to say, I am not a fan. Her British accent is awful and she mispronounces numerous words. show less

Originally published in 1996 and now back in print, this is the fourth in the long-running Daisy Dalrymple mystery series.

It is 1923, and journalist Daisy Dalrymple is on her way to Edinburgh on the Flying Scotsman express train to research an article. Young Belinda Fletcher, daughter of Daisy's Scotland Yard inspector friend, stows away to visit her father who is working on a case in Northumberland. (Belinda had consulted a map and seen that Northumberland and Scotland were right next to each other; being nine, she has no idea of the distances involved.) Daisy of course takes her under her wing. Also in First Class are an old schoolmate of Daisy's and the other members of Anne's extended family, on their way to try to persuade their show more old miser of an ancestor to leave them some money in his will. When Mr. McGowan's younger brother and current heir turns up dead in his compartment, his valet suspects murder. Soon all of the suspects--plus Daisy and Belinda--are housed in a hotel in Berwick awaiting the arrival of the very harassed Chief Detective Inspector Alec Fletcher.

Well-drawn characters, including a delightful nine-year-old, round out a satisfying mystery. Although part of a series, this stands alone perfectly well. Readers of cosy mysteries are in for a treat. show less

Daisy Dalrymple is travelling on the Flying Scotsman in 1923 when the daughter of her friend Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, shows herself to be a stowaway. On the train are the summoned relations of the dying Alistair McGowan, all fortuitously in the first class carriage with Daisy. The daughter, Belinda later discovers a body. It is left to D.C.I. Fletcher and his team with the help of Daisy to determine the guilty party from a cast of mainly unlikeable characters. Unfortunately all the suspects were introduced fairly quickly though not too clearly, and I felt the murderer was fairly obvious.
Still an enjoyable read, my first of this series, which can easily be read as a standalone novel.
A NetGalley Book

passenger-train, cosy-mystery, England, family-dynamics, friendship, greed, murder, murder-investigation, stow-away, law-enforcement, lawyers, situational-humor, verbal-humor*****

Daisy is off on the train to Scotland to do a magazine article on a stately home but runs into more than she bargained for. One of her old school chums and the whole irascible extended family is on board to try to get an old man to change his will. Then there's another friend's daughter who stowed away, a medical man of East Indian heritage, a murder, and a whole lot more.
Lots of suspects and convoluted interpersonal entanglements, laughable interchanges, and even some unexpected interference. Fun read for a time at home from weather or pandemic.
I was show more disappointed in the new narrator, but she is adequate. show less