Rattle His Bones

Daisy just can't get on with her life without a body getting in the way. There she was doing a piece about he Natural History Museum, when one of the Curators is found dead, murdered. She gets involved in the case along with Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, who realises that no matter what he says she will get involved.

The relationship between Daisy and Tring continues to amuse, his acknowledgement that she is useful for gleaning information is an interesting development. It's the team that shine here not the peripheral characters. Interesting to see what happens when they're without their support.

It felt like a bridging novel, where the author wanted to get Daisy and Alec to agree to a quick wedding but wasn't sure how to get the show more characters there; and I several of the other characters didn't come to life like in previous books. Not bad, could do better. show less

Eighth in the Daisy Dalrymple series about a young aristocrat who writes for a living and has a bad habit of stumbling into murder mysteries. In this one Daisy is researching an article at the Natural History Museum when one of the curators is murdered. The reader knows from the start of the novel that someone has managed to switch the Museum's collection of gemstones for high quality paste replicas, but this theft is still unnoticed at the time of the murder. Are the two connected, and how long will it take the characters to discover that there is not one crime, but two, to be investigated?

This is an entertaining 1920s cozy with a gallery of flawed but likeable characters, and a nice study of academic in-fighting and neuroses. And show more while the murder victim is clearly marked from the beginning as giving a great many people reason to dislike him, Dunn doesn't make the mistake of making him a cardboard target for the killer. Daisy can see only too well why he ends up dead in a pile of dinosaur bones, but she's also seen another side to him, and wants his killer caught.

As with previous books in the series which I've read, this has a murder mystery intertwined with the ongoing story of Daisy's relationship with Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher. The book can stand alone, but I'm finding it very enjoyable to watch the progress of the long term story arc from book to book. show less

Daisy Dalrymple has eschewed the languorous life she was born to in favor of journalism. While writing an article on the Natural History Museum she witnesses a murder, embroiling her in yet another police investigation. As ever, her fiance, the Detective Inspector Alec Fletcher, does much of the leg work while Daisy delicately extracts information from everyone around her. Together, they manage to uncover the murderer. The mystery is not the exciting, to be honest, but I love the slice of life into post-WWI Britain, with all its class tensions, pea-soup fog, and strangely named foods.

The Honourable Daisy Darymple may be a member of the aristocracy, but she isn’t one of the usual types. She works for a living writing; her current project is a series of articles on London’ museums, for an American magazine.

Daisy has been spending quite a bit of time at London’s Natural History Museum, interviewing the various curators. Along with the information on the different departments and exhibits, she is also learning of the jealousies and rivalry between the curators. This all comes to a head when she hears a thunderous crash in the Dinosaur Hall and goes in to find the skeleton of the Pareiasaurus in ruins and the dead body of Dr. Pettigrew, Curator of Mineralogy, in the midst of it. Pettigrew wasn’t popular among the show more staff, but murder?

Daisy has been involved in solving a few murders, so she is no stranger to sleuthing, and she is engaged to Detective Chief Inspector Alex Fletcher. Daisy just can’t keep out of it. She gets a double dose when it is discovered glass faux gems have been substituted for the real rubies, topazes, emerald and other valuable gems in the Mineralogy Exhibit Hall. Who did it and where are the stones?

This series is set in 1923 England and is a fun, cozy read. show less

Some people say it’s the worst in the series, while others consider it one of the best. Personally, I liked this book. I think it’s a fair representative of the series.
The plot centers around a murder in the London Natural History Museum, although Daisy, for once, is on the periphery of the investigation. Consequently, her character might not be as fleshed out in this novel as it is in some other novels of the series, so this is probably not the best book to start the series. But the author introduces many other fascinating characters, like the various curators of the museum, each with his own quirks, and the dispossessed Grand Duke of Transcarpathia, who dreams of restoring his rule in his non-existing little duchy.
Add to them the show more characters we know and love from the previous books – Daisy’s fiancé Alec, a Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, and his cohorts, Tom Tring and Ernie Piper – plus a whole lot of dinosaurs and a famous gem – the Ruby of Transcarpathia – and you have a delectable brew of a book. show less

Number 8 in the series. Aristocratic journalist Daisy Dalrymple is writing an series of features on the Natural History Museum when during one of her research trips a curator has the misfortune to be murdered almost in front of her. Daisy places both her knowledge of the Museum and its staff as well as her deductive powers at the disposal of her fiancé DCI Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard in order to catch the killer.

I loved the period setting, the museum setting and the whodunnit. A beautifully written mystery. 4½ out of 5.

I like the opening to this book as it details the theft of several precious gem stones from the Natural History Museum from the perspective of the thief, who is a member of staff. As the gem stones are replaced with fakes the crime goes undiscovered. Naturally Daisy is on the scene, interviewing the staff for a series of articles on the Museum she's writing. Inevitably there's a murder and the theft is discovered. Alec is called into investigate and find out if the two crimes are connected, and try to keep Daisy under control. This is a good instalment in the series as the museum is peppered with hilariously eccentric characters, from the Grand Duke determined to recover his ruby, now housed in the Museum collection, through the various show more curators who seem to spend most of their time indulging in academic in-fighting, and it seems that by the next instalment Alec and Daisy's relationship may have changed forever. show less