Death at Wentwater Court

Rating:
Summary: A breath of fresh air for mystery fans!
Review: As an avid mystery fan, I'm amazed I haven't heard of this series before; I stumbled across this book by lucky accident but will be recommending it to everyone I know.

The setting is 1923 England, a tumultuous time--the nation is recovering from the Great War and changing social mores threaten the status quo. The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple (daughter of a Viscount) has decided to pursue a career as a writer and journalist rather than be financially supported by her family (shocking!). Her upper-class connections allow her access to Wentwater Court to write a story on this country manor house for Town & Country magazine. But Daisy soon finds herself investigating the death of a fellow guest whose skating accident might not have been an accident at all...

This book is a breath of fresh air in a genre whose conventions too often lead to predictability. Daisy is a truly likeable heroine. She is modern, but modern for HER time, not modern for our time. Her involvement with the mystery at Wentwater Court is the product of her attraction to the Chief Inspector on the case and her desire to help the Wentwater family, rather than the result of the all-too-typical "unbridled curiosity" that aflicts most amateur sleuths.

The mystery itself is not a show-stopper, but neither are there any holes in the resolution. The real star of the series is the time and place. Although it's probably a bit overdone, it's wonderful fun to read about all these people calling each other "old bean" and "chum" and exclaiming, "How perfectly ghastly for the old prune!"

I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Rating:
Summary: A Murder of Manners
Review: Daisy Dalrymple is striking out on her own. Using her wealthy background, she gets a job for a magazine photographing and writing about the famous Wentwater Manor. Not too long after she arrives, one of her fellow guests is found dead in a hole in the ice. At first, it's thought to be an accident, but soon Daisy is convinced it's murder. Aiding the handsome Scotland Yard detective assigned to the case, she does her best to find the truth while keeping the family out of scandal.

This is a fun mystery set in 1923 England. I was drawn into Daisy's world and was quite curious about what was really going on. Having said that, the plotting did seem a bit uneven. Still, it moved along nicely and reached a conclusion that was surprising and satisfying at the same time. The characters are almost all English aristocracy, and it was interesting getting a glimpse into their world at a less then ideal time. The dialog was so good that I could hear the accents most of the time.

I'm looking forward to reading the other books in this fun, historical series.

Rating:
Summary: A Murder of Manners
Review: Daisy Dalrymple is striking out on her own. Using her wealthy background, she gets a job for a magazine photographing and writing about the famous Wentwater Manor. Not too long after she arrives, one of her fellow guests is found dead in a hole in the ice. At first, it's thought to be an accident, but soon Daisy is convinced it's murder. Aiding the handsome Scotland Yard detective assigned to the case, she does her best to find the truth while keeping the family out of scandal.

This is a fun mystery set in 1923 England. I was drawn into Daisy's world and was quite curious about what was really going on. Having said that, the plotting did seem a bit uneven. Still, it moved along nicely and reached a conclusion that was surprising and satisfying at the same time. The characters are almost all English aristocracy, and it was interesting getting a glimpse into their world at a less then ideal time. The dialog was so good that I could hear the accents most of the time.

I'm looking forward to reading the other books in this fun, historical series.

Rating:
Summary: A very British cozy
Review: I am an ardent reader of British mysteries. I was first drawn to this genre by reading a series of cozies. Over the years my tastes have changed, though, and I now much prefer a British psychological thriller or police procedural. However, I still read a cozy now and then for a change of pace.

"Death at Wentwater Court" is the first book in a series featuring The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple and Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard. Take a weekend gathering at a country estate in the 1920's, one of the guests who is the unfortunate victim, suspects galore, a promising romantic story line, more red herrings than clues and you have the makings of the ultimate cozy.

Most of the sleuthing is done by Daisy, a member of the British aristocracy who, being rather down on her luck, is supporting herself by working as a journalist. Alec seems to be along for the ride providing her with bits of information that set her off in her pursuit to solve the murder. Oh, he also serves a very important role as a possible suitor for Daisy.

I am giving this book three stars because I found it to be a bit too one-dimensional for my tastes. However, if you like an old fashioned very British mystery, this just might be your cuppa.

Rating:
Summary: A very British cozy
Review: I am an ardent reader of British mysteries. I was first drawn to this genre by reading a series of cozies. Over the years my tastes have changed, though, and I now much prefer a British psychological thriller or police procedural. However, I still read a cozy now and then for a change of pace.

"Death at Wentwater Court" is the first book in a series featuring The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple and Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard. Take a weekend gathering at a country estate in the 1920's, one of the guests who is the unfortunate victim, suspects galore, a promising romantic story line, more red herrings than clues and you have the makings of the ultimate cozy.

Most of the sleuthing is done by Daisy, a member of the British aristocracy who, being rather down on her luck, is supporting herself by working as a journalist. Alec seems to be along for the ride providing her with bits of information that set her off in her pursuit to solve the murder. Oh, he also serves a very important role as a possible suitor for Daisy.

I am giving this book three stars because I found it to be a bit too one-dimensional for my tastes. However, if you like an old fashioned very British mystery, this just might be your cuppa.

Rating:
Summary: Very light mystery, almost a regency, but set in the 20's
Review: I really enjoyed this Daisy mystery. The characters were very much like those in a regency romance, but with a murder mystery thrown in for fun. I look forward to reading more of this series.

Rating:
Summary: Very light mystery, almost a regency, but set in the 20's
Review: I really enjoyed this Daisy mystery. The characters were very much like those in a regency romance, but with a murder mystery thrown in for fun. I look forward to reading more of this series.

Rating:
Summary: Uninteresting "Death"
Review: Imagine an Agatha Christie mystery with the goofy upper-class air of P.G. Wodehouse -- and you will get what Carola Dunn clearly wanted for her debut mystery. Unfortunately, "Death At Wentwater Court" is too predictable and too easily unravelled, and the mysteries are solved with whimpers instead of bangs.

Daisy Dalrymple -- in defiance of her class -- has taken on a job as a journalist. She arrives at Wentwater Court to do an extensive article on the Dalrymple house, but soon finds that there are potentially deadly secrets lurking there. Lady Wenwater has either a lover or a blackmailer, and her much-older husband is unaware of this. His daughter is infatuated with the blackmailer, and his sons either worship or hate his new wife.

Then the blackmailing guest is found dead in an icy river, and almost everyone present had a motive for wanting him dead (not to mention his army of ex-lovers and their husbands). Daisy teams up with police detective Alec Fletcher to unearth who did the blackmailer in, and why. But soon Daisy learns that the crime is more complicated than she thought...

"Death" is an extremely simple book -- it more or less goes from point A to point B without a lot of twists and turns. It has a fun, cozy atmosphere with a classic setting reminiscent of Christie and Sayers, but without the sizzly plot and dynamic twists that they were well known for. It's almost painfully easy.

Dunn seems to chicken out about halfway through the book, as if she's afraid to make things too complex. Half the red herrings -- such as Lady Annabel's scandalous past, or her stepdaughter's darker side -- are built up as plot developments, only to be brushed aside with a "oh, is that it?" response. And what's the point of a murder mystery if the killer starts sobbing for no reason in front of the detective? However, she does handle the character relationships well, as well as the pleasantly earthy atmosphere of a country manor.

Daisy herself isn't a terribly good character -- while she's refreshingly flawed and likable, she doesn't actually do much detecting. The other characters -- the stoic aristocrat, his neurotic kids, the tough cop -- are more or less stereotypes, pleasant but not memorable. Damsel-esque Lady Annabel in particular lacks a personality, and her blackmailer is all evil, all the time.

Carola Dunn has a good sense of atmosphere and subtle interaction, but she strikes out in her first attempt at mystery writing. Here's hoping the rest of the Daisy Dalrymple series is far and above the pallid "Death in Wentwater Court,"

Rating:
Summary: Relatively rare setting for a bland mystery
Review: So you've read the entire Christie and Sayer's catalogue? And you're still hungry for mysteries set in the 1920's. This book is probably worth an evening. It's not a mesmerizing as the greats but is still a solid cozy with a likeable,'liberated' (for that era) heroine. The pacing is pretty slow.

Also, after reading Airth's "River of Darkness" which is also set in post-WWI England, this story seems a little shallow. It's one thing for a book written in those times not to include modern concepts. It seems somewhat strange to see a 1990's book without a touch of psychology.

Rating:
Summary: Relatively rare setting for a bland mystery
Review: So you've read the entire Christie and Sayer's catalogue? And you're still hungry for mysteries set in the 1920's. This book is probably worth an evening. It's not a mesmerizing as the greats but is still a solid cozy with a likeable,'liberated' (for that era) heroine. The pacing is pretty slow.

Also, after reading Airth's "River of Darkness" which is also set in post-WWI England, this story seems a little shallow. It's one thing for a book written in those times not to include modern concepts. It seems somewhat strange to see a 1990's book without a touch of psychology.