A Mourning Wedding: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery

Rating:
Summary: charmimg & lightheated: an all around enjoyable read
Review: A wedding in the country, a country manor full of gossipy aristocratic relatives with scandalous secrets to hide, and murder -- it could only be the latest installment in the charming and light hearted Daisy Dalrymple mystery series. In "Mourning Wedding," Daisy's good friend, Lucy Fotheringay, is about to be married to her patient and loving longtime beau, Gerald. The wedding is to take place at Lucy's grandfather's palatial manor in the country, and Daisy has agreed to come down ahead of the guests in order to give her friend some much needed moral support. What she finds is Lucy in two minds about whether or not she actually wants to marry Gerald, and a house full of eccentric relatives -- some nice and some rather poisonous. And while Daisy is rather troubled about Lucy's frame of mind, her worries about her friend soon fly out the window when Lucy's grandaunt Eva, a collector of family gossip, is found strangled in bed. Soon, Daisy is trying to figure which one of Lucy's relatives is guilty of murder even as she battles morning sickness. Was grandaunt Eva murdered because of her penchant for collecting scandal? Or is there some mad murderer bent on decimating the Fotheringay family? Fortunately for Daisy, her husband, Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard has been assigned to the case, and together they're bound to discover who the murderer is before (s)he can strike again...

If you're in the mood for a nice, well written, lighthearted murder mystery set in the roaring twenties, "A Mourning Wedding" will definitely please. While not a very "deep" mystery novel that is full of cunning twists and turns, "A Mourning Wedding" was such a pleasant and enjoyable read, and Daisy (the detecting heroine) was such a nice and engaging character, that one soon finds oneself deeply immersed in the goings-on in the book. Charming, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable, "A Mourning Wedding" proved to be an all around pleasing read.

Rating:
Summary: complex entertaining mystery
Review: The Honorable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is at the manor house of the Earl of Haverhill to provide support to her best friend Lucy, who is marrying Lord Gerald Bincombe in a few days. Daisy's husband Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher is to meet her just before the wedding, but when someone murders Lady Eve, Haverhill uses his clout to have Alec assigned to investigate instead of the local constabulary.

Daisy informs her spouse that the victim collected gossip on aristocrats over the years, which means that just about everyone attending the wedding had a motive. Before Alex gets very far, Lord Farthingay, the heir dies most likely by poison. The next day Lucy's fiancée is found bleeding from a blow to the head and the doctor is not sure whether he will recover from the trauma. Alec and Daisy are under pressure to solve the case before the killer strikes again.

A MOURNING WEDDING is a complex entertaining mystery that followers of the series will enjoy as Daisy is the pregnant amateur sleuth mingling with the aristocracy in a way her spouse cannot in order to aid the official investigation. The married couple is a fine sleuthing team working together to solve the case while adding ardor to their unique relationship that fans of Carola Dunn will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner