The Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries - Book 22
Superfluous Women
“Cozy lovers will enjoy Dunn’s traditional British mystery series set in the 1920s. Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is an appealing sleuth. With her gracious manner and keen observations, she gathers clues without being meddlesome. Even her detective husband can be awed by how she connects clues as though they’re puzzle pieces, until she comes up with a solution.”
RT Book Reviews (4 stars)
In England in the late 1920s, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, on a convalescent trip to the countryside, goes to visit three old school friends in the area. The three, all unmarried, have recently bought a house together. They are a part of the generation of “superfluous women”―brought up expecting marriage and a family, but left without any prospects after more than 700,000 British men were killed in the Great War.
Daisy and her husband Alec―Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, of Scotland Yard ―go for a Sunday lunch with Daisy’s friends, where one of the women mentions a wine cellar below their house, which remains curiously locked, no key to be found. Alec offers to pick the lock, but when he opens the door, what greets them is not a cache of wine but the stench of a long-dead body.
And with that, what was a pleasant Sunday lunch has taken an unexpected turn. Now Daisy’s three friends are the most obvious suspects in a murder and her husband Alec is a witness, so he can’t officially take over the investigation. So before the local detective, Inspector Underwood, can officially bring charges against her friends, Daisy is determined to use all her resources (Alec) and skills to solve the mystery behind this perplexing locked-room crime.
“Cozy lovers will enjoy Dunn’s traditional British mystery series set in the 1920s. Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is an appealing sleuth. With her gracious manner and keen observations, she gathers clues without being meddlesome. Even her detective husband can be awed by how she connects clues as though they’re puzzle pieces, until she comes up with a solution.”
RT Book Reviews (4 stars)
“The shadow of WWI hangs over Dunn’s affecting 22nd mystery set in 1920s England…With Willie, Isabel, and Vera as murder suspects, Daisy sets out on her own to unearth the truth. Dunn sensitively portrays a largely female society devastated by the war that cost the lives of more than 700,000 British men.”
Publishers Weekly
“The 22nd entry in the charming 1920s-set series proves that Dunn just keeps getting better.”
Library Journal
“Now here’s a proper British mystery. The title refers to the two million excess women left unmarried after WWI…A thoroughly cozy atmosphere combines with a solid mystery. More Daisy, please.”
Booklist
Lucy Rayner is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and award-winning British actress. She has starred in numerous short and feature-length films, including English20 and Total Retribution. For her performance in Bolero, she was named Best Supporting Actress at the 2013 Madrid International Film Festival. She has worked on both sides of the Atlantic in a number of theater productions and films, many of which have screened at festivals around the world. She has a master’s degree in history from the University of Edinburgh and is a graduate of the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City.