Carola Dunn's Death at Wentwater Court

I can now officially declare 2014 to be over! My last book of the year is finished as of 5:10am ET!!!

The Honourable Miss Daisy Dalrymple is the daughter of a viscount in 1923 England. (A viscount is one step above a baron and one step below an earl, in case you didn't know.) Her father died from influenza. Her fiance and brother both died in the war. Her cousin inherited the title and estate and now lives there with Daisy's mother. And without Daisy herself. Daisy lives with her friend, Lucy, and has just landed a gig as a freelance writer for Town & Country magazine. Her assignment is to profile the great estates that, given her nobility, she's likely to be able to gain access to more easily than a simple commoner.

Her first assignment is at Wentwater Court. It's home to the Earl of Wentwater and his young second wife, and also in attendance are his three grown children, his sister, her husband, his son's fiancee, her brother (who has been unsuccessfully pursuing Daisy for years), and the sketchy slimey object of the Earl's daughter's affections who more or less invited himself. (Got all that?)

Surprise, surprise! The slimeball ends up dead and almost everybody has opportunity and motive at first glance.

Enter the oh-so-dashing Scotland Yard Chief Detective Inspector Alec Fletcher and his crew who happened to be in the area investigating another crime when strings were pulled and favors were called in to have it all handled discretely without the local yokels involved. (Of course, "local yokels" wasn't the term used but I think you get the idea.)

I was a little concerned at first that this would be "too similar too soon" since it's set only ten years prior to Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness which I had just finished. Daisy and Lady Georgie are on two opposite ends of the spectrum, though. Where Lady Georgie struggles to do more than boil an egg and open a can of beans, Daisy is accomplished and confident ... and has better taste in men.

All in all it was a delightful fast read (and now I'm able to start The Reading Thing 2015 right on schedule). In the end both crimes are solved with Daisy's help interference involvement and I'm left looking forward to the next book in the series. In fact, the next book is already scheduled to be read .... hmmmm .... 26 books from now?!?!?

Up next:
My "A" for the Authors A to Z Reading Challenge:


GoodReads Blurb:

Yes, it's supposedly geared for ages 10+.
Of course, so are Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.
It's also 400 pages long so it may take me a few days.