I have been fascinated about the crime fiction novel series called ‘Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries’ written by Carola Dunn and have written all about them on my social media many times. As I have been away from my blog for a long time, you guys haven’t heard about it at all. This is the first mention of Daisy Dalrymple Mystery on Adi’s Journal and I am sorry it’s coming as late as book #22 from the series. So, before telling you about this book in particular, I have to tell you all about Daisy.

Daisy Dalrymple is a remarkable woman living in the 1920s in London. She’s a daughter of the late Viscount Dalrymple of Fair Acres. After losing his elder brother to World War and father with its shock, she moved to London with her mind made up on earning her own living as a Writer living in London. She stumbles across a dead body as she embarks on her first writing assignment for a magazine article. During the course of investigation she joins forces with Scotland Yard and so begins the journey of Daisy Dalrymple and DCI Alec Fletcher.

What to expect from this?

I have been enjoying the audiobook version of this series over the past year and just finished listening to the ‘Superfluous Women’. Carola Dunn has done a great job throughout the series to keep you interested in the story but not with the usual trick of the trade by putting a graphic crime scene right at the beginning. As this is a part of a series where the protagonist is not your usual police officer or a professional investigator, the story has a lot more than just crime fiction juices.

As all the stories set in England of the 1920s, it has a lot of references and backdrops of post war social situations. ‘Superfluous Women’ in particular comments on a peculiar situation of women in the post war era. After the first World War, Britain had over 2 million women more than that of men. They were called surplus women or superfluous women. It is difficult to understand the situation of these women in today’s day and age after a century. However, during that time, living your life alone had a completely different set of challenges. Carola Dunn has done a great job weaving a story around this issue.

When Daisy and her husband DCI Alec Fletcher visited her friend for dinner on a Sunday evening, a locked cellar door was mentioned for which a key was missing. When Alec picks up the lock with a hope of some wine bottles left behind by the previous owner, they were hit by a stench of a dead body instead. With a Sunday dinner plan foiled, friends become suspects and DCI is a witness in local Inspector Underwood’s murder investigation. As expected, Daisy with her insatiable curiosity starts poking around to clear her friends’ name as Alec joins forces with local chap becoming ‘Officially Unofficial’ expert from Scotland Yard.

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