|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Daisy Dalrymple thought attending her best friend's wedding would give her great material for a magazine article. After all, people are always interested when the family is rich and the home is a huge Victorian mansion. In A MOURNING WEDDING, the 13th in the series, we find Daisy now married to Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher. She is also pregnant. Though you would think she would be the fragile one at this time, she is called upon to be the main support for the bride and a major helper in the investigation as family members start dying shortly before the wedding. I loved this book. Carola Dunn has captured the period following the Great War delicately and tastefully showing the changes in people, their habits and hopes. So many families of the upper class lost their sons and heirs. Many young women lost their fiances, and the young ladies about to be launched in society found there were fewer men still alive to woo them. Dunn also captures the light-heartedness of the young, making this a fun book rather than a heavy, ponderous and sad one. In A MOURNING WEDDING we see wonderful examples of the British 'stiff upper lip' from both the titled families and their servants as they are confronted and confused by murders happening when the only killer must be 'family.' The characters are beautifully drawn and virtually leap off the page. The dialogue is rich and faithful to each character's station. Dunn is thoughtful enough to provide a genealogical chart at the beginning of the story. I used it often, finding it quite helpful. I couldn't figure out who committed the murders until it was revealed at the end. Although during the first part of the story I doubted that I'd be able to keep the many people straight in my mind, I shouldn't have worried, for Dunn did an excellent job in differentiating between the characters. As I read A MOURNING WEDDING, at times I felt I was reading something by Margery Allingham or PG Wodehouse. I'm looking forward to reading the entire series now. She is a real master.
Reviewed by Ginger K. W. Stratton, December 2005
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
