It’s 1923 and the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple has decided to, gasp!, get a job. Working as a fledgling reporter, she is given an assignment to interview the inhabitants of Wentworth Court for Town and Country magazine. When Daisy arrives at the estate, she finds a house party in progress as well as some old acquaintances. Everyone’s enjoyment, however, is halted when one of the guests, Lord Astwick, falls through the ice in the local ice skating pond and drowns. Daisy suspects his death was not an accident and joins forces with the Scotland Yard detective sent to investigate in order to figure out what happened.
This was my bookclub’s latest read and I have to say that although I could never figure out how to pronounce Daisy’s last name, I liked this cozy mystery. This is the first installment in the Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries series.
The writing took a bit to get used to. The author uses plenty of vernacular from the 1920s like “pip pip”, “right-oh”, and “old chap”. While the phrases went a long way to set the time period and made the book sound authentic, sometimes I had to laugh because they were almost too much. At times it sounded like I was reading a parody.
The mystery was well done and definitely kept me guessing until the end. With a whole house full of suspects, the killer could have been anyone. I found myself liking all the characters and I didn’t want to read how one of them was a murderer.
Daisy is a charming heroine who can interact with both the upstairs and downstairs. She has a natural ability to put people at ease which has just about every character in the novel confiding in her at some point. It also allows her to assist Chief Detective Inspector Alec Fletcher in his investigation into the murder. The relationship that develops between the two is very sweet and I am intrigued to see where it goes in later books.
This was a quick and easy book to read if you are looking for a cozy house mystery.
To check out other reviews, find this book on goodreads or amazon. Please note, all links are affiliate which gives a small portion of profit to Rainy Days and Clichés. Thank you so much for your continuous kindness!



“Books are a unique portable magic.” – Stephen King! I believe that people are the same. Thank you for being a portable magic, Shanna!