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feather_ghyllThe Case of the Murdered Muckraker: Carola Dunn, (A Daisy Dalrymple mystery) Robinson 2011
Unexpectedly, it took me ages to read this. Being busy was partially responsible, but I had had plenty of free time when I started to read it, yet I kept putting it down. The humour was too laboured and I particularly found Sergeant Gilligan’s patter grating.
I wondered after reading To Davy Jones Below whether the next book in the series would be set in the US, and this is. Daisy is in New York, staying at a literary stomping ground of a hotel, while Alec is working in Washington. She is also working: writing her articles and meeting an editor. But naturally she gets to know some of the other people staying at the hotel and its staff. This is New York in the Prohibition era, a corrupt, dangerous place, which Daisy gets an opportunity to learn rather too well, for, of course, she’s around when someone dies in very suspicious circumstances. Indeed, she may be the only witness.
Helped and hindered by federal officers, New York police and prosecutors, as well as a former crime reporter driven by the same curiosity as Daisy shares, Daisy starts investigating. The dead man was, as the title suggests, a reporter, who had plenty of enemies. She is soon worrying if she’s put herself in danger.
The actual whodunit bit and why is not as overly complicated as in ‘To Davy Jones Below’. It also feels like Dunn’s main purpose in writing this book was to get her heroine to visit her adopted country – Daisy gets to see more than New York. There is a lot about the USA and England being divided by a common language, which I found wearing rather than diverting, plus there’s a bit too much research on display. And Gilligan’s stupidity did get on my nerves. I think I prefer Daisy and Alec on home turf.
Unexpectedly, it took me ages to read this. Being busy was partially responsible, but I had had plenty of free time when I started to read it, yet I kept putting it down. The humour was too laboured and I particularly found Sergeant Gilligan’s patter grating.
I wondered after reading To Davy Jones Below whether the next book in the series would be set in the US, and this is. Daisy is in New York, staying at a literary stomping ground of a hotel, while Alec is working in Washington. She is also working: writing her articles and meeting an editor. But naturally she gets to know some of the other people staying at the hotel and its staff. This is New York in the Prohibition era, a corrupt, dangerous place, which Daisy gets an opportunity to learn rather too well, for, of course, she’s around when someone dies in very suspicious circumstances. Indeed, she may be the only witness.
Helped and hindered by federal officers, New York police and prosecutors, as well as a former crime reporter driven by the same curiosity as Daisy shares, Daisy starts investigating. The dead man was, as the title suggests, a reporter, who had plenty of enemies. She is soon worrying if she’s put herself in danger.
The actual whodunit bit and why is not as overly complicated as in ‘To Davy Jones Below’. It also feels like Dunn’s main purpose in writing this book was to get her heroine to visit her adopted country – Daisy gets to see more than New York. There is a lot about the USA and England being divided by a common language, which I found wearing rather than diverting, plus there’s a bit too much research on display. And Gilligan’s stupidity did get on my nerves. I think I prefer Daisy and Alec on home turf.
