Gunpowder Plot

July 17, 2006
At the start of Dunn's diverting 15th Daisy Dalrymple mystery (after 2005's Fall of a Philanderer
), a pregnant Daisy joins her former school chum Gwen Tyndall at Edge Manor in Didmarsh-under-Edge for the Tyndalls' 1924 Guy Fawkes fete, an annual celebration the illustrious family has observed since 1606. As fireworks explode above the manor, Daisy realizes all is not well among the fractious family members, who include Gwen's sisters, Adelaide and Barbara; her prodigal brother, Jack; her fragile mother; and irascible father, Sir Harold. When Jack discovers the bodies of his father and an Australian visitor, Mrs. Gooch, it appears Sir Harold shot Mrs. Gooch and then himself. Daisy's husband, DCI Alec Fletcher, arrives to investigate the case, while Daisy exhibits her usual common sense and charm in solving it.