Black Ship

July 7, 2008
At the start of Dunn's diverting 17th Daisy Dalrymple 1920s mystery (after 2007's The Bloody Tower
), Daisy and her Scotland Yard detective husband, Alec Fletcher, have inherited a large house from Alec's great-uncle near London's Hampstead Heath. While the couple are delighted with the extra space for their growing family, they have doubts about their new neighbors. Then the maid discovers a dead body in the garden one morning, and Daisy and Alec become entangled in a case involving bootleggers, American gangsters and black ships (e.g., rum-running vessels). Meanwhile, the nanny can't get used to the idea that Daisy as a modern mother actually wants to play with her babies. Dunn provides an intriguing view of the Prohibition era from the English perspective, besides casting a witty light on the social changes of the day.

September 1, 2008
This is the seventeenth entry in Dunns charming series featuring the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple and her detective husband, Alec Fletcher. Its 1925, less than four years after Daisys first adventure (Death at Wentwater Court, 1994) took place, so its no surprise why she is infamous at Scotland Yard as the detectives wife who keeps falling over bodies. Technically, Daisy doesnt stumble over this body, but her dog and parlor maid do in a small communal garden near their new home. As they get to know their new neighbors, they find that they really like the Jessups (who are in the business of selling spirits) and really dislike the Bennetts (who are in the business of gossip). The hapless Mr. Lambert from their American adventure (The Murdered Muckraker, 2002), now employed by the U.S. Treasury Department, returns in this novel, on the track of contraband booze, even though bootlegging is not illegal in England. (Black Ship refers to a rum-running vessel.) As usual, Daisy helps solve the case because people do like to tell me things, you know.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)