A Deadly Measure of Brimstone

September 15, 2014
Set in 1929, McPherson’s solid eighth Dandy Gilver mystery (after 2013’s Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses) finds the British PI considering a stay at a medical facility for strength rebuilding purposes after she and other family members suffer a bout of flu. Coincidentally, prospective clients Herbert Addie and Mrs. James Bowie suspect that their mother, Enid, was murdered at just such a facility in the town of Moffat about a month earlier. Oddly, Enid died suddenly, despite being in overall good health, and the doctor who was treating her for an injured back didn’t sign her death certificate. Dandy uses the new case as an excuse to bring her entourage with her to Moffat, where the local sergeant tells her that Enid reported being frightened by a ghost shortly before she died. The plucky lead compensates for some heavy-handed foreshadowing and a windup that isn’t McPherson’s strongest. Lisa Moylett, Coombs Moylett Literary Agency.

A Scottish border spa hides deadly secrets. Dandy Gilver's entire family and most of her staff have already been laid low with various ailments when her partner in detective work, Alec Osborne, receives a letter asking for an investigation into the death of an elderly lady. Mrs. Addie died at Laidlaw's Hydropathic Establishment, ostensibly of a heart attack, even though her son and daughter say her heart was perfect. Dandy is delighted with the idea of taking her family to the Hydro for treatments to get them back in shape. Truth to tell, she'd like to get them out of the house for another reason. Her husband, Hugh, has just sold a block of shares in order to buy into the red-hot New York stock market of 1929. But Dandy plans to use the money instead to install central heating and improve the plumbing in their big, drafty home. Upon their arrival, Dandy discovers that the brother-sister pair who own the Hydro have schemes of their own. Thomas Laidlaw is a smooth customer who's running a nightly gambling casino at the spa to make ends meet. His sister, Dr. Dorothea Laidlaw, is so entirely devoted to her research that she had a local doctor sign Mrs. Addie's death certificate. Gingerly sampling the Hydro's Turkish baths, steam rooms, cold pool and massages, Dandy hunts for clues to Mrs. Addie's death and searches for her missing pocketbook and clothing. Alec, who's shopping for a wife, rather likes Dorothea and refuses to suspect her. But he does get the Addie children to approve an exhumation that shows they do indeed have a murder to solve. Dandy's fourth (Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses, 2013, etc.) gives the delightful heroine an unusual mystery to solve as she ponders the workings of a period health spa. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2014

In 1920s Perthshire, Scotland, Mrs. Dandelion (Dandy) Gilver runs a country home. Wife to Hugh, mother to Teddy and Donald, and mistress of a large household of servants, Dandy is still bored. Her menfolk fall victim to various illnesses, so Dandy decides to remove the family to the spa town of Moffat to drink the waters and indulge in the mineral wraps and cold salt rubs. But all is not right at the Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel. The Laidlaw family members are at one another's throats, and a guest who checked into the spa has disappeared. Located near Gallow Hill, the spa is also frequently plagued by ghosts. VERDICT Fans of the period as well as such TV series as Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs will enjoy Dandy's latest adventure (after Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses), although the will-they, won't-they romance between policeman Alec Osborne and Dandy is wearing thin.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
Series heroine Dandy Gilver runs a detective agency in Scotland in the 1920s. She also manages, almost as an afterthought, a comfortable household with a husband, two sons, and servants. This latest mystery, set in 1929, nicely combines both elements. The family comes down with bronchitis, pneumonia, and pleurisy, requiring plenty of ministering from Dandy, the only one not affected. At the same time, Dandy has been contacted by the family of an elderly woman who died under highly suspicious circumstances while visiting a health spa. Dandy packs off the family to the spa, the Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel, in Northhamptonshire, partly so they can recover but mostly to investigate what led to the woman's death (the ethics of Dandy entrusting her family's health to a dodgy establishment is one of the mysteries of this book). The details McPherson provides about the spa's treatments and intricate workings are fascinating. The subplot dealing with ghosts and mediums is a stretch, though. Dandy's first-person narration is intended to be funny, and sometimes it is, but it can also come across as forced. For fans of the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)