Gunpowder Plot
Carola Dunn
St. Martin's, Sep 2006, $23.95
ISBN: 0312349890

In 1924 pregnant Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher visits her friend Gwen Tyndall at their family's Cotswolds estate, Edge Manor where a Guy Fawkes gala will be celebrated. Daisy quickly realizes that the Tyndall family is at odds with one another. Iron fisted patriarch Sir Harold demands his son Jack take over the running of Edge Manor from his sister Barbara as Babs being a female has to be incompetent. Harold also has problems with the nerve of aeronautical engineer Martin Miller wanting Jack to join his firm though he seems to ignore that his youngest daughter Gwen and Miller are an entry. Starting with squib, Daisy finds she is under assault from the young sons of the third sister Adelaide.

During the Gunpowder Plot celebration someone murders Sir Harold and the wife of Jack's Australian guest Mr. Gooch. Daisy's husband, DCI Alec Fletcher investigates the two homicides with motive being the key leading to either Gooch killing his spouse and her lover or Jack knowing his dad's will is being changed to remove him from inheriting anything. Alec follows the money so bets are on Jack while his wife believes otherwise and begins to snoop.

The Gunpowder Plot is a wonderful historical English mystery that fans of the intrepid Daisy will fully enjoy as she investigates while refusing to allow her delicate condition to get in her way. Interwoven little tidbits bring to life the era like Daisy informing Gwen she plans to learn to drive, a rarity for females in 1924 (but then again this is not the "Victorian Dark Ages"). The whodunit is fun but as always with this series it is the cast especially the heroine who makes the novels a Dunn deal to read as soon as possible for delighted loyal fans.

Harriet Klausner