Death at Wentwater Court
Carola Dunn, 1994
Kensington Publishing
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780758216007
Summary
No stranger to sprawling country estates, wealthy Daisy Dalrymple is breaking new ground at this particular manor house, having scandalously traded silver spoon for pen and camera to cover a story for Town and Country magazine. But her planned interviews with the inhabitants of Wentwater Court give way to interrogation when suave Lord Stephen Astwick meets a dire fate on the tranquil skating pond.
Armed with evidence that his fate was anything but accidental, Daisy joins forces with Scotland Yard to examine an esteemed collection of suspects—and see that the unlikely culprit doesn’t slip through their fingers just as the unfortunate Astwick slipped through the ice.
In the first installment of this cozy mystery series, Carola Dunn transports readers back to the bygone era of 1923 Britain, where unflappable flapper and would-be journalist Daisy Dalrymple daringly embarks on her first writing assignment—and promptly stumbles across a corpse. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—November 14, 1946
• Where—London, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Manchester University
• Currently—lives in Eugene, Oregan, USA
Although born in London, Carola Dunn grew up in the Buckinghamshire village of Jordans, known to Americans only as the burial place of William Penn (over whose gravestone, along with Penn's wives, Carola and her siblings played leapfrog). At 11 years of age, she attended a Friends boarding school, Saffron Waldon, and eventually headed to Manchester University, where she received her B.A. degree.
After university, Dunn set off to travel around the world, making it as far as Samoa and Fiji, then to Southern California in the US to be married. Her first book appeared in 1979 after varied careers in childcare, market research, construction, building design, writing definitions for a sciene and technology dictionary. Dunn now lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her Black Lab/German Shepherd, Willow, who walks Carola along the Willemette River every morning. She is close to her grown son and two grandchildren.
Carola Dunn, best known for her Daisy Dalrymple mystery series—numbering 17 (as of 2008)—is the author of 50 books, including her Regencies series and a new Cornish mystery series. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
A murder-of-manners (if there is such a thing)...neat and sharp... This one is heaven for those who miss Allingham and Sayers—a country house puzzle par excellence with a setting that cries out for the BBC to film it... Perfect hammock reading that never insults your intelligence or twists your brain—a neat trick to pull off...a portrait under glass of another era.
Courier-Gazette, Rockland, Maine
This polished cozy...hits all the bases and has a good time doing it...excellent characters...a vivid picture of life ...in post WWI Britain.
The Oregonian
This lively mystery debut introduces the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple, who has taken a job to ensure her independence—an unusual step for the daughter of a viscount in 1922. Her first assignment for Town and Country takes her to Wentwater Court at Christmastime to write about the Wentwater family. Her visit is disrupted by unwelcome guest and—according to Lady Josephine—"utter cad" Lord Stephen Astwick. When Astwick's body is found floating under the ice in the estate's lake, attractive Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher arrives on the scene. Daisy's photos of the victim, showing ax marks in the ice, suggest the death is murder and prompt Fletcher to enlist her as his stenographer during his investigations. With the entire family, from the earl to his grandchildren, under suspicion, Daisy takes on the role of liaison between landed and working classes. Astwick's indiscretions come to light and disclose more motives for murder at Wentwater Court. Inquisitive and sympathetic, Daisy identifies the murderer, suggests a solution pleasing to most of the family and secures the possibility of romance in her future.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Death at Wentworth Court:
1. Mystery stories are all about withholding information from the reader in order to deliver a surprise at the end. Were you surprised by the ending...in other words, did Carola Dunn deliver a good mystery?
2. It's fun in to trace the clues, which authors drop surreptitiously, like bread crumbs, along the way. What are the clues Dunn provides? In other words, as a reader, what do you know...and when do you know it?
3. Good mysteries also dish out red herrings—false clues to divert attention from the real solution. What are the red-herrings in Wentwater Court...and did you fall for them?
4. Readers find Daisy a particluarly likeable herion. Do you agree; if so, what makes her such a delightful character?
5. Do you find the other characters believable? Are they well-developed, complex personalities?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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