by Terrance Mc Arthur

Details on how to win a copy of Heirs of the Body at the end of this review.

Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher isn’t an heir to her second-cousin Edgar’s title (women can’t inherit Lordships; it’s the 1920s, and such things aren’t done), but she can be dragged in to the process of finding the next heir to her former-schoolteacher, butterfly-hunting relative, in Heirs of the Body: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery by Carola Dunn.

Generations ago, a son ran off, leaving a trail of children in his wake, but whose ancestor was the oldest is proving hard to…prove. Four of the claimants gather for Edgar’s 50th birthday and a mixed lot they are: an obnoxious diamond trader from South Africa, an innkeeper and his suspicious wife, a sailor from Jamaica (who isn’t at Fairacres because he was involved in some “business” in Florida, but his pregnant wife is there, sick and scared), and a boy from Trinidad, who the villagers keep calling “Blackie.”

When the group gathers, “accidents” start to happen. Are they accidents or are they attacks? Is someone trying to eliminate the competition? It all seems harmless…until somebody dies.

Daisy and her husband (a Scotland Yard Inspector) face the task of helping to determine the true heir, protecting everybody and unmasking the sore loser in their midst. It’s a soft and breezy mystery of summer days and nights, stately living in the English countryside. With the classic, “how many heirs have to die before the killer is caught” plotline, the twenty first book in the series that shows no signs of fading away.

Dunn’s Daisy is a confident young woman, crazy about her husband, doting on her twins with whom she doesn’t have a lot of contact, thanks to a “tigerish” nanny who would make Mary Poppins seem like a wimp, and caring toward her step-daughter Belinda. She doesn’t plan to solve mysteries (Can you imagine the amateur sleuth in a cozy–be she schoolteacher, knitter, librarian, or idle rich–saying “I hope I find a dead body today,” hmm?), but she does her best to remove the danger that has crossed her path.

Daisy’s exploits reminds me of a married-and-settled version of Rhys Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness series, and it’s a nice world to visit.

To enter to win a copy of Heirs of the Body, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Heirs,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen April 5, 2014. U.S. residents only.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

Terrance V. Mc Arthur is a Community Librarian for the WoW! (WithOut Walls) Division of the Fresno County Public Library, roaming the Valley to meet the public’s information needs.