Category: 1

Another one for the holidays:

12/16/2011

I also set a Regency at Cotehele--my sister lives very close to the house and the first time I saw it I knew it was the perfect setting for a story. Or two.

In SMUGGLERS' SUMMER, though I described the house pretty accurately, I did add a secret passage. Somehow it also turned up in Mistletoe and Murder...

This is the original cover of Mistletoe and Murder. Though somewhat murky, and apparently showing a summer scene, it is a picture of the actual house where the story is set, Cotehele, though I called it Brockdene, so as not to upset surviving family members NOT related to the odd goings-on that Christmas of 1923.

E-book edition

10 Comments

Missing Daisies now available in UK

07/18/2011

6 Comments

Or should it be missing Daisys, as it's a proper name?

Be that as it may, today Die Laughing, A Mourning Wedding, and Fall of a Philanderer came out in the UK.

Daisy goes to the dentist--but he's not going to be filling any teeth today!

Daisy's friend Lucy is getting married--or is she?

Murder can ruin your seaside holiday...

Next week it's Gunpowder Plot and The Bloody Tower:

A fireworks show is the perfect time to shoot someone!

Adding to the list of unnatural deaths at the Tower of London...

6 Comments

Out of print in US--New UK editons

02/19/2011

2 Comments

Two of my Daisy Dalrymple mysteries that have been practically impossible to find for a long time will be reprinted in the UK this month, release date February 24th.

The 10th Daisy mystery

In The Case of the Murdered Muckraker, Daisy is in New York (following her transatlantic voyage in To Davy Jones Below). After witnessing a murder, she finds herself mixed up in Tammany Hall politics, just before an election. Alec comes to the rescue from DC, where he's been advising J. Edgar Hoover. They end up chasing a suspect across the country in a biplane!

They end up in Eugene, Oregon, chiefly because so many people here asked me when I was going to set a book here. The Eugene characters are almost all real people I found in histories of Eugene.

This is my only book set in the US, so I was very happy with this review in Publishers Weekly: "Dunn captures the melting pot of Prohibition era New York with humorous characterizations and a vivid sense of place...Throughout her travels in the States, Daisy is keenly attuned to people and place: race relations, regional accents, even foods all add to the texture of the story."

http://www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=case+murdered+muckraker&search=search

The 11th Daisy mystery

Mistletoe and Murder: Daisy and Alec are back in England and off to an ancient fortified manor house in Cornwall for Christmas. Daisy plans to write about it. The family of poor relations living there is decidedly out of the ordinary, and as peculiarities multiply, animosity culminates in murder.

The setting is a real house, Cotehele, and though I've changed its name to Brockdene for the story, since descendants of the then owners are still around, I've described it as is, including a bit of its history since the 15th century. The main departure from reality is a secret tunnel, which I invented for a Regency I set there (Smugglers' Summer) and thought I might as well make use of again!

Cotehele, Cornwall, now a National Trust property

http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9781849017060/Mistletoe-and-Murder

2 Comments

Win a signed Christmas mystery!

12/04/2010

4 Comments

Read a review of Mistletoe and Murder, Daisy's Christmas mystery at http://kingsriverlife.com/12/04/christmas-mystery-reviews/ for a chance to win a signed copy!

US paperback Edition

UK edition (Feb '11)

4 Comments

Cup de Grâce

08/20/2010

1 Comment

The ever-knowledgeable Doug Lyle MD is always very helpful when I'm planning to commit a murder. Read how he answered my latest question at http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/

1 Comment

Maybe I should make it a mystery?

05/20/2010

3 Comments

Blood everywhere! A puddle by the gate in the school field fence, drips all the way home, more drips on the garage floor, a towel with smears, a jacket with spots...

No, I didn't commit a gruesome murder while walking the dogs--Oli, whom I'm dog-sitting, stuck his head through a gap under the fence into Stella's yard, and Stella objected to the point of removing the tip of his ear.

You wouldn't believe how much a dog's ear bleeds! And when you wash him off, he shakes himself and spatters go everywhere.

What if a bloody murder did occur in the neighbourhood--someone I know and have had words with--such as the guy who lives right next door to the gate? How long would it take the police to find out that it's canine blood, not human? They could see the split in Oli's ear, but I might have done that deliberately to provide a cover story.

Blood everywhere, the smell of blood lingering in the garage (yuck!)--can I turn it into a PLOT?