Joe and I have been working through the hardcover editions of the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries by Carola Dunn that he’s ordered from the Minuteman Library Network. At this point we have books 11-14 but I’m waiting for him to finish book 11, so it’s a good time to post about books 4-10.
Murder on the Flying Scotsman – book 4
2/14/26-2/16/26
April 1923
Raymond to Daisy: Please refer to family tree in frontispiece.
Alec: Who’s next on your little list?
Daisy: Oh, she never would be missed, she never would be missed.
Daisy and Alec try to figure out the words Belinda overheard: arsony (larceny), orbit (audit), sheep (fleece), etc.
Most of the missing people turn up in a hotel room learning yoga.
Damsel In Distress – book 5
2/17/26-2/19/26
Early summer 1923
We meet Daisy’s mother, cousin Edgar and wife Geraldine. Nice to see Owen Morgan from The Winter Garden Mystery.
Telegram from Phillip to Lucy: urgent emergency come Fairacres house party pronto Binky too bring riding togs and Daisy’s clothes
Daisy manages to escape from the kidnappers. Very exciting rescuing Gloria at the end.
Double engagement party, hosted by Mr. Arbuckle at Claridge’s: Alec and Daisy, and Phillip and Gloria
Dead in the Water – book 6
2/20/26-2/22/26
July 2023 (a week before the engagement party at the end of book 5)
Henley crew races
Duke of Plaza Toro from The Gondoliers, page 55
Alec to Ernie with Alec’s favorite quote from The Mikado: Merely corroborative detail intended to add verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative
Alec to 4 crew members: I want to thank you all for being quite the most helpful and cooperative group of suspects it’s ever been my pleasure not to have to arrest.
Styx and Stones – book 7
2/22/26-2/26/26
August 2023
Daisy and Lucy just got a telephone.
Osbert, Osmund and Oswald Osborne
If anything in the world was guaranteed to be an absolute hotbed of village gossip, a veritable school for Scandal, it was a WI committee meeting combined with a vicarage tea-party.
Inspector Flagg to Alec and Daisy: Phew, there’s a turn-up for the books, if you like! An atheist clergyman writing Poison Pen letters!
Rattle His Bones – book 8
3/3/26-3/7/26
July 2023
Natural History Museum maps at beginning
The girls’ boarding school Daisy attended had been absolutely free of any masculine taint of science.
Rudolph Maximilian, Grand Duke of Transcarpathia
In April 1923, 20 female constables joined the London police force.
Description of the Fairacres Georgian Dower House: a mere five bedrooms (excluding servants’ quarters) and delightful garden
Boyle’s Second Law, according to Ruddlestone: Watt’s pots never Boyle
Alec takes Daisy to a concert at Queen’s Hall: Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Prokofiev’s 3rd piano concerto.
You find out at the very end who the unnamed jewel thief is at the very beginning.
To Davy Jones Below – book 9
3/8/26-3/12/26
October 1923
Wedding reception guests include suspects from previous books: an Indian doctor, an American industrialist and a Russian Jewish violinist
Daisy now has a wrist watch, a present from Alec.
Concert in the Grand Salon; Schubert Eb piano trio and Dvorak
For seasickness: mint tea, ginger tea
To aid sleep: chamomile and valerian
The Case of the Murdered Muckraker – book 10
3/13/26-3/14/26
October 31, 1923 – early November, 1923
Daisy’s case! Alec arrives towards the end.
Rosenblatt and Gilligan ⇔ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Exciting chase from NYC to Eugene, OR at the end of the book: on foot, subways, cab and biplane
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