Daisy Dalrymple is a really likable character. Although completely different personality-wise, I rank her up there with Maisie Dobbs and Amelia Peabody as fictional characters I wouldn't mind meeting if such a thing were possible. Carola Dunn's mystery series featuring Daisy is wonderfully light and the perfect type of book to turn to when you want a gentle read, nothing too grim or perplexing yet escapist. I will admit Dunn's Dead in the Water is perhaps not one of the stronger mysteries of the half dozen I've now read, but that didn't really lessen the enjoyment of it for me. Although I'm really liking Frank Tallis's Viennese mystery, I felt the need to pick up a nice, dependable cozy and Daisy didn't let me down.
Unlike many of her 1920s compatriots, Daisy is not a wild flapper. She's an 'Honorable', meaning her family is of the upper class but they've no money to speak of now, so Daisy is stuck working to earn her living. She writes free lance articles for magazines and generally gets herself into trouble by stumbling over bodies left and right. Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard does his best to keep Daisy and murderers as far apart as possible, but Daisy usually finds a way to wiggle herself into the thick of things. Good-hearted and good-natured she often likes to defend the suspects most likely to have committed whatever crime is in the offing, but her instincts are generally very good.
Like so many women of the period she lost not only her brother in the Great War but also her fiancé. And whilst there are references to those darker days, the stories tend to stay on the lighter side--at least as much as a murder mystery can. Although she has a knack of getting involved in murders all on her own, it helps that over the course of the books Daisy and Alec's blossoming romance means she's privy to all sorts of police business, which usually piques her curiosity. Alec is slightly older and a widower with a young daughter. Although he's university educated (albeit not by one of the posher, more distinguished bastions of higher education), he's still not in the same class as Daisy. The world is changing, however, so unlikely as their pairing may be or may have been in former years they are a perfect fit couple-wise with plans to marry.
Dead in the Water sees both Daisy and Alec traveling to Henley-on-the-Thames. Daisy is there to cover the Henley Royal Regatta for an American magazine and Alec joins her for what is meant to be a leisurely weekend to watch the races and meet some of Daisy's relatives. Unfortunately the death of one of the rowers on the Oxford team means pleasure will quickly turn to business for Alec and Daisy isn't far behind. Class may be a factor in the death of the rower as two members of decidedly different backgrounds clash. Although the culprit of the crime came as no real surprise, Dunn still had a nice little twist at the end, which I didn't see coming.
I started reading this mystery series years ago and hope to pick back up where I left off now that I've read one and have eased back into the storyline. While I could happily pick up the next book, Styx and Stones, I have Joanna Challis's, Murder on the Cliffs, waiting for me and with a Cornwall setting I think I need to read it next!