SAN DIEGO Mysterious Galaxy, Nov. 20th at 7 pm
http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

LOS ANGELES Mystery Bookstore, Nov. 21st at noon.
http://www.mystery-bookstore.com/blog/archives/author_events_nov2009.html

Hope to see some of you one place or another.

There’s always a bit of trepidation on the reader’s part when a
favorite author starts a new series. Am I going to like it as well as
the old favorite, or will I think it was a mistake? My fears were
quickly dismissed as I settled in to enjoy MANNA FROM HADES: A CORNISH
MYSTERY, Carola Dunn’s inaugural book in a new series.
MANNA FROM HADES has both differences and similarities to Ms.
Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple series. Where Daisy’s adventures take place in
the 1920s, this book appears to be set in the 1960s (although the clues
to that are fairly subtle). And where Daisy is based in London but
travels widely, Eleanor Trewynn and her niece, DS Megan Polcarrow, are
firmly rooted in Cornwall after their own travels. But the common
threads are the strong female characters and the cooperation between
amateur sleuth and police officer.
Widow Eleanor Trewynn has retired to her native Cornwall after a
lifetime of traveling the globe with LonStar, an NGO apparently based on
Oxfam. She lives above the LonStar shop (=thrift store) and spends a lot
of time driving about the countryside in her ancient Morris Minor,
collecting castoffs for the shop. Her niece Megan, a detective sergeant
who has transferred to the Cornish police force from London, must
contend with a supervisor and colleagues who aren’t too sure about women
in the force, and “Aunt Nell’s” involvement in a murder case doesn’t
make things any easier. Among other characters I expect and hope to meet
again are the artist next door; the kind but scarily efficient vicar’s
wife and her rather foggy husband; Megan’s boss, who seems like a good
guy at heart despite his old-fashioned views; and Teazle, Eleanor’s West
Highland terrier.
Returning from a collecting trip, Eleanor finds a briefcase full of
jewelry (which she assumes to be good copies) among the books and old
clothes, with no idea where it came from. The next morning, there is an
even more shocking discovery. Although Megan and the other police,
through good solid detective work, do most of the investigation, it is
Eleanor’s good works that bring matters to a head and enable the solution.
Eleanor Trewynn reminds me a bit of Mrs. Pollifax in that people
tend to underestimate her abilities. A charming and well-described
Cornish setting adds to the engaging characters and intelligent plot to
make me hope this is the first of a long series. The dustjacket is the
most beautiful I’ve seen in a long time, and the title, too, is worthy
of applause. Highly recommended.

Nikki Strandskov
auntieknickers.blogspot.com

JUNCTION CITY — The “Fabulous Friends’ Flapper Frolic,” a fundraiser to help expand the book collection at the Junction City Public Library, will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Scandinavian Festival Hall, Fifth Avenue and Greenwood Street in Junction City.

The event will feature a late-afternoon English tea, a talk by author Carola Dunn and a Roaring 20s flapper theme with entertainment, door prizes, raffle prizes and “Best Hat” contest.

Seating is limited. Tickets are on sale at the library, or can be purchased by calling 541 998-8852.

A friend unloaded the dishwasher for me, but I think I’m going to manage to put away the laundry. Haven’t tackled yet unpacking the bag I packed for the Seattle trip. Can’t fill the bird-feeders–I swear the dear little birdies are giving me dirty looks through the window. Guilt trip! It’s good for them to find some other source of food.

To think just 3 months ago I was paddling my brother’s kayak on the Thames and exploring Rocky Valley!

This is my son and granddaughter on the river, my brother in it,  keeping an eye on her!

Daisy and her friend Lucy going in search of the best grotto in England for their book on follies (the architectural kind). To Lucy’s dismay, the grotto belongs to a manufacturer of plumbing fixtures, who bought the associated mansion from the ancient but impoverished family who once owned it. Lucy and Daisy are not the only unlikely guests: also visiting are their penniless schoolfriend, Julia, and her widowed mother; a high-up civil servant with his socialite wife; an earl who’s in love with Julia but having an affaire with the civil servant’s wife; and a mysterious Canadian. Together with the “plumber”s sister-in-law and her son, they make up a strained house-party where something is bound to explode–and does,  taking one of the guests with it. Daisy’s husband DCI Alec Fletcher and Lucy’s husband Gerald arrive just in time to see the grotto blow up…

View some real English grottos at http://www.follytowers.com/stourheadtrail5.html and http://www.follytowers.com/stowetrail34.html

Also out today, BLACK SHIP in paperback at last, the 17th Daisy mystery.

Daisy and  Alec and family move to Hampstead. When their dog finds a body in the communal garden, they soon find themselves involved with American rumrunners, bootleggers, and gangsters, not to mention a hapless US Revenue agent.…

You can read some extraordinary (and very funny) stories about the trials of rumrunners here: http://blog.thejurorinvestigates.com/2008/09/03/rumrunners-on-trial.aspx

STORM IN A TEA-SHOPPE and UNHAPPY MEDIUM are two Daisy Dalrymple stories, originally published in the anthologies Crime Through Time and Malice Domestic 7; MISS PRIMROSE AND THE MARCH OF PROGRESS is a Victorian mystery story based on the opening of the world’s first public passenger railway and the deadly accident(?) that occurred on the first trip from Liverpool to Manchester.

For the moment, I’m just going to put links to my blog: The LadyKillers, and to my present web page. I’m also on Facebook so do come and visit me there.

. Geocities will be closing down next month so I’m trying to get a website going here on WordPress and making very heavy weather of it. But I have two books coming out this month, SHEER FOLLY and the paperback of BLACK SHIP (Daisy Dalrymple mysteries numbers 18 & 17) so I need to get something going!