The corpse at the Crystal Palace

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Title:

The corpse at the Crystal Palace

Author:

Dunn, Carola, author.

Edition:

First Edition.

Subject Term:

Nannies -- England -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Summary:

April 1928. The Honorable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is visited in London by her young cousins, and on their list of must-see sights is the famous Crystal Palace. Built originally in 1851 for the Great Exhibition, it is now a popular destination, set in a park perfect for family outings, and featuring a display of monstrous dinosaur sculptures. Upon discovering that her children's nanny, Mrs. Gilpin, has never seen the Palace, Daisy decides to make a day of it, bringing her cousins, her three-year-old twins, her stepdaughter, Belinda, the nursery maid, and Nanny Gilpin. But this ordinary outing soon goes awry when Mrs. Gilpin retires to the ladies' room and fails to return. When Daisy goes to look for her, she doesn't find her nanny but instead the body of a stranger, also dressed in a nanny's uniform. Meanwhile, Belinda and the cousins spot Mrs. Gilpin chasing after yet another nanny. Intrigued, they trail the two through the vast Crystal Palace and into the park. After briefly losing sight of their quarry, they stumble across Mrs. Gilpin lying unconscious in a small lake inhabited by huge concrete dinosaurs. When she comes to, Mrs. Gilpin can't remember what happened after leaving the twins in the nurserymaid's care. Daisy's husband, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the murdered nanny. Worried about her children's own injured nanny, Daisy is determined to help. But there are too many nannies, and first Daisy has to discover the identity of the third nanny--the presumed murderer--and what drove the amnesic Mrs. Gilpin to desert her charges and follow that mysterious missing third nanny in the first place.

Publication Date:

2018

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Available:*

Library	Item Type	Item Barcode	Call Number	Current Location
Searching... Mishawaka Library	Book	33028011332717	Mystery DUNN, Carola	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A casual outing to the Crystal Palace in London takes a mysterious and murderous turn in The Corpse at the Crystal Palace , the latest mystery in Carola Dunn's beloved Daisy Dalrymple series.

April 1928: Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is visited in London by her young cousins. On the list of must-see sites is the Crystal Palace. Discovering that her children's nanny, Nanny Gilpin, has never seen the Palace, Daisy decides to make a day of it--bringing her cousins, her 3-year-old twins, her step-daughter Belinda, the nurserymaid, and Nanny Gilpin. Yet this ordinary outing goes wrong when Mrs. Gilpin goes off to the ladies' room and fails to return. When Daisy goes to look for her, she doesn't find her nanny but instead the body of another woman dressed in a nanny's uniform.

Meanwhile, Belinda and the cousins spot Mrs. Gilpin chasing after yet another nanny. Intrigued, they trail the two through the vast Crystal Palace and into the park. After briefly losing sight of their quarry, they stumble across Mrs. Gilpin lying unconscious in a small lake inhabited by huge concrete dinosaurs.

When she comes to, Mrs. Gilpin can't remember what happened after leaving the twins in the nurserymaid's care. Daisy's husband, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the murdered nanny. Worried about her children's own injured nanny, Daisy is determined to help. First she has to discover the identity of the third nanny, the presumed murderer, and to do so, Daisy must uncover why the amnesic Mrs. Gilpin deserted her charges to follow the missing third nanny.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Set in 1928 London, Dunn's bright and breezy 23rd Daisy Dalrymple mystery (after 2015's Superfluous Women) provides an appealing glimpse of life among the well-to-do. When two teenage cousins arrive for a visit, Daisy takes the cousins, her three-year-old twins, and the twins' nurse, Nanny Gilpin, on an outing to the Crystal Palace. At one point, Nanny excuses herself. Daisy later goes looking for Nanny in the ladies' room, where she finds a dead woman she initially mistakes for Nanny in one of the stalls. Meanwhile, the twins run into the park, where they discover Nanny lying in a pond, half-drowned. The police are unable to identify the body, and Nanny suffers from memory loss. Are the murder and the attack on Nanny related? And who is responsible for these outrages, committed in such a public place? Daisy uses her connections among the "bright young things" and the more bohemian Chelsea set in an attempt to get the answers. Fans of Dorothy L. Sayers's gentleman sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, will find much to like. Agent: Alice Volpe, Northwest Literary Agency. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

An inveterate sleuth investigates a case of too many nannies.Now that her husband, Scotland Yard detective Alec Fletcher, is out of town on a case and his daughter, Belinda, is home from school, Daisy Fletcher is playing host to Ben and Charlie, her cousin's West Indian adoptees, whom she plans to show the sights of 1928 London. Their visit to the Crystal Palace includes Daisy's twins, who are cared for by Nanny Gilpin and nursery maid Bertha; Daisy's friend Sakari; and retired DS Tom Tring and his wife. Belinda and the boys are exploring on their own when they notice Nanny Gilpin following another nanny and decide to trail them. They catch up just in time to rescue Nanny Gilpin, whom they find floating in an ornamental lake. When Daisy goes searching for her missing nanny, she finds instead a dead nanny in a stall in the ladies' room. Luckily, Tom Tring is on hand to help with the police. Daisy's still wondering why the body looks familiar when the soaking wet children arrive to announce that Mrs. Gilpin needs help. Indeed she does: She has a head wound and no memory of what happened to her or why she was following the unknown nanny. The dead nanny turns out to be Teddy Devenish, a cousin of Daisy's friend Lucy, Lady Gerald Bincombe. Unfortunately for the police, the young man about town had a bad reputation, and plenty of people would be glad to see him dead. Although she knows that neither Alec nor the police will be pleased, Daisy, who's perfectly placed to mine information from her aristocratic friends, dives into the investigation and comes up with the clues that solve the case.Not the best in Dunn's long-running series (Superfluous Women, 2015, etc.), this one relies on period detail to charm fans of classic British mysteries. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

The twenty-third installment of the series featuring the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple, now the wife of Scotland Yard detective Alec Fletcher, begins promisingly. Daisy has arranged a fun outing for family and friends to London's Crystal Palace, an exhibition hall surrounded by gardens and grounds. So it's a shock when Daisy discovers a nanny murdered in the ladies loo. At the same time, Nanny Gilpin, in charge of the Fletcher's children, has disappeared; Daisy quickly learns Nanny Gilpin has been injured chasing yet a third nanny! The concussion causes Nanny Gilpin to lose her memory, so the case will have to be solved by the sleuthing skills of Alec and his men and, to his familiar dismay, Daisy. After an invigorating start, the plots gets a bit convoluted, but the Russian émigrés and Cockney acrobats who inhabit the story keep things moving apace. There's also diversity here in the form of relatives from the West Indies and Daisy's Indian friend, Sakari, an interesting touch for a book set in 1928. Daisy is only 30, so expect more mysteries in this long-running and very popular series.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2018 Booklist