Murder on the Flying Scotsman – Carola Dunn

Crime Fiction Alphabet – D is for Daisy Dalrymple

Daisy Dalrymple is on the famous Flying Scotsman, travelling up to Edinburgh to work on her next article. Anticipating a long journey her main concern is that she has not bought anything to read when she at embarks at Kings Cross.

This becomes the least of Daisy’s worries when she discovers there is a stowaway on the train who is trying to find her for safety; Belinda the daughter of a close friend. Then an old school friend finds her along with her whole family who are on their way up to the Scottish Highlands at the request of the head of their clan who is on his death bed.

Daisy and Belinda become embroiled in family arguments between the brothers and sisters, cousins, great uncles and even the family solicitor. All spread about on the same carriage as Daisy who thought by treating herself to a first class ticket she would have a peaceful journey.

When a member of the warring clan is found dead by Belinda, Daisy has to step up and take control of the situation that means sharing her advice on the death which to all intents and purposes does not look suspicious to anyone apart from Daisy. That sharing comes in the form of talking to the only person she knows who will be able to deal with the situation. A Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher from Scotland Yard…..who also happens to be Belinda’s father.

For me this book in the series of Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries of which there are a number really consolidates on the character of Daisy, her thoughts and feelings not just for the man who has caught her eye, Alec Fletcher but also his daughter. The plot is well driven and there were plenty of red herrings as you would expect in novels such as these. The recurring characters of Alec Fletcher’s sergeant and constable bring a little light relief to the business of murder but they also reinforce the wonderful relationship which is developing between Daisy and Alec.  I look forward to Daisy’s next adventure.

There is something about trains and murders that seem to go well together and this was one of those books where it worked. More so probably because I have pictures of my mum, her uncle and grandfather standing right by The Flying Scotsman as her family hails from Yorkshire were the train went through and was worked on at Doncaster Railway works. 

It has been a while since I had picked up some Daisy Dalrymple but again it is like coming back to a cosy chair. No doubt part of the reason then categories such books as cosy crime. I know what happens to Daisy and Alex after seeing blurbs from future books but I still I am gladden to see her form a bond with Alec’s daughter Belinda, it brought out another side of Daisy which from the previous three books you could believe that she was an aristocrat who just liked to play at life and work. It is quite obvious not the case, and I like to think of someone who can go against the establishment of family ideals and make their own way in the world. It amuses me how other characters find this so liberating but do not seem to have the same sort of courage to break free. 

I do look forward to book five Damsel in Distress and I have plenty of catching up to do as book twenty was published in 2012.

You can find my reviews of the first three books at the links Death at Wentwater Court, The Winter Garden Mystery  and Requiem for a Mezzo. 

I read this as part of The Crime Fiction Alphabet Challenge hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise.