A Deadly Measure of Brimstone: A Dandy Gilver Mystery

Catriona McPherson’s disarmingly charming series featuring Dandy Gilver depicts early 20th Century women’s independence while exposing evil lurking in innocent surroundings. McPherson is a master of dialogue, understatement and slightly twisted humor. A Scottish health spa, Laidlaw’s Hydropathic Establishment, is the perfect destination for Gilver’s family, because her husband and two sons have been suffering from one illness or another. Nevermind that she has an ulterior motive for bustling her family off to the coastal retreat. Gilver and her partner, Alec Osborne, are on a sleuthing case and they shamelessly use the outing as a cover. A guest at the spa has died and the bereaved family needs to know the truth of her demise, accident or murder?

McPherson’s characters include proper ladies and gents taking in the cures but a rather odd mix of spiritualists and a partying crowd balance out what might otherwise be a boring bunch of Brits. The dialogue is often of the laugh-out-loud variety. Even folks who avoid traditional English mysteries will enjoy the lighthearted treatment of a rather ghoulish death.

Can bizarre happenings be funny and provide the solution to the mystery death? Yes! Readers will enjoy the intrigue.