Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses

A phone call from a former childhood friend sends investigator Dandy Gilver and her partner Alec Osbourne to the curious Scottish town of Portpatrick to check on Fleur Lipscott, a flighty young woman working as a schoolmistress. While Dandy explores St. Columba, a peculiar school for young girls where the teachers keep disappearing, Alec uncovers a murder of his own in town. Is it connected to St. Columba’s missing teachers? And what is going on with Fleur?

Evoking the style of Golden Age mysteries like Agatha Christie’s, Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses is all about misdirection and conversation centered around two numbers: a growing number of missing teachers and a number of murders confessed to, and how these numbers never seem to match up.

I was expecting a bit more of a romp, honestly, so the humdrum first half of the book was a slight letdown. (There were a LOT of puzzle pieces to put into play.) The book picks up in the second half, and while the St. Columba mystery ends with a bit of a dull thud, the murder mystery is very satisfyingly resolved.

I suspect fans of classic mysteries will find much to enjoy here.