Book Review: Death at Daisy’s Folly by Robin Paige

Death at Daisy’s Folly is the third book in The Victorian Mystery Series by Robin Paige.

Quick Review (read on for full review)

This series can always be relied upon for an entertaining and engaging read.  I like Kate and Charles, enjoyed the setting and was intrigued to see how the mystery unravelled.  5 / 5

Summary (from back of book)

Kate and Sir Charles gather with a host of memorable guests at the Warwicks’ Eaton Lodge for an English country-house weekend.  Meet Albert Edward, Prince of Wales; his ‘darling Daisy’, the countess of Warwick; their friends – and their enemies.

Someone has murdered a stableboy and the Prince, smarting over a recent gambling expose and seeking to avoid scandal, directs Sir Charles to find the killer. But the stakes go up when a guest is shot with the Countess’ gun.

Favourite Quote

They had made the ten-mile run from Braintree to the Lodge in one hour and fifteen minutes, at almost twice the legal maximum speed of four miles an hour and sans the obligatory man with a red flag that – ridiculously – was still supposed to precede them by twenty yards.

(From Death at Daisy’s Folly by Robin Paige, page 34)

Review

This series can always be relied upon for an entertaining and engaging read.  Quick and easy to get in to, this is a cosy mystery series at its most comfy, by which I mean, it is enjoyable, immersive but doesn’t require much effort to follow along.  I can get lost in the storytelling, which for me, is what I want when I’m reading.  I don’t need a mental workout.

Although I’m only on to the third book in the series, I feel like I’ve been reading about these characters for a lot longer. I like that level of familiarity, and feel invested in what happens to them.  I love both main characters: the fiery, flame-haired, Irish-American Kate Ardleigh, and the not-your-usual-kind of posh English gentleman, Sir Charles Sheridan.  Kate’s background ensures that the rules of the British aristocracy only apply to her sometimes, whilst Charles’ penchant for science and deduction ensure that it is to him, and thus her, that those in a pickle turn to.  The romance subplot works well between the characters, and comes across as authentic.

As for the other characters…Most of the characters in this book are not likeable.  For the most part, it’s rich people doing all they can to stay rich, even when confronted with the abject poverty of the workhouse poor.  Daisy Warwick is the one exception here; she does her best to bring about change, and from reading about her in this work of fiction, I’ve been inspired to learn more about the real person.

One of the highlights of this tale is being able to see the early years of the motor car on the British roads.  Cars today are symbols of freedom and the ability to get to far away places in a fairly short amount of time.  Back when this book was set, cars were forbidden, by law, to go faster than work horses, for fear of startling the animals and causing accidents.  To think a man with a red flag had to walk in front of the car as it “motored” along, seems ridiculous to the point of redundancy. For if you could walk at the same speed as the car was allowed to go, why bother with the car?  It’s quite remarkable to think how easy it might have been for the car to have fallen by the wayside, like other inventions…How different would our world look today if it had?

The next book in the series is, Death at Devil’s Bridge, and my copy is sitting happily in my TBR pile.  Hopefully it won’t take me too long to get to it…

Rating

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Sammi Loves Books Reading Challenge 2019 – I’ve chosen this book for challenge #6 in the list: a book with a girl’s name in the title.