The Dreaming Damozel

Doran Fairweather #6

by Mollie Hardwick

An antiques dealer, Doran Fairweather Chelmarsh, who collects pre-Raphaelite paintings, realizes that two murder victims resemble models used by the painter Rossetti and that some bizarre criminal activity is afoot

Genres: Mystery

183 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Mollie Greenhalgh Hardwick was an English author who was best known for writing books that accompanied the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs.

As well as writing many Upstairs, Downstairs, Thomas & Sarah and The Duchess of Duke Street novels, she was also the creator of the Doran Fairweather novels and wrote three Juliet Bravo books. Hardwick also wrote many books and plays based around the Sherlock Holmes novels. She married fellow author Michael Hardwick in 1961.

Series:
* Upstairs Downstairs
* The Duchess of Duke Street
* Thomas and Sarah
* Juliet Bravo
* Doran Fairweather

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars, but rounding down because the end was somewhat unsatisfying. I had difficulty believing the windfall of ownership of the paintings would go to Doran. It makes no sense that there would be no estate to claim them or that the state wouldn't take them, but they'd be left in the hands of a random person the thief sent them to. Huh??? I've read and enjoyed most of the earlier Doran Fairweather series. My favorite thing about this novel is that it spurred me to look up information about DG Rosetti and his models, and look at some of his art and that of other pre-Raphaelites.

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had missed this Hardwick, but had read all her others. It is not her best.

Once again, we have Doran Fairweather, the wife, of a Church of England minister (same as the character Faith Fairchild in a Katherine Hall Page that I just finished earlier), but this one is an antique dealer rather than a cook. Doran is obsessed with Pre-Raphaelite artists' models, but so is a killer whose victims are dressed to match paintings.

You do get some background information on the Pre-Raphaelites in this mystery.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is alright. The art history inclusion does give the story a bit of a twist, but unfortunately it is the only thing that distinguishes this story from other crime thrillers. It all feels very predictable, and I am let down by the solution. Moreover, it find it hard to like Doran and her clergy husband. Especially the husband. His tendency to pepper literature quotes and the fact that he is religious (yes, I am biased) make him hard to like.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I should have started with the first one in this murder series, but I found this book entertaining but also a bit annoying. The references to a recurring mysterious sense of evil and strange coincidence seems odd out of place. Some things do get tied in eventually, but it detracted from my enjoyment.

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this novel because I have a fascination with the Pre-Raphaelites-- especially Lizzie Siddal-- a love I discovered after curiously looking up the model's history after first reading of her exhumation in Gilbert and Gubar's "Madwoman in the Attic". I vaguely heard of this book while doing research, and thought nothing of it until I caught a glimpse of it in a dollar bin at a used bookstore.

This mystery is one of the few fictional pieces written about Siddal and so I was very interested to read it. Siddal had a fascinating life, both with and without Rossetti, and I hope hoping this book would shed some kind of defining contrast on the character. This book, although written by an obviously learned and researched author, was more about an antiques shop owner who becomes fascinated with the Pre-Raphaelites in 1990. It had some great tid-bits about the mid-century artistic group but didn't offer anything I didn't already know from biographies and art books.

It was still a fun read though. My favorite parts of it describe the quiet parts of Doran Fairweather's life-- polishing turn of the century mirrors, going on hazy afternoon walks, curling up by the fire with art books spread across the oriental rugs-- it is something like I would hope my life to be, when and if I ever have enough money to achieve such an existence.

The mystery and murders the book explores are slightly contrived. The investigation comes of as sedated and underwhelming, with bored policemen who "actually care", and the big villain reveal at the end made me chuckle and think "that is quaint and unsurprising". You can actually correctly guess the plot, layout, conclusion, and denouement by the end of the fourth chapter, but I kept reading it because it was well-written and felt welcoming, like a dry warm bed on a damp Sunday morning.

I've never read another of the Doran Fairweather mystery series, and I don't assume that I will. And it goes to say it is easy to get into the plot and characters without having met them before or knowing much of anything about their previous existence-- although I gather from mentionings that they were part of various crime-solving teams investigating other murders.

This book is sweet. I know that is belittling to say of a mystery series, but it was cute. An enjoyable read if you are looking for something quick and breezy.

[Deena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some series go down hill. This one crashed. These aren't mysteries, they're soap operas. I like running character sub-plot as much as the next mystery-reader, but this is so maudlin that it detracts from the mystery. This is where Hardwick lost me; the series kept going, but I didn't.

[Raypor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this series many years ago but I had forgotten most of the plot and I enjoyed it again. True british cozy mystery.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really liking this series.