Reading the Detectives discussion
Buddy reads
>
A Case of Duplicity in Dorset - SPOILER Thread - (Feb/March 23)
date
newest »
newest »
I was pretty sure who had submitted the fakes for the pearls very early in the book, but I still found the book a lot of fun with all the secret passages.
Honestly, I listened to the audiobook of this one, and the pearls got lost among the romantic hijinks, retellings of who was where and when, and hidden passages.I always feel like these are less about the mystery and more about the quirky recurring characters. I was glad to see Valentina back in Freddy’s life, she’s so dry and pragmatic! I’d like to see them work together again. I can’t keep track of Freddy’s romantic entanglements - Iris was flirting and smooching in hidden passages, but seemed to stick with her stuffed shirt fiancée, and the other young woman (forget her name), seems like a match for the future Duke - which leaves Freddy footloose and fancy free still!
I finished this today and liked it quite well. Also immediately guessed the culprit of the pearls exchange, but had no idea about the murder. I liked all the girls around Freddy and the other characters.
Mod
Susan, I did wonder if Freddy might get involved with Valentina as well as Iris and Daphne, but maybe that would have been too much for one book! Also might be a bit too similar to Angela's love life.
I like Valentina, but think there is too huge a social gap between her and Freddy.
When the Duke of Purbeck throws a house party to celebrate his daughter's twenty-first birthday and present her with a family heirloom, nobody expects that the weekend will end in murder. The fabled Belsingham pearls have a history steeped in blood and slaughter dating back more than a century—and now it seems they've claimed another life, when the interfering and opinionated Professor Coddington is found dead in the library with the pearls clutched in his hand. It looks like a robbery gone wrong, but then why didn't the thief take the necklace? And how did he escape unnoticed, given that half the guests were seemingly wandering around the house at the time of the murder?
House guest Freddy Pilkington-Soames has enough on his plate already, with a lecherous nuisance of a grandfather to keep an eye on, a girlfriend his mother disapproves of, and an ex-girlfriend who's engaged to another man but shows signs of changing her mind. But with a killer on the loose in the house, it's time to forget his own troubles and rise to the occasion—or risk a scandal that could destroy the reputation of his whole family.
Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.