Dandy Gilver Mysteries

The Winter Ground was my first Dandy Gilver Mystery and I intend to read the rest. Dandy is in theory a lady of leisure, living on a Scottish estate with her conventional husband, Hugh. This book begins: ‘Twice a year, for a week or so, for half an hour each day, it is easy to feel glad to be in Perthshire.’ This shows that Dandy is something of a misfit in her county milieu and that there will be plenty of humour in the book. Rather than dutifully huntin’ shootin’ and fishin’, Dandy, with her friend Alec, is also a rather successful private detective.

There’s something cosy about reading a winter book in summer. Cooke’s circus spends the off season on a neighbouring estate and mysterious events cause the owner’s wife to call in Dandy. When an accident could be murder, in steps the delightful Inspector Hutchinson who, unusually for a copper, is happy to let amateurs do some of the work. The book is well written and very enjoyable.



Dandy Gilver has her own website here to provide background to the stories. I particularly like ‘Upstairs: Grant’, where Dandy’s maid gives advice on clothes. The Dandy Gilver Mysteries are set in the 1920s. Catriona McPherson has also written ‘modern’ novels, as Catriona McCloud and I intend to seek out those as well. Many thanks to the library for providing me with a new author to enjoy.