McPherson, Catriona: After The Armistice Ball

I was having a hard time with this book, but I think it was primarily cause I was having a hard time reading and comprehending at this time. (Sinus/allergy headache and fibrofog, not a good combination)

Here is the cover synopsis:

This gripping murder-mystery is set amid the struggling upper classes of Perthshire as their comfortable world begins to crumble in teh aftermath of the First World War.

Dandy Gilver, her husband back from the Front, her chidren away at school and her uniform growing musty in the attic, is bored to tears in the spring of 1922 and a little light sleuthing seems like harmless fun. She decides to track down the Duffy diamonds, stolen from teh Esslemonts' country house, Croys, after the Armistice Ball. Before long though, the puzzle of the missing gems is swept aside by the sudden, shocking death of lovely young Cara Duffy in a lonely seasid cottage in Galloway. Society and the law are keen to call it an accident but Dandy, along with Cara Duffy's fiance Alec, is sure that there is more to it than meets the eye.

Something is being hidden by the Duffy family: the watchful Lena, the cold and distant Clemence and old Gregory Duffy with his air of sadness--not to mention the victim herself, beautiful Cara, whose secret always seems just tantalizingly out of reach. Dandy must learn to trust her instincts and swallow most of her scruples if she is to uncover the truth.

A sparkling and skillful first novel in the true spirit of the golden age whodunit.

By the end of the book, I was really getting into it. Dandy finally seemed like a real person. But please bear in mind that I was struggling to read this due to aforementioned aflictions, LOL. It took a L-O-N-G time to read thru things in this book. But I am looking forward to future books. McPherson seems to come into her own by the end of the book and makes one want more. (and when you get to the end of the book, you'll really understand that statement.) This is a "thinking" book, not a breeze thru it book. Your thinking hat must be firmly in place, even if you figure out who did it, you'll need it to follow thru to why, just the same as Dandy. You are truly put in her shoes, and her befuddlement, trying to figure out all the details.

dandygilver.co.uk