I loved this book! It was a great cosy crime novel that I didn't want to put down. Thoroughly enjoyed and will be checking out the author's other work!

A Gentle Mystery.....
Book fourteen in the Dandy Gilver mystery series. The year is 1936 and Lady Gilver has been called to investigate a case, along with her colleague Alec Osbourne,, on the Firth of Forth. A gentle mystery with likeable protagonists and a delightful backdrop. Escapist and entertaining cosy crime.

Even if I enjoyed this story I think it'd be better to read the previous instalment as I felt a bit confused at times and didn't understand some references to previous books.
The characters are fleshed out and likeable, the plot is enjoyable and engrossing even if a bit convoluted at times. The mystery is solid, full of twists and turns, and it kept me guessing.
The historical background is vivid and interesting.
I recommend this book.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This latest instalment in the Dandy Gilver series was a bit of a miss for me. I've loved some of this series, and found some less engaging and this is more of the latter than the former. I like the characters and I liked the idea of the mystery, but something about it all just didn't gel together for me. A shame but I'll still keep reading them. And this cover is gorgeous.

Those who were with us at the end of A Step So Grave will remember that Donald was engaged to Mallory Dunnoch. They're now married and Mallory is having twins. When they arrive no one can doubt the charms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with Dandy and Hugh. Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to look into a problem at the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistible.

Cramond is an island in the Forth. At low tide, it's joined to the mainland by a causeway but at other times people cross back and forth using the ferry, which is run by a young lady called Vesper Kemp. There's been some antagonism locally about this. Vesper took over the ferry from her father and had every right to - but it's seen as a woman taking a job away from one of the men who returned from the war. The Reverend Hogg has written to Dandy and Alec again because he's concerned about Vesper's increasingly irrational behaviour: he'd like their help in resolving the matter.

It's May 1936. There's a sense that the country is girding up for war. The abdication of Edward VIII is still something which people hope is not going to happen and whilst people are wary of Hitler, he usually gets the title 'Mr' when he's referred to. Dandy uses 'setting lotion' on her hair and although she might countenance bringing poachers up before the local magistrate she does see the irony in allowing her dog, Bunty, whom she feeds twice a day, to chase rabbits.

There's been a tragedy locally too. Simone and Angus Haslett are neighbours and friends of Hugh and Dandy and their son, Peter, who was studying agriculture has drowned. It seems that he was alone on the Cramond ferry and drunk when he fell into the water. Simone and Angus are distraught.

It looks quite simple, doesn't it? Dandy and Alec simply need to find Vesper Kemp and persuade her that she needs medical help and perhaps a rest from the duties which she isn't currently performing. There's a problem though - Vesper has seemingly lost all contact with reality to the extent of being partially undressed in public and she can't always be found. There's also something very strange going on in the town and it's not just the dreadful food which Dandy and Alec are being served at Miss Speir's house.

It's a cracking good story, which at one point become so complex that you wonder how it can all be disentangled but Catriona McPherson works her usual magic and there's a very satisfying ending. The writing is entertaining and McPherson has a wonderful ability to paint unforgettable word pictures:

She shooed us away towards a grand staircase with such a series of flurried gestures that I was reminded of a shepherd attempting to get a collie, only half-trained, to run out and gather a huddle of flighty ewes.

You can see it can't you?

If you enjoy a book where the violence is always at a distance and there's no bad language then this is a book for you. I'd like to thank the publishers for making a copy available to the Bookbag.

Ok. - quick admission. I've not read any of the books in this series since the first one, which I loved, but time and distraction kept me from reading more until now. Clearly, there has been some water under the bridge since the Armistice Ball but actually puzzling out the various relationships was in some ways as satisfying as the mystery, which has a rather odd premise (a female ferry boat operator has gone somewhat off the rails embarrassing the town) but proves to me engrossing. McPherson has a splendid eye for character and the setting, despite being a now rather distant one, is quite natural and convincing. The attitudes to childbirth and rearing are quite amusing to read now. Certainly the book is well researched. Will I head back and read the 12 novels in the series I missed? No. But I might well read the next one!

I am delighted to say that this is a great improvement on the previous two entries in the series, but is still nowhere as near interesting as the earlier books.
The settings, particularly at Cramond and in James Thin's the booksellers, took me back to my childhood and youth in Edinburgh but the plot was not particularly engrossing or engaging. Many people will find aspects disturbing, especially the depiction of Vesper Kemp, the Cramond ferrywoman.

3.5 stars as it has encouraged me to continue with Dandy and Alec.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder&Stoughton for the digital review copy.

'"Good," I said. "Someone's lying, Alec. And when someone's lying, there's a truth to be uncovered. We're on the scent at last."'

1936, and Dandy Gilver and her amateur detective side-kick Alec Osborne receive a series of letters requesting their help in dealing with a case in Cramond, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Once Dandy's daughter has managed to successfully give birth to twins, she is able to get away and investigate. A young man has been killed (someone she used to know) and the local ferrywoman is, it seems, blaming herself and slowly going mad. Invited by the local minister, the pair start to poke around and uncover a whole host of secrets and lies.

This is a great series, and although I haven't read all of them it is easy enough to drop in and pick it up as a stand alone book. Dandy and Alec are confronted by a suitably eccentric group of villagers, a local constabulary that is equally pompous and foolish, and red-herrings aplenty as they go on the trail of mysterious Roman artefacts, illicit alcohol and a potato trial on nearby Cramond Island. It's all a heap of fun, but with the occasional nod to the period and the looming shadow of impending world war troubling a generation still reeling from the Great War.

This is perfect escapist reading, and a decent challenge for eagle-eyed readers to spot the clues and work out what is going on. It is what it is, and is a great addition to the series. It also helps, for me, that this is set in my old stomping ground, so it was fun to see Cramond and Edinburgh (especially the old James Thin bookshop) in a period setting. 4 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of the paperback version of this title.)

I’m finding myself a bit torn on this. I read a few of her books a few years ago and rather enjoyed them, so when I noticed this latest Dandy Gilver book on Netgalley I thought I’d request it. They are cosy mysteries of the kind that attempt to replicate the ‘Golden Age’ of crime fiction, a genre I am fond of.

In many ways, I very much enjoyed The Turning Tide. It was fairly standard as the genre goes, but I liked Dandy and her detecting partner Alec as much as I remember doing. They’re entertaining and interesting, and it’s still not so common for a woman and a man to be friends but not have a romance in fiction that I greatly appreciated it. Some of the supporting characters were quite fun too.

But I can’t, I just can’t get on board with mental illness being used for shock value and mystery. It’s shallow and lazy and, frankly, offensive. That nobody would do anything about the ferry when Vesper stops running it properly is completely implausible, and that nobody would call a doctor or a police (not that that would have helped her, but that is a thing that people do) is equally bizarre.

So although I enjoyed aspects of this book, on the whole it wasn’t for me. Even the resolution of the mystery is a bit weird and convoluted and didn’t seem terribly believable, though if I’d liked other aspects of it more I might not have noticed that!