“Gone West” really does mean “Dead”

Gone West [by] Carola Dunn

New York; Minotaur [2011]

978-0-312-67548-6

Daisy Dalrymple has been solving crimes even before she married a Detective Chief Inspector from Scotland Yard, and in this case, she even beat her husband to the crime scene.  She has braved the wilds of Derbyshire at the behest of her old school friend Sybil.  For six or seven years, Sybil has made her home at the country estate of Humphrey Birtwhistle, her employer.  She has concerns about his health, for he is not getting any better after a bout with pneumonia.  She fears that someone is poisoning him, and she wants Daisy to check it out.

Humphrey ran away from home as a young man, finding nothing about his father’s sheep farm to keep himself occupied.  He finds great joy in the American West, where he also marries former school teacher, Ruby.  When his father dies, he returns, bride in tow, to the ancestral home, much to the disgruntlement of his brother and sister, to take up a third of the inheritance.  He settles down to write Westerns under a pseudonym.  His brother Norman runs the farm, which supplies a large part of the groceries for the family, sister Lorna and wife Ruby share the cooking and housekeeping with two girls from one of the tenant farms, and Herbert brings in most of the money with thrice-yearly books.  Sybil has been typing the manuscripts for him until he fell ill.

During his illness, Sybil’s job took on more importance.  She began to rewrite some of the dialogue and improve on other parts of the stories.  Using Birtwhistle’s storylines, she has actually been writing the novels that are published under the name Eli Hawke.  The sales increased, as did the money for the writer and his so-called assistant.  Not everyone knows that Sybil is responsible, and she worries that it will come out.  She also worries that someone is trying to keep Humphrey ill, so that she will continue to ghostwrite, thus making more money for all of them to spend.

When Daisy gets there, it is as if there were a great houseparty underway.  Not only are the two brothers, the sister, the wife, and the secretary living there, but also the son, Simon, who has aspirations of being a writer – literary, not popular fiction, a young lady, Myra, with ties to the family, and the spirit of the Twenties, gadding about like a social butterfly.  Simon and Myra are very good at spending Humphrey’s hard-earned cash.  Beautiful Myra has attracted a snobbish suitor, Walter Ilkton, who is crazy about her, following her around like a besotted puppy, and an Irish playwright named Neil Carey, who also finds himself attracted to her, although he is actually Simon’s friend.  Tangentially attached to the family is Humphrey’s doctor, who is smitten with Sybil.  Daisy joins the family at dinner, and finds herself quite welcome by most but Norman and Lorna are taciturn, with an undercurrent of anger and martyrdom.  Humphrey is delighted with her, and gets rather overworked, which causes him to decline somewhat and take to his bed again.

The second day Daisy is there, she joins most of them in a visit to the local village, which also has a spa, where an elderly relation of Ilkton’s is a resident.  She shops with Myra, while Ruby and Lorna do some shopping for the household.  Simon grabs a beer at the pub, and Neil takes Myra for a motorcycle ride.  Then they all return to the house for tea and then dinner.  After dinner, Humphrey goes to bed, and a few minutes later his wife returns with the news that he has collapsed and died.  The weather outside is extremely foggy, causing everyone to be marooned at the home.  The police are called, and the locals call for D.C.I. Alec Fletcher, Daisy’s husband.  He is not happy!

But this is standard.  Alec is never happy when Daisy’s involved, but he does ask her to remember all the actions of the various people, who are now suspects, and to take notes when he interviews said suspects.  With the vast pool of suspects, they have their work cut out for them, but, in the end, they prevail and solve the crimes.

The rich characterizations, locations, and descriptions really do evoke England between the wars, and it’s always fun to visit Daisy and her husband.  Even though this is not as strong as others in the series, it’s still a worthwhile read.  Recommended. ~ lss-r

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This book is from my Public Library.