D Is For Death | Harriet F. Townson
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
It’s 1935 and Dora Wildwood has run away to London to stay with her godmother Lady Dreda Uglow in an attempt to escape the clutches of her loathsome fiancé Charles Silk-Butters. It’s not long before she’s tangled up in a wave of murders, intrigue and crime.
D Is For Death: book review & synopsis
D Is For Death is an enthralling story, with much of the action set in the London Library and told with an acerbic eye for rivalry and skullduggery in the publishing world. There’s a convincing sense of the era, too. Fictional characters and events are blended with real people like Edward and Mrs Simpson, and mixed with recognisable clubs, music, films and historical events into a satisfying plot that races along. It’s an absolute treat.
There are also moments when the author gives a small first-person aside to the reader so that it feels as if we are part of the story too.
Dora Wildwood is fantastic. Too tall, too clumsy and too unconventional, she’s every bit as incisive, beguiling and interesting a sleuth as any Poirot or Miss Marple. The reader feels her frustration completely as she tries to convince the oafish Charles that she has no intention of marrying him.
You’ll be cheering on Dora…
While her character and the story draw on traditions of the Golden Era of crime fiction, Dora’s forthright attitude ensures D Is For Death feels fresh and modern, as well as authentic. She has an uncanny knack of being able to see things others are totally unaware of and she runs rings around Detective Inspector Stephen Fox. I laughed aloud on several occasions.
Through Dora and many of the other women, there is a strong feminist theme in the story. As the body count increases, there are no vapid, swooning heroines, but rather clever, determined and independent women that have the reader cheering them on.
Elegantly written, D Is For Death is delightfully tongue in cheek, intelligent, fast-paced and witty. It encompasses a love of books with a total romp of a cosy crime murder mystery. What a brilliant summer read!
D Is For Death by Harriet F. Townson is out now (Hodder & Stoughton, HB, £22) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including I Died On a Tuesday by Jane Corry, Redemption by Jack Jordan, Our Holiday by Louise Candlish, The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling by Katherine Blake, My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes and The Intruders by Louise Jensen.
