FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Daisy Dalrymple -- now in her delightful dozenth outing -- has always been unconventional: First this daughter of a viscount chose to make her living writing for magazines. Then she compounded that eccentricity by marrying a policeman. But the oddest thing about her, as far as her family and friends are concerned, is her disconcerting habit of discovering dead bodies -- and then intrepidly investigating their unsavory origins. The otherwise stalwart Daisy does have one very conventional phobia: She hates going to the dentist. And discovering her new dentist, Raymond Talmadge, dead in his own dental chair isn't likely to improve matters. Still, insatiably curious as ever, Daisy is determined to fill in the holes in this case. And that means drilling for the truth: Was it really a suicide, as authorities believe it to be? Or could it have been an accidental death, from a dangerous habit of inhaling laughing gas for kicks? Or could it have been murder? As always, English-born Carola Dunn has done an excellent job of capturing the essence of life in her homeland between the wars. Daisy is a charming heroine, whose keen intelligence and clear-sighted perceptions of human nature enable her not only to solve mysteries but also to ensure that right triumphs, even when justice is not always served according to the letter of the law. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

One morning in April 1924, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher finds herself in a most unenviable position. Despite her best attempts to elude the inevitable, she must face her darkest fears and, with all the strength and courage she can muster, confront the one person she has tried hardest to avoid - the dentist. But upon arriving for her appointment, she finds the waiting room deserted and the adjoining examination room locked with no sign of either Mr. Talmadge or his nurse. Thinking to leave quietly, Daisy is halted by the return of Nurse Hensted and, with the help of Mrs. Talmadge, the two begin searching for the inexplicably absent dentist. Upon exhausting all other possibilities, they look once again in the surgery where they find Mr. Talmadge in his dentist's chair with the nitrous mask strapped to his face. The tank of nitrous is turned on full, there's a smile on the dentist's face, and he's stone-cold dead.

While the circumstances of his death are out of the ordinary, there's no reason to suspect that it was anything other than a tragic, if inevitable, accident of a careless dope fiend. At least that's how it seems to everyone but Daisy. Sure that there is something more than happenstance and an accident involved in the dentist's untimely death, Daisy is determined to uncover the truth behind a case of what she is certain is murder most foul.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Deviously, and over many pots of tea, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher befriends suspects and ferrets out secrets in an effort to solve a dentist's murder in Carola Dunn's Die Laughing: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery. As ever, the author brings upper-class society in 1920s Britain wonderfully to life. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Aristocratic Daisy finally works up the courage to go to the dentist only to find him dead. Despite suspicious circumstances, everyone wants to blame an accident. The 12th Daisy Dalrymple adventure looks at English fashion. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews