Some of my favorite bits were the reminiscences about old Scottish department stores and their stock. The central family drama was sticky but held my interest. The writing reminds me of Diary of a Provincial Lady and glimpses of Wodehouse. I wish this writer would go for a humor plot rather than murder. ( )

I read about two thirds of this book and decided it was a waste of time. There are more books on my list and my bookshelves waiting to be read. It just got very confusing with too many characters and I didn't care about any of them, nor about the protagonist. I had read another book in this series that I enjoyed (Dandy Gilver and The Proper Treatment of Bloodstains ) so was disappointed that this one wasn't even readable. ( )

This is the first I've read of this series and it didn't make me want more. There were too many characters, especially too many with the same name, so by the end, I neither knew nor cared who had done what with whom. ( )

"Fresh Meat" by Terrie Farley Moran for Criminal Element

Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for Murder by Catriona McPherson is an historical mystery set in Scotland after WWI (available May 22, 2012).

Upper-class Scottish socialite Dandy Gilver’s sleuthing adventures begin in earnest in 1923, when she starts out to recover some stolen diamonds and is confronted by a suspicious death in After The Armistice Ball, the first of this series. Fast forward to 1927 and we find book number six, Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for Murder. Dandy receives a note requesting her services as a detective in order to find a missing young woman. When she arrives at the appointed place and time, Dandy finds that she is not expected, and there a verbal brawl going on among the women of the house.

Read the rest at http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/05/fresh-meat-dandy-gilver-and-an-unsu...

Taking place in the Scottish town of Dunfermline, Dandy is called in when a teenaged girl goes missing. But the woman who summoned her, grandmother of the young lady, seems irritated when Dandy shows up and curtly explains that she was expecting her the next day. Dandy can't understand why someone would postpone looking for a missing person, but that's just the first strange thing in a story of warring department stores, family secrets and murder.

Though this story differed quite a bit from the first--where Dandy had to pose as a lady's maid--this still wasn't your typical detective story because, in this case, Dandy ends up working simply to find out the truth rather than working for a specific client. This shows a lot about her personality and her morals and I enjoyed that aspect of it. The story did take a ridiculous number of twists and turns that actually took some effort for me to follow but, once I had it all figured out, it was worth it.

http://webereading.com/2012/05/new-release-dandy-gilver-and-unsuitable.html ( )