More "rain..."

by Carola

More publishing news:

The eight Daisy Dalrymple mysteries that were translated into German a good few years ago are going to come out (in German) as ebooks. Miss Daisy resurrected...

 These are all new cover art, some more, some less appropriate! In comparison, here are the three covers for the two German paperback editions of the first in the series, Death at Wentwater Court:

And 3 covers for the second, the Winter Garden Mystery:

So different in mood! It's interesting how many wildly varying views of Daisy and her adventures have appeared over the years.

https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Carola+Dunn

In retrospect: 2015

by Carola

Happy New Year!!

2015 was an eventful year. First, my very first Daisy mystery was reissued with beautiful new cover art to match the later books.

That was March. April, Heirs of the Body came out in paperback.

June, Superfluous Women made its/their appearance.

December, the 11th Daisy mystery came out in audio.

And also in December, at last I finished writing Buried in the Country, the fourth Cornish mystery, a mere 6 months late. Now awaiting my editor's revision letter with fear and trembling, before starting on the 23rd Daisy!

Why so late? Stuff happened, distracting my thoughts from my story. (That's my excuse, anyway.)

I was backed into in a parking lot by a very large pick-up—the driver said my car was too small to see in his mirror!! We were both doing about 2 mph so no damage to me or Trill, and too-small car was driveable, even with a big dent in the side and a door that screamed when opened or closed. His insurance co. was very cooperative but it still took a lot of phoning and paperwork and emailing to get it fixed.

On the other hand, the car emerged from the body-shop looking better than it had in years. They even gave me two new hubcaps though I said one had been missing for ages and the other was already cracked. Pride of workmanship, I reckon.

Most disruptive: The school district is building a new school on the school field behind my house where I and my fellow-dog-people have walked our dogs for many years. For several months we were able to get in, crawling through a hole in the fence when necessary, but now it's all closed off tight. Meanwhile, they excavated and dumped gravel and tamped it down, making the whole house (and my neighbours') shudder and shake.

Worst was that they unloaded their biggest digger in the street directly outside my house, inefficiently, so that it dropped instead of rolling down the ramp. I really would have thought there was an earthquake if I hadn't watched it happen. It left dents in the roadway and opened a 1/4"-wide crack in my living-room wall. That took weeks of emails and phoning to get them to acknowledge responsibility and send someone to fix it.

When he came I asked how much he'd charge me to fix the longtime crack between the brick mantel and the wall (Someone took out a mantelpiece?). "Don't worry about it," he said. "We'll get it." And he did. Hurray! Would you believe I once had a mouse come in through that crack?

Speaking of which, the next event was a huge swarm of termites emerging from a crack in the concrete floor of the back porch.  I called in the "green" pest people, who puffed oils of cinnamon and citrus (smelled wonderful!) and diatomaceous earth into every nook and cranny. It was expensive, but for free they fixed the crawl-space screens a raccoon tore off a few years ago and fastened all the rest thoroughly.

All's well that ends well. Now I'm just biting my fingernails as I wait to see what revisions my editor will ask for!

May the complications in your life in 2016 be minor and easily fixed. Have a great year!

www.CarolaDunn.weebly.com
or come and say hi on Facebook!


This is a happy birthday pic for my sister who apparently can't open it in her email but I hope can look at it here!! Excuse the intrusion...

Happy birthday, sis!

How shall I kill thee? Let me count the ways...

 by Carola

With 25 mysteries published (and another on the way), I'm constantly looking for new ways to do in my victims.  I've used guns, gas, sharp blades,...

 


















... an explosion, strangling, carotid pressure, poisons, suffocation, drowning, falls...,

...being fallen upon (crushed by a stone angel monument), and common-or-garden blows to the head with a blunt instrument. I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.

I've never got around to electrocuting anyone, though electrical safeguards in the 1920s left something to be desired. And I've never used fire, simply because I find the idea altogether too gruesome.

Do the writers among those reading this have a favourite method of murder? Do you find yourselves trying to avoid a method you've used before? Is the method important to your story, or doesn't it matter much how your victim dies as long as he's good and dead? 

For me, it varies. The stone angel was hugely symbolic (Styx and Stones). In The Bloody Tower, I used the layout and history of the Tower of London to dictate the method.  In Fall of a Philanderer, it was alliteration as much as anything that made the Philanderer fall to his death!

Allingham, Simenon, and...Me?

by Carola

I've been keeping distinguished company lately. The Daily Mail, one of England's national newspapers, had a column of suggestions for summer reading, under the heading Classic Crime.

First came Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke.  Allingham's name is familiar to anyone who enjoys the mystery fiction of the so-called Golden Age. Her protagonist, Albert Campion, is similar to Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey in that he has an upper-class background and hides his keen brain behind a facade of foolishness. The columnist says of this book:

 "Allingham was well established as a leading light of crime fiction when she came to write Tiger In The Smoke. All the signs are of a gifted writer aiming higher than the formulaic mystery novel."

 Second in the list is Georges Simenon, creator of Maigret, surely the best known and most translated French detective ever, to English speakers/readers. The book chosen is titled simply Maigret, and was intended to be the last in a long series that the author was growing tired of. However,



 "In the event, Simenon did not give up on Maigret. After this eponymous novel there were another 56 mysteries for his hero to solve. Penguin is republishing them in new translations at a rate of one a month, an inestimable service to classic crime."

And third cometh moi, with the 22nd and most recent Daisy Dalrymple mystery, Superfluous Women.

"Strict feminists may not like the title. How can there be too many women? But the phrase, though derogatory, is based on historical truth: the plight of young women who lost their chance of marriage and family in the slaughter of the Great War...Superfluous Women is a good yarn with a strong period setting — spot on for relaxed summer reading."

 

Exalted company for Daisy! (And in my opinion, the best cover of the three.)

Three books in 4 months!

by Carola

March:
 Minotaur reissued the first Daisy Dalrymple mystery (England 1920s) in trade paperback, with new artwork to match the latter half of the series.

 This is exciting in more than one way. I love the work of the artist who has been doing my covers since the 12th of the series, Die Laughing, so it's great to have the match for Death at Wentwater Court. It's wonderful to have Daisy's first adventure once more available to readers who prefer print. And, with any luck, it means they will continue to reissue the rest of those that were published in mass market paperback by Kensington after the original hardcover from Minotaur. There are already plans for the second to reappear in March 2016.

May:
The 21st book in the series came out in trade paperback (hardcover publication was 2013). This may be my absolute favourite of all Bradley Clark's covers to date.

 June:
On the 9th of June my NEW Daisy mystery comes out. Need I say that I love the cover? It's had great reviews, too, from Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly. (I can't help but wonder how many people choose their reading based on reviews and how many on the art!)

With three books to sign, I'm heading for West Coast mystery bookstores. I'll be at

Mystery Ink, Huntingdon Beach, June 14th at 2pm
Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, June 19th at 7:30 pm
Seattle Mystery Bookshop, June 27th at Noon

These books and the rest of the series can be ordered from any of the above (If you hurry you can request a signed copy!), or any indie bookstore or, of course, Amazon (who say they have the books in the correct order, but don't you believe it!).

Heirs of the Body

by Carola

The 21st mystery in my Daisy Dalrymple series is coming out in trade paperback from Minotaur on May12th.

Set in England in 1927, it's the story of the hunt for the legitimate heir to Daisy's cousin Edgar, the present Lord Dalrymple. Claimants to the viscountcy turn up from all corners of the Empire. When his lordship invites four of them--as well as Daisy and her family--to stay at his country estate to celebrate his fiftieth birthday, mayhem ensues.

Reviews of the hardcover edition:

"Dunn’s forebears are writers such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. They set the standard for classic cozy puzzles, and Heirs of the Body’s unfussy prose and straightforward plot lend themselves well to this venerable tradition."
Adam Woog, The Seattle Times.


"...lively and engaging throughout the traditional whodunit series. As Daisy's aristocratic family become embroiled in another cozy mystery, Dunn offers a strong sense of place, tight and suspenseful plotting and well-defined motives--all serving to enrich the entertaining puzzle at the heart of the story." --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Order from:
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Mysterious Galaxy
Mystery Ink
Amazon

20 years later...

by Carola

My first mystery just reissued after 20 years (and 21 more in the series). Read an excerpt here http://historicalfictionexcerpts.blogspot.com/2015/03/death-at-wentwater-court-reissued.html

20 years, 25 mysteries

by Carola

I had been writing Regencies for 15 years when my first mystery came out, in 1994.  The 25th comes out in June.  I've been working with the same editor at St Martin's Minotaur for TWENTY years, the longest of any of his authors!

Just in time for that anniversary, the first of the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries is being reissued in trade paperback with a brand-new cover, by the artist who has been doing the art for the series since the 12th, Die Laughing.

In comparison, here is the original hardcover, as well as the large print, audio, UK, Polish, and a couple of German translation covers:

original

large print

audio

first German edition

second German edition

UK

US paperback

Interesting to see what different artists make of the story--or at least of whatever they've been told about it! I think the new one is far and away the best, though I don't recall giving Daisy a red scarf. I've already been asked for suggestions for the reissue of the second in the series, The Winter Garden Mystery, and I can't wait to see it (not coming out till Dec. 2016 so I guess I'll have to wait!).

Death at Wentwater Court trade pb due out March 17th, available for preorder.

Online interview: Superfluous Women

by Carola

Here's a link to an interview I did with mystery blogger Terry Ambrose: http://terryambrose.com/2015/02/carola-dunn/

It's about my next Daisy Dalrymple mystery, Superfluous Women, which deals with a rarely considered consequence of the First World War: Hundreds of thousands of men killed meant hundreds of thousands of women with no hope of the life they'd been brought up to expect, marriage and a family.

And here is a link to a poignant poem by one of the women  who found herself in this position, Vera Brittain
http://allpoetry.com/The-Superfluous-Woman

Rum-runners on trial

by Carola

 At a signing last week for Heirs of the Body, at Mysterious Galaxy , [signed copies available; also from www.seattlemystery.com , http://www.mysteryink.com/ ,  http://www.bookem.com/ ], I was reminded of the part--small but essential--that rum-running plays in the story. I thought this would be a good moment to repost my blog written for Black Ship, an earlier Daisy Dalrymple mystery. "Rum-runners on trial" is interesting and pretty funny.

 In BLACK SHIP, the seventeenth Daisy Dalrymple mystery, my protagonist, Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, and her family move in next door to the family of a high-class wine merchant. At the same time, an old acquaintance from her US adventure, THE CASE OF THE MURDERED MUCKRAKER, turns up on the Fletchers' doorstep. He was then a youthful, hapless, helpless, hopeless FBI agent. Now, he announces, he is a Prohibition agent, sent to England to find out who is shipping forbidden alcohol to America. He starts spying on the neighbours--very embarrassing. Then a body is found in the communal garden and Daisy finds herself involved in the affairs of bootleggers, rumrunners and mobsters. Not at all what a respectable mother of twins is accustomed to!

In researching for this book, I came across a library book, The Black Ships (black ships is what the coast guard called the rum-running ships), by Everett S. Allen. Mr Allen grew up on the New England coast and knew many people who had been involved with rumrunning during Prohibition. He interviewed many of them as well as doing research in the US Coast Guard archives. His book sent me to the Coast Guard on my own behalf, to clear up a few points, and the USCG sent me their history of the period: Rum War at Sea, by Commander Malcolm F. Willoughby. 

  The USCG was in a very difficult position. Prohibition had been passed by a narrow margin, so a large proportion of the US population were on the side of the bootleggers, at least until organised crime took over. This resulted in a "disheartening number of releases and acquittals by certain courts, when there should have been forfeitures and convictions..."
[Willoughby]. 
 
One Federal judge in Connecticut was so anti-Prohibition that he virtually never convicted a rum-runner, however convincing the evidence.

In one case, a small cargo vessel was stopped in Long Island Sound. The Coast Guards couldn't find any liquor aboard. They suspected concealed tanks built behind false bulkheads, but at sea it wasn't possible to make the measurements necessary to find them. She was released, but later was seized for running without lights (a common ploy to make the rumrunners harder to find, which led to the name Black Ships). She was taken into custody. Tied up at a USCG pier, she was measured and hidden tanks full of liquor were indeed discovered. The court pronounced that as she had been seized for running without lights, that was the only offence for which she could be prosecuted. Ship and cargo were returned to the owners.

A Norwegian steamer, Sagatind, was found drifting on "Rum Row", forty miles offshore, well outside the three-mile limit. The Coast Guard fired shots across her bow to stop her, without eliciting any reaction. They boarded, and found the crew drunk and incapable, some injured from fighting amongst themselves. They also found 43,000 cases of liquor and a large amount of cash. However the Government failed to prove any liquor had been sold, rather than just transported in international waters. Ship and crew were released by the court.

The USCG was permitted by law to fire upon ships that refused to halt when ordered to do so. Inevitably, this led to deaths on both sides. In one such case, three seamen on a black ship were killed. Because of conflicting evidence, the coastguardsmen were tried for murder. They were acquitted, but when the captain of the black ship was tried for smuggling, the jury acquitted him, too, saying he had been punished enough by having his thumb shot off in the incident.

The 3-mile limit was extended to 12 miles or one hour's sailing time, by international treaty in 1925. This made it much more difficult to pinpoint the position of black ships, and proving how fast they were able to sail was no easier. By this time many bootleggers were highly organised. They could afford their own experts in navigation, whose testimony refuted the Coast Guard's careful measurements--at least when judges and juries were already far from keen on producing a conviction.

On one occasion, an overzealous coast guard falsified his log to show the rumrunners were within territorial waters. This was a serious offense, the log being a legal document. The chief warrant officer concerned was found guilty and reduced in rank.

There was no effort to falsify the position in another case, off the West coast. The Coast Guard found a known black ship, the Federalship, far outside the limits and trailed her from Oregon to California, hoping to catch her actually breaking the law. She flew the flag of Panama. The decision was taken by the San Francisco headquarters to seize the ship. Two USCG cutters came up to her and ordered her to stop and let them come aboard. The captain refused, saying that for all he knew they were "a lot of bloody pirates." After being fired on--and hit--several times, Federalship stopped. She was taken to San Francisco Bay and the cargo of liquor removed (it disappeared from storage!). A Federal Grand Jury indicted the captain and crew for conspiracy. The defence claimed the seizure was illegal, and an act of war as she was Panama registered. The US attorney said that under Panama's law Federalship had lost her registry by engaging in rumrunning and so was a renegade pirate. However, the black ship had not engaged in any illegal activity--had not, in fact, entered territorial waters--while under pursuit from the Columbia River to the point where she was seized. She was released and the USCG had to tow her all the way back to where they had captured her.

The law required the Coast Guard to seize not only any liquor they round aboard a black ship, but the shipThere was no effort to falsify the position in another case, off the West coast. The Coast Guard found a known black ship, the Federalship, far outside the limits and trailed her from Oregon to California, hoping to catch her actually breaking the law. She flew the flag of Panama. The decision was taken by the San Francisco headquarters to seize the ship. Two USCG cutters came up to her and ordered her to stop and let them come aboard. The captain refused, saying that for all he knew they were "a lot of bloody pirates." After being fired on--and hit--several times, Federalship stopped. She was taken to San Francisco Bay and the cargo of liquor removed (it disappeared from storage!). A Federal Grand Jury indicted the captain and crew for conspiracy. The defence claimed the seizure was illegal, and an act of war as she was Panama registered. The US attorney said that under Panama's law Federalship had lost her registry by engaging in rumrunning and so was a renegade pirate. However, the black ship had not engaged in any illegal activity--had not, in fact, entered territorial waters--while under pursuit from the Columbia River to the point where she was seized. She was released and the USCG had to tow her all the way back to where they had captured her.


The law required the Coast Guard to seize not only any liquor they round aboard a black ship, but the ship itself and all its equipment. This led to the rumrunners turning the tables. They'd go to a friendly local jurisdiction and accuse the individual Coastguardsmen of stealing their tackle--charts, sextant, timepiece and so on. The US attorney would request a transfer to Federal court, where the rumrunners didn't pursue the case, but in the meantime the newspapers made hay with the charges of theft and the Coast Guard became ever less popular. itself and all its equipment. This led to the rumrunners turning the tables. They'd go to a friendly local jurisdiction and accuse the individual Coastguardsmen of stealing their tackle--charts, sextant, timepiece and so on. The US attorney would request a transfer to Federal court, where the rumrunners didn't pursue the case, but in the meantime the newspapers made hay with the charges of theft and the Coast Guard became ever less popular. 

The rum-runners used to communicate from shore to ship by illegal radio transmissions in code. One radioman who was arrested was fined $10 for violation of a fire ordinance, the only charge that a hostile jury would make stick. The Prohibition authorities managed to crack the code of one prolific transmitter. They found themselves in a quandary: if they prosecuted, the rumrunners would know the code had been cracked. Not only would no further information about ship movements be overheard, but to persuade a jury of conspiracy to break the law the Coast Guard would have to reveal its methods. They decided not to prosecute.

In one prosecution, when a motorboat had been seized loaded with liquor, the Coast Guard witness was asked what he had found aboard. "One hundred cases," he said. The judge responded, "There's no law against carrying cases," and he dismissed the case.

One final episode among many: Off Key West in Florida, a black ship was halted by gunfire. The boarders were told they had killed the skipper, who had fallen overboard. The Key West population was almost wholly anti-Prohibition and there was talk of lynching the coastguardsman responsible. He was charged with first degree murder by the father of the
captain. At the hearing before a justice of the peace, the charge was reduced to manslaughter because the body of the victim could not be found. The coastguardsman was released on bail. Subsequent investigation revealed that the skipper had disappeared before in similar circumstances and had reappeared in Cuba. This time, apparently, he had swum to shore and made his way to his girlfriend's house in Tampa. When the case went to the Grand Jury, some months later, it was dismissed because no prosecution witnesses turned up!





 

Good news, and Happy 2014!

by Carola

The good news has been rolling in recently. Latest is that the 4th Daisy Dalrymple mystery, Murder on the Flying Scotsman, is now out in audio.

  
Last week I got a terrific review of the new Daisy mystery, Heirs of the Body, from ShelfAwareness.com

 "Heirs of the Body marks Daisy Dalrymple's 21st adventure. Dunn has kept her affable heroine--a writer turned amateur sleuth in 1920s England--lively and engaging throughout the traditional whodunit series. As Daisy's aristocratic family become embroiled in another cozy mystery, Dunn offers a strong sense of place, tight and suspenseful plotting and well-defined motives--all serving to enrich the entertaining puzzle at the heart of the story." --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

 A few days before that, I heard that the first three Daisy books are going to be translated into Hungarian! I can't wait to see whether Hungarian cover artists have the same penchant for black cats as the Polish.

This is the latest Polish cover: Mistletoe and Murder, nicely timed for Christmas.


And I got a contract from my UK publisher for another Regency Trilogy. No idea what those covers will be like, but the ebooks are 

So, altogether it's been a great year and I can only wish myself and everyone else as much success in 2014!

Happy New Year