Carola Dunn
My first Cornish Mystery, Manna from Hades, is now out in paperback.
After a life of travelling
the globe working for an international charity, Eleanor Trewynn retires to Cornwall
when she's widowed. She buys a cottage in the fishing village of Port Mabyn on the North Coast, and turns the ground floor into a charity shop, while living above with her Westie, Teazle.
Eleanor expects a placid retirement after decades of adventure, but her life is turned upside
down when the shop receives a donation of valuable jewels from an
unknown benefactor, followed by the discovery of a body in the back
room.
Is there a connection between the jewellery and the murdered youth! Eleanor's police detective niece, DS Megan Pencarrow, and her irascible boss investigate.
Reviews:
...this well-plotted and atmospheric mystery has a finely calibrated edge to it,
almost an attitude of defiance just below the surface, that belies the initial
impression of just a nice little cosy. For Nell is a woman of substance and
strengths, who knows many of her limitations and finds ways to work within and
around them. And she does not actually solve the crime - that is left to the
professionals - but her information and perception do help the detectives along
the way, resulting in a quite satisfactory and rather more realistic solution
than those which are, alas, too frequently found in cosy mysteries.
Carola Dunn's characters, especially Nell, are superb creations,
for she carefully layers their personalities and attitudes, behaviors and
inclinations, until these seem like people you've known for a very long time and
would gladly have as friends. In addition to Nell herself, we have her niece
Detective Sergeant Megan Pencarrow, one of the few women in the North Cornwall
Constabulary; Inspector Scumble, opinionated, irascible and short-tempered but
not too old or proud to learn something from a woman if it will help solve his
mystery; an artist, an extremely organized vicar's wife and her absent-minded
husband, several rather lost young folks, and a lovely little dog named Teazle.
In the hands of a less gifted writer these might have been caricatures but each
has a distinct personality, becoming more interesting as the story progresses.
Reviewing the Evidence
Adept at showing character through witty dialogue, Dunn paints an
amusing picture of a small town that readers will want to visit again
soon.
Publishers Weekly
“Dunn has a knack for
writing meatier-than-usual cozies with strong female characters, and
she has another charming winner here.”
-- Booklist
“Eleanor is a wonderful, multi-faceted heroine and Manna from Hades
is a first-rate story…Carola Dunn demonstrates the same smooth writing
and seasoned storytelling that readers have come to expect from her.”
--- Mystery News
The second in the series,
A Colourful Death, is available in hardcover and ebook. The third,
The Valley of the Shadow, comes out in December.
