It's too hot to think today (90 degrees, and I wilt at 80), so I'm going to take the easy way and post Publishers Weekly's review of Black Ship (due in Sept):

Black Ship: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Carola Dunn. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-36307-9

At the start of Dunn's diverting 17th Daisy Dalrymple 1920s mystery (after 2007's The Bloody Tower), Daisy and her Scotland Yard detective husband, Alec Fletcher, have inherited a large house from Alec's great-uncle near London's Hampstead Heath. While the couple are delighted with the extra space for their growing family, they have doubts about their new neighbors. Then the maid discovers a dead body in the garden one morning, and Daisy and Alec become entangled in a case involving bootleggers, American gangsters and black ships (e.g., rum-running vessels). Meanwhile, the nanny can't get used to the idea that Daisy as a modern mother actually wants to play with her babies.

Dunn provides an intriguing view of the Prohibition era from the English perspective, besides casting a witty light on the social changes of the day.

It's the first review, cheering to have a good one whatever the next few say! What's more, it gets everything right (except using e.g. in place of i.e). I hate it when reviewer get the names wrong--or anything else for that matter. And I find it really irritating when the "review" is just a capsule precis of the story. I had a starred review in Kirkus once of which the star was the only bit worth quoting.

I just found out that the UK edition from Constable and Robinson is also coming out in September--Daisy makes it to England at last!

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