Several papers have published advanced reviews of Daisy Waugh’s new book In the Crypt with a Candlestick. This will be published later this month. See earlier post for report of an interview. Here’s the review by Natasha Cooper in the Literary Review:
Daisy Waugh has great fun mixing a cosy crime caper with elements of her grandfather’s novel Brideshead Revisited and the TV adaptation that was filmed at Castle Howard. In the Crypt with a Candlestick stars the Tode family, who have owned the magnificent money pit that is Tode Hall for generations. Living there now are the recently widowed Emma, Lady Tode; her faithful retainers, Mr and Mrs Carfizzi; and a once-celebrated actor who had a big part in the television version of A Prance to the Music in Time, with his famous teddy bear, Dogmatix. The mental instability of the heir persuades Lady Tode to bring in some more distant relatives to run the house and mayhem ensues. Many jokes, good characterisation, entertaining satire and a neat resolution to the murder mystery make this novel a perfect antidote to wintry gloom.
There’s also this excerpt from the Tatler:
The subjects of Daisy Waugh’s frothy aristocratic crime caper are the Todes of Tode Hall, famous for its Vanbrugh done and its association with a Brideshead-like novel, Prance to the Music in Time. […] It’s sharp, funny and just the right amount of farcical – the best sort of murder mystery.
And this is from the the review by Claire Allfree in the online paper Metro.news:
Daisy Waugh, granddaughter of Evelyn, pokes some harmless fun at Brideshead Revisited in this barmy tribute to the golden age of crime writing. […] Throw in a dead body, a suspicious butler and a ghost that pops out of a sugar dispenser, and you have an effervescent madcap whodunnit.
Thanks to David Lull for sending links to these articles.
