Hildegard Dolson

 When Grace Dilworth, newly liberated following the death of her domineering father, returns from a cruise with a handsome young "art expert" in tow, tongues in stuffy Wingate, Connecticut, wag.  And when the young man is found impaled on the spears of the sculpture he and Grace have installed in the former rose garden of the Dilworth Arts and Crafts Center in A Dying Fall, septuagenarian Lucy Ramsdale and retired Inspector James McDougal must sort it out.  Lucy is entertaining as an amateur detective, but a little of her goes a long way.  Grade:  B.

Lucy is at it again in Please Omit Funeral.  She's invited an old friend, actress Alison Moffat, for the weekend and the two of them attend a party at the home of author Lawrence Dilman, renowned for his scandalous novel, Wayward The World, which has recently been the victim of a book burning by the self-appointed local morals guardian Georgina Hampter.  The party is rife with people who would like to murder Dilman, so it's not a surprise when someone does.  Grade:  B.  

 

Eilis Dillon

 I started to read Eilis Dillon's Death At Crane's Court, but remembered that there is some killing of cats that bothered me the first time I read it, so decided not to read it again.  As I recall, the characters were interesting, but I felt it was just too upsetting to read this time around.  Grade: D for that alone.

Sent To His Account is more to my liking.  Dublin accountant Miles de Cogan, who has come down in the world from the prosperous days of his youth, is astonished to find out that a cousin has died and left him sole heir to an estate and a small fortune.  When local bigwig Thomas Reid is found poisoned in Miles' drawing room, Miles and Inspector Pat Henley, son of one of Miles' former accounting clients, have to sort through local squabbles and intrigue to solve the mystery.  Grade:  A.  

Death in the Quadrangle finds Professor Daly, who appeared in Death At Crane's Court, back at his college in Dublin ostensibly to deliver a series of lectures.  In fact, the President of the college wants him to find out who has been sending him anonymous letters and who may try to kill him.  Before Daly and his old friend Inspector Mike Kenny can even begin, someone does actually kill the man, and suspects appear thick on the ground.  Grade:  B.