Her entry begins:I've been travelling, driving from Oregon to Southern California and back. The perfect reading for the motel evenings (and also for staying in a house with young children) is Discover magazine. I've been a subscriber since it was called Science '80. Every issue is full of fascinating stories about what's going on in the world of scientific research, from archeology, anthropology, and medicine to cosmology. I always read it from cover to cover, though I usually don't understand the physics, even at this popular level.About Superfluous Women, from the publisher:
The latest issue but one has an article about an astrophysicist who has come up with a hypothesis about dark matter: that it doesn't exist. His theory, based on a development of Newtonian gravity, would do away with the clash between Einsteinian gravity and quantum mechanics. I don't claim to fully comprehend the arguments but that sounds to me like a good idea! The great thing about Discover is that it doesn't bombard me with math which I wouldn't understand at...[read on]
In England in the late 1920s, The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, on a convalescent trip to the countryside, goes to visit three old school friends in the area. The three, all unmarried, have recently bought a house together. They are a part of the generation of "superfluous women"--brought upLearn more about the book and author at Carola Dunn's website and blog.expecting marriage and a family, but left without any prospects after more than 700,000 British men were killed in the Great War.
Daisy and her husband Alec--Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, of Scotland Yard --go for a Sunday lunch with Daisy's friends, where one of the women mentions a wine cellar below their house, which remains curiously locked, no key to be found. Alec offers to pick the lock, but when he opens the door, what greets them is not a cache of wine, but the stench of a long-dead body.
And with that, what was a pleasant Sunday lunch has taken an unexpected turn. Now Daisy's three friends are the most obvious suspects in a murder and her husband Alec is a witness, so he can't officially take over the investigation. So before the local detective, Superintendent Underwood, can officially bring charges against her friends, Daisy is determined to use all her resources (Alec) and skills to solve the mystery behind this perplexing locked-room crime.
Coffee with a Canine: Carola Dunn and Trillian.
The Page 69 Test: Heirs of the Body.
The Page 69 Test: Superfluous Women.
Writers Read: Carola Dunn.
--Marshal Zeringue
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