TO DAVY JONES BELOW

The eighth adventure for Dunn's 1920s busybody/heroine Daisy Dalrymple (Rattle His Bones, 2000, etc.), married at last to Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard and on a honeymoon that will take them to America aboard the Talavera, all expenses paid. Alec is to confer with the newly reorganized Justice Department in the US; Daisy will write articles about the voyage for a magazine. If the trip were really as idyllic as the set-up promised, of course, Daisy would spend it between books. So it's no surprise that her neighbor and onetime suitor, the honorable Phillip Petrie, is aboard with his own bride, Gloria Arbuckle. And her millionaire father, another passenger, is much concerned about his old friend Jethro Gotobed, still another honeymooner making the voyage with aging chorine Wanda Fairchild, the longtime object of Gotobed's infatuation. The ship is barely under way when a man falls overboard. Rescued just in time, he turns out to be unassuming farmer Albert Denton. But as he's recovering in sickbay, a second man overboard is not so lucky. While Alec struggles manfully with seasickness, it takes all of Daisy's sleuthing skills to figure out the victim's identity and the motives involved.

Pretty much the mixture as before, with an interesting backdrop and a livelier cast of characters than usual. Daisy's legion of fans will be delighted.