Manna from Hades

Carola Dunn is justly famous for her hugely entertaining Daisy Dalrymple detective stories but in Manna from Hades she moves forward forty years and relocates to the wilds of Cornwall. Her new heroine, and I am assuming that this is the first of a series of books featuring her, is a retired widow, Eleanor Trewynn, who lives in the small coastal town of Port Mabyn. The ground floor of her home is used as a charity shop for which she drives round the countryside collecting donated items. As the story opens she returns from one such trip to find a handful of valuable jewels amongst the cast-offs. This is followed by the discovery of a body in the shop's stockroom. There follows one of Miss Dunn's well constructed and delightfully written stories guaranteed to confound and entertain the reader in equal measure.