20s era woman writer engaged to police detective helps solve murder and theft in Museum of Natural History

cosy-mystery, family, friendship, situational-humor, verbal-humor, museum, murder-investigation, murder, London, law-enforcement, due-diligence, theft, romance*****

A nice, light whodunit for an afternoon read. A natural history museum, a young impecunious grand duke, lots of old bones, a murder, a horde of suspects, and theft of valuable gems. And Daisy and DCI Alec are engaged. Good sleuthing!
Lucy Rayner did a fine job as narrator with all the perkiness of Daisy herself! ( )

The Honourable Daisy Darymple may be a member of the aristocracy, but she isn’t one of the usual types. She works for a living writing; her current project is a series of articles on London’ museums, for an American magazine.

Daisy has been spending quite a bit of time at London’s Natural History Museum, interviewing the various curators. Along with the information on the different departments and exhibits, she is also learning of the jealousies and rivalry between the curators. This all comes to a head when she hears a thunderous crash in the Dinosaur Hall and goes in to find the skeleton of the Pareiasaurus in ruins and the dead body of Dr. Pettigrew, Curator of Mineralogy, in the midst of it. Pettigrew wasn’t popular among the staff, but murder?

Daisy has been involved in solving a few murders, so she is no stranger to sleuthing, and she is engaged to Detective Chief Inspector Alex Fletcher. Daisy just can’t keep out of it. She gets a double dose when it is discovered glass faux gems have been substituted for the real rubies, topazes, emerald and other valuable gems in the Mineralogy Exhibit Hall. Who did it and where are the stones?

This series is set in 1923 England and is a fun, cozy read. ( )

While researching her latest article at the Natural History Museum, Daisy is present at a murder. However, determining who the killer is proves difficult with so many rivalries.

The book begins with a jewel theft & the movements of the thief through the museum: although a floor-plan of the museum was provided, I was still confused as I had to go back and forth between the floor-plan & the movements of the thief to figure out, what was going on.

While writing a travel article on the highlights of the British Museum of Natural History for an American Magazine, Daisy meets many an odd character. The most interesting is the Count of a now gone country, who would like the Ruby that was gifted to Queen Victoria and is now on display in the museum returned to his family.

On Daisy's second visit to the museum, she is in one of the dinosaur halls along with a group of young children & their grandmother when in the hall next a particularly odious geologist is murdered.

When Detective Sergeant Tom Tring interviews those who were in the museum at the time, he discovers that few if any of the dead man's co-workers are saddened by his demise...

On a subsequent visit, when Daisy is reviewing the Mineral & Gem displays, the Count notices that the Ruby on display is no longer the genuine stone, but an excellent glass copy. The scientist taking Daisy on the tour comes to the same conclusion and she begins to see a possible connection between the missing ruby & the murder of the Geologist who was responsible for the Gem & Mineral exhibit.

As I stated, the trying ti use the floor-plan throughout the story was confusing for me... ( )