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Lark Dodge #1
Larkspur
Lark Dailey faces a weekend at the mountain lodge of her mother’s mentor, poet Dai Llewellyn, without enthusiasm, but Lark’s detective-lover Jay finds the proximity of a notorious pot-farm interesting. The setting, a remote Sierra lake, is idyllic, perfect for canoeing and wind-surfing, not to mention fireworks. Neither Lark nor Jay expects the Fourth of July to end in murder.
Surrounded by old friends, ex-lovers, devoted servants--and someone who does not love him--the poet collapses. He has been poisoned by tincture of larkspur in his Campari. The irony is not lost on Lark, whose bookstore is called Larkspur Books, nor on Jay, who is tapped to investigate.
Jay’s investigation is complicated by the murder of two key witnesses and by bizarre embellishments in all three killings. The embellishments suggest that something less straightforward than greed is driving the killer, something like madness. The tangle of suspicion widens to include not only the poet’s weekend guests but even Lark’s charming, book-loving clerk.
Lark worries that her mother, who comes to town after the San Francisco funeral, may be in danger too, because someone does not like poets, and Mary Dailey, a noted poet, is Llewellyn’s literary executor. Her co-executor may have his own reasons for wanting to control the relics of Dai Llewellyn’s past. As Jay awaits a search warrant, a cocktail party of survivors gathers to honor Lark’s mother, and Lark determines to crash it in time to prevent another poisoning. Unfortunately, she’s not sure who the murderer is.
Surrounded by old friends, ex-lovers, devoted servants--and someone who does not love him--the poet collapses. He has been poisoned by tincture of larkspur in his Campari. The irony is not lost on Lark, whose bookstore is called Larkspur Books, nor on Jay, who is tapped to investigate.
Jay’s investigation is complicated by the murder of two key witnesses and by bizarre embellishments in all three killings. The embellishments suggest that something less straightforward than greed is driving the killer, something like madness. The tangle of suspicion widens to include not only the poet’s weekend guests but even Lark’s charming, book-loving clerk.
Lark worries that her mother, who comes to town after the San Francisco funeral, may be in danger too, because someone does not like poets, and Mary Dailey, a noted poet, is Llewellyn’s literary executor. Her co-executor may have his own reasons for wanting to control the relics of Dai Llewellyn’s past. As Jay awaits a search warrant, a cocktail party of survivors gathers to honor Lark’s mother, and Lark determines to crash it in time to prevent another poisoning. Unfortunately, she’s not sure who the murderer is.
228 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1990
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Sheila Simonson
22 books36 followersMs. Simonson writes mysteries and romantic fiction, and lives in the Pacific Northwest.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 11, 2018
I chose this because I enjoyed Simonson's quiet Regency romances.
This is a well-written contemporary mystery (published in 1990) set in California. There’s nothing wrong with it, except that I was a bit bored with the setting and the cast of characters.
The narrator, Lark, is a womens’ basketball coach who owns a small bookstore. Her boyfriend is a police detective. Her mother is a famous poet, so she knows a lot of writers, one of whom is murdered at a party. While the boyfriend detective investigates, Lark hangs around witnessing drama amongst the suspects.
The bookstore angle is always appealing to readers, but it’s not a significant part of the story. The mystery did not interest me at all, mostly because I didn’t care about any of the characters except perhaps the narrator, who is bland but likeable enough.
This is a well-written contemporary mystery (published in 1990) set in California. There’s nothing wrong with it, except that I was a bit bored with the setting and the cast of characters.
The narrator, Lark, is a womens’ basketball coach who owns a small bookstore. Her boyfriend is a police detective. Her mother is a famous poet, so she knows a lot of writers, one of whom is murdered at a party. While the boyfriend detective investigates, Lark hangs around witnessing drama amongst the suspects.
The bookstore angle is always appealing to readers, but it’s not a significant part of the story. The mystery did not interest me at all, mostly because I didn’t care about any of the characters except perhaps the narrator, who is bland but likeable enough.
August 18, 2018
Told in the first person, this mystery novel follows Lark Dailey who is busy running her new bookstore in a small northern California town. When she is invited to a house party by a famous poet he is dramatically poisoned and Lark and her boyfriend Jay( a local cop) have to figure out which of the wealthy man’s friends and relatives is the guilty one.
March 28, 2023
I really like how this author writes, the characters she brings to life are intelligent and interesting too. I’ll be reading the rest of the Lark series as I really enjoyed this first book.
July 30, 2013
Re-read 3.5 *'s: Interesting to think that when this book was published (1991) owning an independent bookstore was still a viable career and it could survive with only 2 revolving stands of popular fiction!!! Also, no cell phones. Plus, since when is a librarian considered not "intelligent enough"? This is set in California. I assume she has a Masters. Witty? Maybe she's not, but not intelligent? (Probably not intended by the author to insult or to interrupt the flow, but this stuck out to me.)
June 23, 2013
Lark Dailey has always been the athletic one in her loving academic family, but now she's opened a bookstore and is living happily in Monte, CA. She is invited to bring a guest to a weekend party held by an old friend of her mother's, and fortunately her policeman boyfriend is free to come, since he's right on hand when there's a sudden death in the small group. Lark picks up bits of information, but it's Jay who does most of the detection.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews