In the Crypt with a Candlestick – Reviews
Tatler Review March 2020
The subjects of Daisy Waugh’s frothy aristocratic crime caper are the Todes of Tode Hall, famous for its Vanbrugh done and its association with a Brideshead-like novel, Prance to the Music in Time. When the ancient Sir Ecgbert dies, his widow Emma, having served her time, is ready to move to Capri and leave the running of the place to someone else. Her three children are for various reasons incapable of the job, so she approaches a cousin and his glamorous wife and asks them to take over. But when Emma’s dead body is found in the mausoleum, it’s up to Tode Hall’s newest employee Alice and Ecgbert’s forgotten mother to figure out if something sinister is afoot. It’s sharp, funny and just the right amount of farcical – the best sort of murder mystery. Read here
Literary Review March 2020
Daisy Waugh has great fun mixing a cosy crime caper with elements of her grandfather’s novel Brideshead Revisited and the TV adaptation that was filmed at Castle Howard. In the Crypt with a Candlestick stars the Tode family, who have owned the magnificent money pit that is Tode Hall for generations. Living there now are the recently widowed Emma, Lady Tode; her faithful retainers, Mr and Mrs Carfizzi; and a once-celebrated actor who had a big part in the television version of A Prance to the Music in Time, with his famous teddy bear, Dogmatix. The mental instability of the heir persuades Lady Tode to bring in some more distant relatives to run the house and mayhem ensues. Many jokes, good characterisation, entertaining satire and a neat resolution to the murder mystery make this novel a perfect antidote to wintry gloom. Read here
The Morning Star March 2020
“A TRADITIONAL mystery gone crackers” is perhaps the best way to describe In the Crypt with a Candlestick by Daisy Waugh.
Following the death of her ancient husband, Lady Tode is longing to escape into retirement. She can no longer tolerate the burdens of running a country house as both family home and tourist attraction.
Unfortunately, none of her diversely useless offspring are up to taking on the job. The only people who seem to have their heads screwed on in anything like the right direction are the granddaughter of a former maidservant and a member of the family who, if it’s not tactless to mention it, has been dead for quite a while.
When an extra body is found in the family crypt, can anyone save Tode Hall?
This whodunnit, set in a twisted version of PG Wodehouse’s terrain, is deeply funny. But the characters and their troubles are much more than mere pegs to hang jokes on. Read here
Metro Newspaper March 2020
Daisy Waugh, granddaughter of Evelyn, pokes some harmless fun at Brideshead Revisited in this barmy tribute to the golden age of crime writing. Her cast of aristos include a nymphomaniac widowed matriarch finally shot of her doddering husband and her eldest son, Ecgbert, whose psychological peculiarities have seen him consigned to a local care home. The family’s main problem, though, is their huge tourist-besieged Yorkshire pile, which none of the three children is either desirous or capable of inheriting. Throw in a dead body, a suspicious butler and a ghost that pops out of a sugar dispenser, and you have an effervescent madcap whodunnit. Read here
The Catholic Herald March 2020
In Daisy Waugh’s new novel the Todes of Tode Hall are in crisis. The despised patriarch Sir Ecgbert, the 11th baronet, has finally shuffled off his mortal coil, leaving his younger wife, Emma, despairing as to which of her three hopeless children to leave in charge of the magisterial house while she swans off to her villa in Capri. The problem is, none of them is suitable: daughter Nicola, who lives in Edinburgh with her “gender non-specified lover, Bone” is too lefty; the son and rightful heir Mad Ecgbert is, well, mad; and spare son Esmé has taken himself off to Australia and has no intention of coming back…. Read on here
Learn How to Read Tarot Cards with my Eight-Part, On-Line Course with the Idler Academy
From the Idler Academy Website:
Are you a Tarot skeptic or enthusiast? Either way you’ll find something in our new course, a no-nonsense introduction to the much-maligned card game. Of course, this is for entertainment purposes only, but we find that even the most hardened cynic can find joy in the idle pleasure of creating stories from the symbols and learning the history of the mystical deck.
In this course novelist Daisy Waugh guides you through the fundamental skills of Tarot card reading and interpretation. Using her understanding of character and structure, she will show you how to draw on the stories told in the beautiful pictures of the Tarot deck using the powers of your own intuition. Learn how to deal the deck and take a reading from as little as three cards or the classic ‘Celtic Cross’ spread. At the same time, expect to improve your narrative skills by learning to make links between the signs, symbols and numbers of the cards.
Daisy’s approach to the Tarot does not require a ‘magic touch’, but rather focuses on the student’s ability to question, comfort and challenge the recipient of their reading, with the aim of reaching a positive resolution to their dilemma.
In this eight part course you have all you need know to get started on the rewarding journey of learning and practising to read the Tarot. Find out more/ Subscribe here
Daily Mail Book Club with Sarah Vine April 2020
SARAH VINE, SANTA MONTEFIORE and IMOGEN EDWARDS JONES review IN THE CRYPT WITH THE CANDLESTICK for the new Daily Mail Book Club vlog.
I listened to these three and accomplished writers reviewing my new book with a cheshire cat grin on my chops. They loved the book and I love them.
Watch it here
THE DAILY MAIL BOOK CLUB REVIEW OF IN THE CRYPT WITH THE CANDLESTICK
Press Association April 2020
In the Crypt with a Candlestick is named Number One Most Uplifting Read During Isolation. Read here
The Great Big book Club launch April 2020
The Great Big Book Club launched today (Monday April 27th). You can see it here
Or you can read about in the Bookseller here
Or you can see that In the Crypt with a Candlestick is a Book of the Week here
Or … watch me reading the Bookcast of the Week here