Daisy Moore Mysteries Books in Order

The Daisy Moore mysteries take Gretta Mulrooney's love of secrets and motive into postwar England. They begin in 1945, just as Britain is stepping out of war and into an uneasy peace. Daisy is young, sharp and far more capable than the quiet village around her first assumes.

She has already done harder work than most people know.

Before the series begins, Daisy has been involved in secret wartime work in London. When that life ends, and after the shock of her mother's death in a house fire, she needs somewhere to live and a fresh start. That is how she arrives at the Dolphin Hotel in Fernfield, Oxfordshire. It should be a practical job and a chance to keep her head down. Instead, as Death at the Dolphin shows almost immediately, murder finds her.

The setting matters a lot here. Fernfield is not a cosy fantasy village untouched by history. It is a place still carrying wartime loss, shortages, suspicion of outsiders and the awkward social shifts that peace brings with it. Daisy notices all of that. She is observant, independent and unused to being told to leave things to the men, which makes her a natural investigator and, at times, an irritation to the police.

In Death at the Dolphin and Death at Larch Bridge, the crimes grow out of community life rather than grand conspiracy. Hotel guests, local grudges, hidden relationships and old wounds keep feeding the mystery. Mulrooney gives Daisy plenty of classic whodunnit problems, missing people, false fronts and too many suspects, while keeping the world grounded in ration-book Britain and in the uncertain mood of the late 1940s.

That mix is the charm of the series.

These books are lighter on the surface than the Tyrone Swift or Siv Drummond novels, but they are not flimsy. Daisy is dealing with guilt, displacement and the question of what sort of life she gets to build after the war. Around her are veterans, refugees, busybodies and villagers who would rather keep the peace than face the truth. If you like historical mysteries with a smart amateur sleuth, a strong sense of place and just a little postwar melancholy under the puzzle, Daisy Moore is a very good place to start.