Carola Dunn (born 14 November 1946) is a

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writer of

regency romance Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novels set during the period of the British Regency (1811–1820) or early 19th century. Rather than simply being versions of contemporary romance stories transported to a historical setting, Regency r ...

s and

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...

Life

Dunn attended Friends' School, Saffron Walden, and graduated from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

.LCAuth record

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authorities file. After university, she relocated to the United States and married an American. She has lived in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

since 1992. She started writing at 33.

Books

Of Dunn’s 59 books (as of 2018), 32 are regency novels and 27 mysteries (of which in turn, 23 are part of the Daisy Dalrymple mystery series, and four belong to the Cornish Mystery series featuring Eleanor Trewynn, a widow and former international charity worker who has retired to

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

). In the Daisy Dalrymple series, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple, a

freelance writer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

, meets and marries Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of

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over the course of several novels in which they work together to solve murder cases. He tries, unsuccessfully, to keep her out of crime investigations because his superiors at the Yard object to her involvement. The series is set in the 1920s. Like all Dunn's work, the books are "closed-door" romances which are not sexually explicit. In the Cornish Mysteries, Mrs. Trewynn, an

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

practitioner, assists her niece, a member of the local

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, in solving various local crimes. Dunn has said that she does not hold herself to exact historical accuracy in the Cornish series, "though the series seems to have settled somewhere in the late '60s". Although she has continued to write the Dalrymple novels, Dunn explained her transition from regencies to cosies to mysteries featuring an older protagonist as being related to her own age: "Regencies generally have young heroines — my oldest was 42. Daisy has been in her 20s for 20 books now. I wanted to write about a protagonist nearer my own age." She has also said that "If Regencies paid enough to live on, I might still be writing them".

Selected bibliography

Historical romances

* ''The Miser's Sister'' (Magna, 1984) * ''A Poor Relation'' (Harlequin, 1990) * ''The Frog Earl'' (Chivers, 1992) * ''My Lord Winter'' (Chivers, 1992) * ''Lord Roworth's Reward'' (Chivers, 1994) * ''The Tudor Secret'' (Kensington, 1994) * ''The Babe and the Baron'' (Chivers, 1997) * ''A Lord for Miss Larkin'' (Mills and Boon, 1997)

The Daisy Dalrymple series

# ''Death at Wentwater Court'' (1994) # ''The Winter Garden Mystery'' (1995) # ''Requiem for a Mezzo'' (1996) # ''Murder on the Flying Scotsman'' (1997) # ''Damsel in Distress'' (1997) # ''Dead in the Water'' (1999) # ''Styx and Stones'' (1999) # ''Rattle His Bones'' (2000) # ''To Davy Jones Below'' (2001) # ''The Case of the Murdered Muckraker'' (2002) # ''Mistletoe and Murder'' (2002) # ''Die Laughing'' (2003) # ''A Mourning Wedding'' (2004) # ''Fall of a Philanderer'' (2005) # ''Gunpowder Plot'' (2006) # ''The Bloody Tower'' (2007) # ''Black Ship'' (2008) # ''Sheer Folly'' (2009) # ''Anthem for Doomed Youth'' (2011) # ''

Gone West Gone West (March 10, 1984 – September 7, 2009) was an American Thoroughbred Horse racing, racehorse. Bred by William O. Reed, he was a son of the influential sire Mr. Prospector. His dam, Secrettame, was a daughter of 1973 United States Trip ...

'' (2012) # ''Heirs of the Body'' (2013) # ''Superfluous Women'' (2015) # ''The Corpse at the Crystal Palace'' (2018) Short stories * "Unhappy Medium" in ''Malice Domestic 7'' () * "Storm in a Tea Shoppe" in ''Crime Through Time'' ()

Cornish Mystery series

# ''Manna From Hades'' (2009) # ''A Colorful Death'' (2010) # ''The Valley of the Shadow'' (2012) # ''Buried in the Country'' (2016)

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Carola Writers from Eugene, Oregon British emigrants to the United States People educated at Friends School Saffron Walden American romantic fiction writers American crime fiction writers British romantic fiction writers British crime fiction writers Cozy mystery writers 1946 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists British women novelists 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British novelists Women romantic fiction writers Women crime fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century British women writers 21st-century British women writers Novelists from Oregon Alumni of the University of Manchester