Thursday, November 15, 2018

Catriona McPherson

Catriona McPherson was born in Scotland and lived there until 2010, before immigrating to California.  A former academic linguist, she is now a full-time fiction writer, the multi- award-winning and best-selling author of the Dandy Gilver detective stories, set in Scotland in the 1920s.  She also writes a strand of award-winning contemporary standalone novels including Edgar-finalist The Day She Died and Mary Higgins Clark finalists The Child Garden and Quiet Neighbors.

McPherson's new novel is Go to My Grave.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. McPherson's reply:
I'm reading an ARC of Cathy Ace's The Wrong Boy, with a view to blurbing it on the jacket when it comes out. Getting advance copies of books from fellow writers is, on the one hand, one of the best perks of the writing life and, on the other hand, one of the most excruciating and nail-biting chances we take. What if you don't like it? Accepting a book you loathe from a person you love would put you into a horrible predicament. Thankfully, it hasn't happened to me yet. Certainly not this time: Cathy's delve into a tight-knit Welsh village, in the aftermath of a brutal crime, is a treat indeed. The village is by turns charming and claustrophobic, the secrets are juuuust beginning to spill at the point I've got to and the the mystery is completely baffling.

Before The Wrong Boy I read Wild Fire, Ann Cleeves' eighth and final Shetland novel. It's a cracking murder plot and a satisfying end to Jimmy Perez's story - resolved but not tied in a bow. I'm sad that the octet is done but I can't wait to read whatever Ann writes next.

What I'm probably going to read next is Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. What can I tell you? Sometimes I read an ARC before a book is even published and sometimes I'm at the cow's tail!
Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

--Marshal Zeringue