A Deadly Measure of Brimstone

A Deadly Measure of Brimstone
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2014-11-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250053978

"First published in Great Britain under the title Dandy Gilver and a deadly measure of Brimstone by Hodder & Stoughton, an Hachette UK company"--Title page verso.

The Reek of Red Herrings

The Reek of Red Herrings
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2016-12-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250090997

Agatha Award Winner for Best Historical Novel: Something fishy is going on in this clever mystery with “an exciting climax” set in a tiny Scottish village (Publishers Weekly). Winner, Lefty Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel Finalist, Macavity/Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery On the rain-drenched, wind-battered Banffshire coast, dilapidated mansions cling to cliff tops and tiny fishing villages perch on ledges that would make a seagull think twice. It’s nowhere for Dandy Gilver, a child of gentle Northamptonshire, to spend Christmas. But when odd things start to turn up in barrels of fish—with a strong whiff of murder most foul—that’s exactly where she finds herself. Enlisted to investigate, Dandy and her trusty cohort, Alec Osborne, are soon swept up in the fisherfolks’ wedding season as well as the mystery. Between age-old traditions and brand-new horrors, Dandy must think the unthinkable to solve her most baffling case yet. “A host of colorful characters . . . the setting of this cozy thriller is vividly detailed and full of creeping menace.” —Kirkus Reviews “Not since Maisie Dobbs first surfaced has there been a pluckier or more winning heroine.” —Charles Finch, author of The Fleet Street Murders “A dandy series.” —The Boston Globe

Scotzilla

Scotzilla
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2024-12-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 144831285X

Lexy's wedding becomes a crime scene when a murderer dares to strike on her big day in this superbly plotted and wickedly funny cozy. Lexy Campbell is about to put her bridezilla tendencies to one side to tie the knot with her beau Taylor in Cuento. The Last Ditch crew and Lexy's mum and dad are all in attendance. But just as the couple are about to exchange vows, wedding celebrant Sister Sunshine is discovered dead, strangled with the fairy light decorations. Her wedding now a crime scene, Lexy vows not to get drawn into the investigation - until she learns about the bizarre going-on in nearby Cuento cemetery from its volunteers. Is there a link between Lexy's wedding day carnage and a series of disturbing graveyard pranks? Will Lexy ever get her happily ever after? Forget the bride from hell, it's the wedding from hell, and things are about to get a whole lot worse! Fans of Janet Evanovitch and Sarah Strohmeyer will fall head over heels for this addictive mystery that's full of twists and laugh out loud humour.

A Step So Grave

A Step So Grave
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2018-11-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1473682371

'McPherson's wit has been compared to that of PG Wodehouse or Nancy Mitford, and her finely researched and choreographed narratives to the work of Agatha Christie . . . an absolute delight . . . these are the perfect reads for a night by the fire.' Scotsman Wedding bells are set to ring as Dandy Gilver, family in tow, arrives in windswept Wester Ross on Valentine's Day. They've come to celebrate Lady Lavinia's fiftieth birthday and to meet her daughter Mallory, a less-than-suitable bride-to-be for Dandy's son Donald. But soon love is the last thing on Dandy's mind when the news breaks that Lady Lavinia has been found dead, brutally murdered in the middle of her famous knot garden. Strange superstitions and folklore abound among the Gaelic-speaking locals. But , Dandy suspects that the tangled boughs and branches around Applecross House hide something much more earthly at work . . .

Burning the Ice

Burning the Ice
Author: Laura J. Mixon
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 552
Release: 2002-08-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780312869038

More than a hundred years after a small band of humans stole an antimatter-fueled starship and headed away at near-lightspeed, a colony of those renegades' descendants are now struggling to survive on Brimstone, a barely-habitable world of ice and bitter cold four dozen light-years from Earth. In the long run, they hope to slowly terraform Brimstone, making it, if not Earthlike, at least bearable. In the short run-well, life is hard, and everyone lives in everyone else's laps. Not easy for anyone. Particularly hard if, like Manda, you just aren't cut out to get along with others in conditions of constant crowding and zero privacy. Most people wouldn't be eager to get away from the main colony and work on a scientific project in the howling frozen wastes. For Manda, it's a deliverance. But news of the intelligent life she discovers in Brimstone's depths will change everything-if she can bring the news back to her fellows alive. For, it turns out, there are political plots and counterplots still active in the colony, dangerous twists tracing back to Earth itself...and outward to the stars.

After the Armistice Ball

After the Armistice Ball
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2011-09-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1780334079

A classic murder-mystery set among the struggling upper classes of 1920s Perthshire as, in the aftermath of the First World War, their comfortable world begins to crumble. Dandy Gilver, her husband back from the War, her children off at school and her uniform growing musty in the attic, is bored to a whimper in the spring of 1923 and a little light snooping seems like harmless fun. Before long, though, the puzzle of what really happened to the Duffy diamonds after the Armistice Ball has been swept aside by a sudden, unexpected death in a lonely seaside cottage in Galloway. Society and the law seem ready to call it an accident but Dandy, along with Cara Duffy's fiancé Alec, is sure that there is more going on than meets the eye. What is being hidden by members of the Duffy family: the watchful Lena, the cold and distant Clemence and old Gregory Duffy with his air of quiet sadness, not to mention Cara herself whose secret always seems just tantalizingly out of view? Dandy must learn to trust her instincts and swallow most of her scruples if he is to uncover the truth and earn the right to call herself a sleuth.

Scot in a Trap

Scot in a Trap
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2022-12-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1448307848

WINNER OF THE 2023 ANTHONY AWARD FOR BEST HUMOROUS NOVEL In this darkly funny mystery Lexy Campbell's first love turns up dead at the Last Ditch Motel on Thanksgiving . . . and she becomes the prime suspect! A mysterious object the size of a suitcase, all wrapped in bacon and smelling of syrup, can mean only one thing: Thanksgiving at the Last Ditch Motel. This year the motel residents are in extra-celebratory mood as the holiday brings a new arrival to the group - a bouncing baby girl. But as one life enters the Ditch, another leaves it. Menzies Lassiter has only just checked in. When resident counsellor Lexy Campbell tries to deliver his breakfast the next day, she finds him checked out. Permanently. Shocking enough if he was a stranger, but Lexy recognises that face. Menzies was her first love until he broke her heart many years ago. What's he doing at the Last Ditch? What's he doing dead? And how can Lexy escape the fact that she alone had the means, the opportunity - and certainly the motive - to kill him?

In Place of Fear

In Place of Fear
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2022-04-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1529337992

'Authentic social history at the birth of the NHS, an intriguing murder, a strong and convincing central character, and McPherson's wonderful story-telling skills make this a very classy mystery' ANN CLEEVES 'A hauntingly atmospheric weaving of social history and layered mystery, with a gutsy heroine determined to deliver justice. McPherson's writing is compelling, moving and memorable' SARAH YARWOOD-LOVETT Helen leaned close enough to fog the mirror with her breath and whispered, 'You, my girl, are a qualified medical almoner and at eight o'clock tomorrow morning you will be on the front line of the National Health Service of Scotland.' Her eyes looked huge and scared. 'So take a shake to yourself!'' Edinburgh, 1948. Helen Crowther leaves a crowded tenement home for her very own office in a doctor's surgery. Upstart, ungrateful, out of your depth - the words of disapproval come at her from everywhere but she's determined to take her chance and play her part. She's barely begun when she stumbles over a murder and learns that, in this most respectable of cities, no one will fight for justice at the risk of scandal. As Helen resolves to find a killer, she's propelled into a darker world than she knew existed, hardscrabble as her own can be. Disapproval is the least of her worries now. IN PLACE OF FEAR is a gripping new historical crime novel that is both enthralling and entertaining, and perfect for fans of AJ Pearce and Nicola Upson. Readers love IN PLACE OF FEAR: 'What a wonderful book this is!' 'I loved [it] ... Helen is another cracker of a heroine from McPherson and I hope to read much more of her story in future' 'Historical crime from a talented pen. Intriguing and compelling in equal measure' 'An excellent read'

Go to My Grave

Go to My Grave
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2018-10-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250070007

From Catriona McPherson, the Agatha-Award winning author of Quiet Neighbors, comes a clever, spine-tingling standalone Gothic thriller. “Go to My Grave is both a classic ‘country house mystery’ and a thriller. Atmospheric, with mind-bending twists, a narrator who may or may not be reliable, and an ending that will take your breath away and leave you astonished.” —Louise Penny Donna Weaver has put everything she has into restoring The Breakers, an old bed and breakfast on a remote stretch of beach in Galloway. Now it sits waiting—freshly painted, richly furnished, filled with flowers—for the first guests to arrive. But Donna's guests, a contentious group of estranged cousins, soon realize that they’ve been here before, years ago. Decades have passed, but that night still haunts them: a sixteenth birthday party that started with peach schnapps and ended with a girl walking into the sea. Each of them had made a vow of silence: “lock it in a box, stitch my lips, and go to my grave.” But now someone has broken the pact. Amid the home-baked scones and lavish rooms, someone is playing games, locking boxes, stitching lips. And before the weekend is over, at least one of them will go to their grave.

Scot Mist

Scot Mist
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2022-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1448307341

Despite efforts to create a safe environment to see out the pandemic, the residents of the Last Ditch Motel face more dangers than they imagined possible in this hilarious yet claustrophobic mystery. March 2020 and Operation Cocker is a go! The owners of the Last Ditch Motel, with a little help from their friend Lexy Campbell, are preparing to support one another through the oncoming lockdown, offering the motel's spare rooms to a select few from the local area in need of sanctuary. While the newbies are settling in, an ambiguous banner appears demanding one of them return home. But who is it for? Lexy and her friends put a plan into action to ward off the perpetrator, but the very next night, a resident disappears and a message scrawled in human blood is found. As California shuts down, the Last Ditchers make another gruesome discovery. They tried to create a haven but now it seems as if everyone's in danger. Is the motel under attack from someone on the outside? Scary as that is, the alternative is worse by far.