Dear Alec,
Remember my engagement yesterday? The annual duty luncheon for the Reverend Mr Tait from which and whom I expected only boredom? I could hardly have been more wrong, Alec dear, and I am this minute packing to follow the Reverend home to his manse in Fife, there to attend a meeting of the Rural Womens’ Institute. Hardly a house party at which one would usually leap, I grant you, but not only is the man himself a perfect darling – imagine Father Christmas shaved clean and draped in tweed – but his parish, it seems, heaves with more violent passions than a Buenos Aires bordello. A stranger, you see, is roaming the night and pouncing on the ladies of the Rural. At least that’s the tale they’re telling and the one that Mr Tait told me, but since half the village think he’s a figment and he only ever strikes at the full moon, I cannot help but wonder if there’s something even odder going on . . .
Much love and remember me fondly if the dark stranger gets me,
Dandy xx
Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.
Remember my engagement yesterday? The annual duty luncheon for the Reverend Mr Tait from which and whom I expected only boredom? I could hardly have been more wrong, Alec dear, and I am this minute packing to follow the Reverend home to his manse in Fife, there to attend a meeting of the Rural Womens’ Institute. Hardly a house party at which one would usually leap, I grant you, but not only is the man himself a perfect darling – imagine Father Christmas shaved clean and draped in tweed – but his parish, it seems, heaves with more violent passions than a Buenos Aires bordello. A stranger, you see, is roaming the night and pouncing on the ladies of the Rural. At least that’s the tale they’re telling and the one that Mr Tait told me, but since half the village think he’s a figment and he only ever strikes at the full moon, I cannot help but wonder if there’s something even odder going on . . .
Much love and remember me fondly if the dark stranger gets me,
Dandy xx
Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.
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Reviews
'I curled up on the sofa last week when the kids finally returned to school and devoured it. Dandy Gilver is an enthralling heroine; part Dorothy Parker, part Miss Marple, utterly engaging. I loved the scenes at the SWRI and her dealings with the hapless Hugh. Catriona seems to have managed to transform the stiff prose of the era into something wonderfully fluid and beguiling. She can send chills up your spine and provoke a fit of the giggles in the space of a few short pages. Absolutely wonderful. A real treat.
It is already on loan to a friend with instructions to pass it on!'
'Barbara Pym meets Dan Brown . . . The strengths of BURY HER DEEP all derive from the voice of the narrator. Respectably married to the deeply conventional Hugh Gilver, Dandy is brisk, baffled, heroic, kindly, scandalised and above all very funny as she sleuths her way through the Scottish countryside.'
'Captivating and beautifully written Reminiscent of a wittier and less savage reworking of THE WICKER MAN, this book is alternately funny and chilling and works on a number of levels. A most original mystery novel.'
'Catriona McPherson's Dandy Gilver is a refreshing change from the noir of Rebus . . . McPherson has obviously researched the background to her tale thoroughly and her knowledge of ancient folklore is cunningly used in a well-constructed plot that has many twists and turns.'
'What a tonic it turned out to be! I giggled endlessly, loving Dandy's occasionlly caustic, often cowardly and eternally optimistic sleuthing. The gothically dour Luckenlaw locals are wonderfully crafted, along with the colourful smattering of eccentric incumbents and well-meaning innovators. The post-war era of house-keeping budgets, domestic staff, rebellious suffragettes and tetchy, above-stairs formality provides a perfect back-drop to Dandy's daring secret life, escaping from the starchily entrenched Gilver marriage to scour grave-yards, hedge-rows and wind-blown hillsides for clues - all whilst wearing the very best tailoring her maid can source . . . I can't wai
McPherson is on to a winner with her 1920s society sleuth Dandy Gilver, who is the most engaging and ingenious crime-cracker I've met in ages. She is gauche but perceptive, married but unromantic (although there's a lovely frisson to her co-solver), sly but endearingly innocent. The period detail is accomplished and convincing, the crime is neatly convoluted and McPherson's prose bristles with clever asides under a lucid surface. I wouldn't be surprised if she is translated on to the small screen soon, and I can't wait for her next adventure.
'What a tonic it turned out to be'
'Engaging and mysterious'
'Dandy Gilver is a delightful heroine'
McPherson is an exemplary crime writer, effortlessly balancing the driest wit with melodramatic suspense. Her range of reference is seriously literary, her research impeccable, and her exuberance with period detail utterly beguiling. And Dandy herself is wonderful: blundering bravely through this mad and murky tale with perfect aplomb and a drop-dead vocabulary, she is a lesson to us all.
'Dandy Gilver is an enthralling heroine; part Dorothy Parker, part Miss Marple, utterly engaging. Catriona seems to have managed to transform the stiff prose of the era into something wonderfully fluid and beguiling. Absolutely wonderful. A real treat.'
Compelling
engaging and mysterious
