Search Results for: catriona mcpherson

‘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 . . .

♥️ ‘ . . . an absolute delight . . . these are the perfect reads for a night by the fire’ ♥️ Scotsman

War is hovering on the horizon, and Dandy Gilver wants nothing more than to keep her friends and family close. But then a call in the night places her oldest friend Daisy at the centre of a murder investigation. With her friend’s future on the line, Dandy and her fellow sleuth Alec Osbourne must race to prove her innocence.

But when they reach the idyllic Scottish village of Dirleton, residents confirm a woman was seen at the crime scene – an ancient stone called the louping stane, still spattered with the victim’s blood. And the longer the detectives spend in the village the more they question Daisy’s involvement. They’re not getting the answers they need, but are they asking the right questions? . . .

‘The ever-witty McPherson has outdone herself’ Scottish Field

‘All the wit and clever plotting fans of Christie could want’ My Weekly Special

*Winner of Left Coast Crime’s Lefty Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel*

Something sinister is afoot in the streets of Dundee, when a puppeteer is found murdered behind his striped Punch and Judy stand, as children sit cross-legged drinking ginger beer. At once, Dandy Gilver‘s seemingly-innocuous investigation into plagiarism takes a darker turn. The gruesome death seems to be inextricably bound to the gloomy offices of Doig’s Publishers, its secrets hidden in the real stories behind their girls’ magazines The Rosie Cheek and The Freckle.

On meeting a mysterious professor from St Andrews, Dandy and her faithful colleague Alex Osbourne are flung into the worlds of academia, the theatre and publishing. Nothing is quite as it seems, and behind the cheerful facades of puppets and comic books, is a troubled history has begun to repeat itself.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1930s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Alexander McCall Smith and Agatha Christie.

‘The perfect read for those who enjoy the bygoneworld charm of Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh and Agatha Christie.’ The Lady

Scotland, 1932. Aristocratic private investigator Dandy Gilver strikes again with her witty sidekick Alec
Osbourne to solve sinister goings on at a convent on a bleak Lanarkshire moor. The convent was set alight following a mass breakout at a neighbouring psychiatric hospital on Christmas Eve, resulting in the death of the mother superior. Most patients were returned safely but a few are still at large. . . As Dandy interviews each nun in turn she senses a stranger is still lurking in the corridors at night – could they be the same person who left blood-red footprints in the sacristy? One of Catriona McPherson’s creepiest – and funniest – mysteries yet.

Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1930s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.

‘A delightfully uplifting mystery with a distinctly P.G. Wodehouse-ian feel. Navigating ancient castles, and family feuds, Dandy Gilver must also contend with a ribald staging of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I loved the sense of fun, the wonderful use of language . . . satisfying on many levels.’ Vaseem Khan, author of the Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra

Scotland, 1934.
Aristocratic private detective Dandy Gilver arrives at Castle Bewer, at midsummer, to solve the tangled mystery of a missing man, a lost ruby and a family curse.

The Bewer family’s latest wheeze to keep the wolf from the door is turning the castle keep into a theatre. While a motley band of players rehearse Macbeth, the Bewers themselves prepare lectures, their faithful servants set up a tearoom, and the guest wings fill with rich American ladies seeking.

Meanwhile, Dandy and her sidekick Alec Osborne begin to unravel the many secrets of the Bewers and find that, despite the witches, murders and ghosts onstage, it’s behind the scenes where the darkest deeds are done.

‘The perfect read for those who enjoy the bygoneworld charm of Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh and Agatha Christie.’ – The Lady on Dandy Gilver and a Most Misleading Habit

‘Catriona McPherson is a writer as talented as she is versatile. Dandy Gilver tackles a Golden Age era puzzle with her usual aplomb when the Scottish play offers a Shakespearean twist to a mystery with plenty of classic ingredients.’ Martin Edwards

‘Dandy Gilver is a fabulous character. a cross between Nancy Drew and the Australian crime cracker Miss Fisher. She is both relentless and brilliant.’ Amazon Reviewer

‘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’

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1930s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.

Glasgow,1932, is a city in the grip of dance-fever. Public ballrooms and backstreet dancehalls are thronged every night and competition for professional titles is fierce. Even after the sudden death of one of last year’s hopefuls there are plenty willing to take his place, and few who stop to wonder why he died.

In the melting pot of the Locarno Ballroom in Sauchiehall Street, a debutante rubs shoulders with denizens of Glasgow’s meanest streets, her respectable fiancé oblivious, her parents dismayed.

When she starts receiving threats from a rival, they grow frantic enough to call on Dandy Gilver to save their precious daughter from harm.

But as Dandy and her sidekick, Alec Osborne, begin to unravel the secrets of the dancehall, they soon discover that the rot goes much deeper than rivalry and there’s more at stake than a silver cup.
Despite the pretty frocks and dancing shoes, this apparently glittering world is a darker place than they’ve ever been before . . .

Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

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.

It is the breezy Scottish summer of 1936, Lady Dandy Gilver has been called, with trusted colleague Alec Osbourne, to solve the strange case of the Crammond Ferrywoman on the Firth of Forth.
A small island is home to a woman, Vesper Kemp, who has lost her mind, spending her days rambling in rags.
What is more troubling, is that Vesper claims to have murdered a young man. A concerned group of residents have good reason to believe she is innocent. But Dandy and Alec will have a dangerous journey ahead if they are to uncover the truth in the River Almond’s murky waters.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1920s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.

Perthshire 1929 and the menfolk of the Gilver family have come down, between them, with influenza, bronchitis, pneumonia and pleurisy. Dandy the devoted wife and mother decides it is time to decamp; Dandy the intrepid detective, however, decides to decamp to the scene of a murder she would dearly love to solve.

The family repairs to the Borders town of Moffat, there to drink the sulphurous waters straight from the well and to submit to the galvanic wraps and cold salt rubs of the splendid Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel.
But all is not well at the Hydro. The Laidlaw family is at war, the guests are an uneasy mix of old faithfuls and giddy upstarts, and the secret of the lady who arrived but never left cannot be kept for long. And what of those drifting shapes in the Turkish bath? Just steam shifting in the air? Probably. But the Hydro was built in the lee of a Gallow Hill, and in this town the dead can be as much trouble as the living…

Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1930s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.

On the rain-drenched, wave-lashed, wind-battered Banffshire coast, tiny fishing villages perch on ledges which would make a seagull think twice and crumbly mansions cling to crumblier cliff tops while, out in the bay, the herring drifters brave the storms to catch their silver darlings. It’s nowhere for 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 Dandy Gilver finds herself. Enlisted to investigate, she and her trusty cohort Alec Osborne are soon swept up in the fisherfolk’s wedding season as well as the mystery. Between age-old traditions and brand-new horrors, Dandy must think the unthinkable to solve her grisliest case yet.

Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1930s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Alexander McCall Smith and Agatha Christie.

‘McPherson is an exemplary crime writer’ Scotsman

BAD LUCK? BAD TIMING? OR GOOD OLD-FASHIONED MURDER?

When a circus comes to spend the winter at the neighbouring estate to Gilverton, Dandy Gilver’s two sons are cock-a-hoop and they are not alone in their excitement.

The allure of Tumbling Topsy Turvy, Tiny Truman and the Troupe Prebezhensky also draw the attention of the fast set, who would never normally be seen dead with the nouveau riche Mr & Mrs Albert Wilson. ‘The name, darling, tells you everything you need to know.’

But when Dandy Gilver is asked to investigate a series of nasty tricks taking place in the circus she discovers, under the colourful charms on the surface of circus life, a hotbed of passion and resentment she cannot begin to understand. But, when one of the artistes suddenly dies, Dandy must somehow get behind the smoke and mirrors to find answers in a world where nothing is as it seems.

‘Dry wit . . . sparkling dialogue and meticulous description.’ Herald

‘The most engaging and ingenious crime-cracker I’ve met in ages’ Scotland on Sunday

Dan Brown meets Barbara Pym . . . Dandy is brisk, baffled, heroic, kindly, scandalised and – above all – very funny – Guardian

Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1920s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Alexander McCall Smith and Agatha Christie.


‘1920s lady detective Dandy Gilver lands a sleuthing gig in a setting straight out of Enid Blyton,. Cosier than a pair of WI-knitted mittens, Corpses serves up murder most foul – and is also good for several giggles.’ TIME OUT

Before she was a detective, before she was a reluctant wife and distracted mother, before she was even a debutante, Dandy Gilver spent one perfect summer with the Lipscotts of Pereford. The golden memories of it have sustained her through many a cold snap in Perthshire.

So when two of the Lipscott sisters beg her to help the third, she can hardly refuse. Sweet, pretty Fleur Lipscott: where is she now? The astonishing answer to this is that Fleur – still Miss Lipscott, indeed more Miss Lipscott than ever – is buried alive in the tiny seaside village of Portpatrick, working as a schoolmistress at St Columba’s College for Young Ladies.

But she is one of the few remaining, for St Columba’s has been shedding mistresses as a snake its skins and the exodus is far from over.

With mistresses vanishing and corpses mounting up, can Mrs Gilver, detective, pass herself off as Miss Gilver, English mistress, to solve the one and stop the other?

Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

Edinburgh, 1948. Welfare Officer Helen Crowther has enough on her plate between her hectic job, her complicated love life, and her growing reputation as a troublemaker. Last year’s scandal did nothing to help with the disapproval she already gets as a woman in her line of work.

All she wants now is to focus on doing what she loves: helping the poor of the Fountainbridge ward in the city of Edinburgh. The last thing she needs is another string of murders to distract her . . .

But when a gentleman dressed in working-man’s clothing winds up dead right under Helen’s nose, and she catches her own father in a very risky lie, Helen is propelled back into the dark world where class rules, justice is hard to come by and gruesome death is everywhere.

Helen has already learned some hard truths about her city, but this investigation is about to reveal just how deep corruption can go . . .

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1920s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.

1st May 1926 – Dear Alec,
Just when those who should be working are all downing tools for this wretched strike (and I still can’t believe it – I mean to say: riots, Alec – in Edinburgh of all places) guess who is setting her virgin shoulder to its very first wheel?
I am dressed in serge and sensible footwear, sleeping in an iron bed and dining off pickled tongue at six o’clock each day. I am, in short, that nice young Mrs Balfour’s new maid. But don’t worry, Alec dear: things haven’t got as bad as all that. It’s just that that nice young Mr Balfour is going to kill his wife. At least, she thinks so, and the more I hear about him from butler, cook and bootboy the more I’m inclined to agree.
So I’m undercover, in disguise, bent upon foiling. And jolly hard work it is too – tomorrow is my half-day free if you’d care take me out for a restorative bun. (Every maid needs a beau to buy buns for her.)
Yours,
Dandy xx
p.s. Ask for Miss Rossiter: below stairs I am she.

Catriona McPherson’s latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1920s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Alexander McCall Smith and Agatha Christie.

‘Dan Brown meets Barbara Pym . . . Dandy is brisk, baffled, heroic, kindly, scandalised and – above all – very funny.‘ Guardian

‘One of several authors recreating the Golden Age of the British crime novel and a legion of fans adore the tongue-in-cheek cases that come the way of Dandy Gilver, a very Scottish middle class sleuth.’ Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph

Friday 3rd June, 1927

Dear Alec,

‘Careful what you wish for, lest it come true’ is my new motto, and here is why. I was summoned to Dunfermline, that old grey town, in the matter of a missing heiress.

She had flounced off in a sulk over forbidden love and I, suspecting elopement, was loath to take the job of scouring guesthouses to find the little madam and her paramour.

Before I could wriggle out of it, though, there was a murder in the mix – or was it suicide? I had hardly begun to decide when it happened again. Then I was sacked. Actually sacked! By two separate people, and both dismissals in writing. And that’s not even the worst of it, darling: matters here are careering downwards much in the style of a runaway train.

Please hurry – or who knows where it might end,

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.

Dorothy L Sayers’ amateur sleuth returns in this collection of three stories, featuring a brand new introduction from crime writer Catriona McPherson. A must-read for fans of the inimitable Lord Peter Wimsey, as well Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Margery Allingham’s Campion Mysteries.

‘D. L. Sayers is one of the best detective story writers’ Daily Telegraph

Three of Lord Peter Wimsey’s most baffling cases demonstrate his unique detection skills at their most spectacular . . .

The engima of a house numbered thirteen in a street of even numbers; an indignant child accused of theft, a dream about a game of chess that uncovers the true story behind a violent death.

Each of the stories introduces a different side of the twentieth century’s most ingenious detective hero, and this book also features a biographical essay by Janet Hitchman, Sayers’ first biographer.

‘She brought to the detective novel originality, intelligence, energy and wit.’ P. D. James