Book Summary and Reviews of A Step So Grave by Catriona McPherson

A Step So Grave by Catriona McPherson

A Step So Grave

A Dandy Gilver Mystery

by Catriona McPherson

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Published:
  • Nov 2019, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

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...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Details of rugged Highland life are plentiful, with evocative descriptions of climate and scenery gracefully incorporated into an intricate plot worthy of Dorothy L. Sayers or Agatha Christie at her finest. McPherson reliably entertains." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A sophisticated, elegantly written, intensely powerful mystery, the best of an excellent series." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"An absolute must for anyone who likes cozy historical mysteries." - Crime Review

This information about A Step So Grave was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Catriona McPherson Author Biography

Photo: Neil McRoberts

Catriona McPherson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and lived there, in Ayrshire, in Dumfriesshire and in Galloway before moving to California in 2010. McPherson is the author of the Dandy Gilver historical mystery series, which was nominated for a Macavity Award in 2012.

Author Interview
Link to Catriona McPherson's Website

Name Pronunciation
Catriona McPherson: pronounced Katrina

Other books by Catriona McPherson at BookBrowse
  • Quiet Neighbors jacket

7 more...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked A Step So Grave, try these:

  • The Flower Sisters jacket

    The Flower Sisters

    by Michelle Collins. Anderson

    Published 2024

    About this book

    From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention for readers of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Donna Everhart, Sue Monk Kidd, Jeannette Walls, and Rita Mae Brown…

  • Ellie and the Harpmaker jacket

    Ellie and the Harpmaker

    by Hazel Prior

    Published 2020

    About this book

    A rich, heartwarming and charming debut novel that reminds us that sometimes you find love in the most unexpected places.

  • News of Our Loved Ones jacket

    News of Our Loved Ones

    by Abigail DeWitt

    Published 2019

    About this book

    Set in France and America, News of Our Loved Ones is a haunting and intimate examination of love and loss, beauty and the cost of survival, witnessed through two generations of one French family, whose lives are all touched by the tragic events surrounding the D-Day bombings in Normandy.

We have 10 read-alikes for A Step So Grave, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
Who Said...

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.