Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Nov 2019
336 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
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...
"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.
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
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