Catriona McPherson – författare

An invitation you can't refuse. You should . . .When shy, lonely Ivy meets a woman who claims to be her long-lost sister, she knows it's too good to be true. She decides to trust Kate anyway. She wants a family. She wants someone to love.She's making a mistake. Ivy enters Kate's fairytale cottage, deep in the heart of Scotland . . . and she doesn't come out. She's the first to go missing.She won't be the last.Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Tash's journey is just beginning . . .Multi-award-winning master of suspense Catriona McPherson is back with an ominous, twisty psychological thriller set in contemporary Scotland that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Lexy Campbell's ex-husband begs for her help finding his current wife, whose disappearance mirrors that of a number of statues around California - menacing ransom note and all.A community is devastated when the bronze statue of local legend Mama Cuento is stolen on Valentine's Day. When Lexy Campbell arrives on the scene, a big bronze toe is found along with a ransom note - "Listen to our demands or you will never see her again. There are nine more where this came from".Then, Lexy's ex-husband Bran turns up begging for help to find his wife, Brandee, who has disappeared. Lexy agrees to pitch in, but when she shows up at Bran's house he has just discovered one of Brandee's false nails and another ransom note with the same grisly message.Are the two cases linked or is a copycat on the loose? Who would want to kidnap a bronze statue or, come to that, Brandee? And can Lexy put aside her hatred for Bran long enough to find out?

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.

♥️ '' . . . 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? . . .

🔎 ''A delight! A plot at once playful and disturbing, and a wonderfully satisfying surprise ending. McPherson is a terrific storyteller'' ANN CLEEVES 🔎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 . . .''An intricately plotted mystery with wonderfully original (nasty, but not gory) murders. The rich period detail and use of local dialect immediately whisk you away to post-war Edinburgh. Hugely enjoyable!'' FIONA LEITCH

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.

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.

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.

WINNER OF THE 2023 ANTHONY AWARD FOR BEST HUMOROUS NOVELIn 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 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?

It's all aboard for a Campbell Clan Christmas! Lexy swaps cinnamon lattes for boiled sprouts when the Last Ditch crew travel from California to an idyllic Scottish village for the holidays, but something very unmerry is lurking below the surface . . .Lexy Campbell is long overdue a trip to Scotland to see her parents, and an unexpected death in the extended Last Ditch Motel family makes Christmas in a bungalow in Dundee with nine others seem almost irresistible.But when Lexy and the Last Ditch crew hop across the Atlantic, there's been a change of plan and they're whisked off to Mistletoe Hall in the pretty village of Yule, where the surprises continue. The news that a man disappeared from the crumbling pile sixty years ago, along with an unsettling discovery in the bricked-up basement, means that Todd, Kathi and Lexy - Trinity for Trouble - must solve another murder.Deadly secrets, berry rustlers, skeletons and a snowy Christmas Eve in the booze aisle at Tesco: the Last Ditch crew won't forget their Scottish holiday in a hurry!

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.

Will the truth pull them under? A twisty, gripping mystery from a multi-award-winning master of suspense that you won't be able to put down . . .Tabitha Muir returns to her childhood home in the remote hills of Hiskith in Scotland after twenty years away. She's lost her job, her house, and custody of her son after a divorce, and thinks this must be rock bottom - but worse is to come. An unplanned explosion at the dam on the loch and the suspicious death of her beloved cousin Davey force Tabitha to confront her past demons. Is Davey's death just another dark episode in the Muir family's scandalous history? As Davey's closest friends, Gordo and Barrett, help Tabitha try to answer the many questions around Davey's demise, Tabitha discovers that nothing she thought she knew about herself and those around her is true . . . The trio are about to bring Hiskith's darkest secrets to the surface, but will the truth destroy them?

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?

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 getting married! But in the six months of planning it took to arrive at the big day, she has become . . . a challenge. Friendships are strained to breaking point, Lexy's parents are tiptoeing around her, and even Taylor, her intended, must be having second thoughts. Turns out it's moot. Before the happy couple can exchange vows, Sister Sunshine, the wedding celebrant, is discovered dead behind the cake, strangled with the fairy lights.Lexy's dream wedding is now not just a nightmare: it's a crime scene. She vows not to get drawn into the case, but the rest of the Last Ditch crew are investigating a bizarre series of goings-on in Cuento's cemetery, and every clue about the graveyard pranks seems to link them back to Lexy's wedding day. Will the Ditchers solve the case? Will Sister Sunshine's killer be found? Will Lexy ever get her happy ever after? Not even Bridezilla deserves this . . .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.