Today's guest blogger is Catriona McPherson, author of The Dandy Gilver Mystery Series and a new contemporary stand alone novel, AS SHE LEFT IT.
I was thrilled to be asked to visit Mystery Playground and blog about my research. The only trouble is calling it research. "Stuff that happens and ends up in my book one day" would be more like it. And my latest book, the contemporary stand-alone AS SHE LEFT IT, which comes out June the 8th, has more stuff that happened and ended up in there than anything else I've ever written.
I don't mean that the plot is autobiographical. And I'm very glad it's not too, as the cover blurb will explain...
Opal Jones ran away when she was twelve
to escape her mother’s
drinking. Now, coming home again after her mum’s death is
like going back in time: Nosey
Mrs. Pickess is still polishing her windows to a sparkle;
the Joshis up the end still run their taxi firm; Fishbo, Opal’s ancient music teacher, still plays his
trumpet and
leads his band. And to Opal’s
delight, her favourite neighbor, Margaret Reid, is going strong.
But a tragedy has struck Mote Street.
Margaret’s grandson, Craig, disappeared ten years ago and, every day he’s not
found, shame and sorrow settle deeper into the neighbourhood’s forgotten corners. Everyone has
something to hide and when Opal decides to tackle the mystery of little Craig,
she sirs up more secrets than she can bear about these people she thought she
knew. Worst of all, the door she closed
on her own dark past begins to open again.
No, the plot is completely fictional but most of the rest of it is real. (Margret Reid, the Joshis, Fishbo and Mrs. Pickess are all based on people I once knew.)
Also, it's set in a real house: my friend Diane Nelson's house in Leeds. Diane is a good egg, quite happy to have her home used as the setting for dark deeds and deep secrets, but I think I should show that things aren't half as grim as the talented art department at Midnight Ink made it seem. Here is the real "Mote Street" on a (rare) sunny day:
Another strand of the book that’s
based on life is Norah Fossett, who Opal runs into by chance and who plays a
major role in the story:
She was standing on a corner, wondering which way to
go, when a voice behind her spoke so softly she had to turn to be sure it
wasn’t just the wind in the trees.
“Excuse me?” the little voice said. “Are you going to the party?”
It was a tiny woman, wearing slippers and an apron. She peered up at Opal from eyes that were
pale blue and pink, almost no lashes, just a thickened rim, sore-looking,
making her blink every second or two.
“Eh?” said Opal.
“I was at a party,” said the little woman. “But . . .”
she looked past Opal and shook her head.
Her hair was short and straight, pure white, showing her scalp at the
parting. “They’re supposed to come today, you see, but I was at a party and I
must have missed them.”
“Shouldn’t you
be at home?” Opal said, looking down at the slippers.
“Yes, but I missed them,” said the little woman, her
voice climbing higher and beginning to sound wavery.
“They always come today.”
“Maybe you should wait for them at home.”
“Thank you,” said
the woman, slipping her hand through Opal’s arm, making Opal think of the way
the smallest birds, blue-tits and finches, slipped into the holes in nest
boxes.
“Which way?” Opal said, but the little woman
hesitated, humming a bit under her breath and blinking.
“My house,” she said.
Fantastic, thought Opal, and set off along the nearest
side street.
“Is it this
way?” she asked. “Does this look
familiar? Are these your neighbours? Who lives here?” And she kept it up, coaxing and pecking,
while the little woman trotted along at her side, thanking her, asking if they
were too late for the party, if they’d have missed them, that little hand
resting so soft and light in the crook of Opal’s arm.
Diane, our other friend Louise,
and I met this old lady, in Leeds, in her slippers, looking for the party, and
did indeed help her find her way home.
It’s hard to say why one tiny encounter makes such an impression but she
stayed with me for years and she joined the story of Opal Jones, quietly but
insistently, without me asking her.
Totally different from that chance
encounter, something else from life which got into the book is the “Bed With A
Secret”.
I bought this bed for my husband for his
birthday about ten years ago. It was in
an antique shop with a price tag of 100UKP ($150) and I couldn’t work out why
it was so cheap or why the antique dealer was practically begging me to take it
away. Well, I gave Opal Jones the same
bargain for the same reason and then gave the bed some extra secrets too.
But even those are nothing to the
secrets I planted in this place – the old outhouse in Diane’s back yard.
I love the idea of a door
that’s been locked for years, a missing key, and everyone walking past every
day pretending there’s nothing to see.
Okay, I hope I’ve whetted your appetite
for AS SHE LEFT IT. It’s certainly
different from my Dandy Gilver series – quite a lot darker – but I would say
two things. One, I meant it to be
properly dark and failed completely because I was cracking jokes by page three
(I can’t help it). And two, I’m a sucker
for a happy ending so, although it goes all the way down, if you decide to go
with it be assured you’re coming up again.
I’m giving away two signed
copies. Please just leave a comment
(“Gimme a book” is fine) to have your name entered into the draw.
Catriona is the author of the Dandy Gilver series of 1920s
detective stories set in Scotland, where she was born and where she lived until
moving to northern California in 2010. DANDY GILVER AND THE PROPER TREATMENT OF
BLOODSTAINS launched the series in the US and won the 2012 Macavity award at
the Cleveland Bouchercon. DANDY GILVER AND AN UNSUITABLE DAY FOR A MURDER won
the Bruce Alexander award at Left Coast Crime in 2013 as well as the Historical
Agatha at Malice Domestic 25.
Catriona has worked in a bank, a history library and as a
unversity professor - she has a PhD in linguistics - but is now a full-time
writer with both the Dandy books and a new strand of contemporary stand-alones
to her name. The first of modern novels, AS SHE LEFT IT, 8th of June 2013 earned
a Kirkus starred review.
When not writing Catriona is reading mysteries, growing
fruit, vegetables and roses, cooking, baking, dumpster-diving, thrifting and
hanging out with her two black cats and her scientist husband.
