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Reviews
The Winter Ground
The Bookbag
“The period setting is beautifully painted and I loved the language McPherson uses to describe it all. Dandy Gilver is a wonderful heroine and her warmth, charm, humour and ingenuity shine through McPherson's words.
I was pleased to discover this was the fourth Dandy Gilver book, as I now know I have the pleasure of reading about her earlier escapades too. Dandy is the kind of character I love discovering — the sort you want to return to again and again, just like a long catch up with an old friend.”
Taken from The Bookbag, October 2008. Click here for a link to the whole review.
Bury Her Deep
The Guardian
“The strengths of Bury Her Deep all derive from the voice of the narrator. Respectably married to the deeply conventional Henry Gilver, Dandy is brisk, baffled, heroic, kindly, scandalised and — above all — very funny as she sleuths her way with through the Scottish countryside, the kind of grim environment where toothless old women at christenings mutter: ‘First breath — beginning of death.’ Bleak her world may be, but she has fun along the way.”
Taken from The Guardian, March 1, 2008. Click here for a link to the whole review.
The Historical Novel Society
“Captivating and beautifully written, this third book in the Dandy Gilver mystery series is set in 1920s Scotland. Our heroine, a respectable matron who keeps her sleuthing secret from her uptight husband, motors down to Luckenlaw, a village in Fife, to investigate a series of eldritch events. Every full moon, a dark stranger attacks women and girls on their way home from the Scottish Woman’s Rural Institute meetings...
... Joined by Bunty, her stalwart Dalmatian, and her sidekick Alec, who hilariously poses as an effete landscape artiste, Dandy is determined to get to the heart of the mystery. ”
Taken from a review by Mary Sharratt in the Editor's Choice Titles, Historical Novel Society web site, February 2008. Click here for a link to the whole review.
The Herald
“With her faithful dalmatian Bunty in tow, Dandy may stumble across clues rather than deduce them, but her progress is amusingly recounted through sparkling dialigue and meticulous description, especially when it comes to Dandy's fabulously chic wardrobe.
McPherson has obviously researched the background to her tale thoroughly and her knowledge of ancient folklore is cunningly used in a well-constructed plot that has many twists and turns... ”
Taken from the 18th August 2007 issue. Click here for a clipping of the whole review.
The Burry Man’s Day
Publishers Weekly
“…When the titular Burry Man (played by a local carpenter, Robert Dudgeon, who's actually covered in burrs) drops dead in the midst of the fair, people assume he died of a heart attack, but Dandy suspects foul play. …Charming historical details add an extra something to this altogether satisfying cozy.”
See the full review at Publishers Weekly, 7th August 2006
After the Armistice Ball
Scotland on Sunday
“Detective stories are only as good as their investigators and they often supplant the author: we speak of reading the new Rebus or an old Nero Wolfe book. McPherson is onto a winner with her 1920s society sleuth Dandy gilver, who is the most engaging and ingenious crime-cracker I've met in ages...”
Taken from Scotland on Sunday, July 31, 2005. Click here for a clipping of the whole review.
Book & Magazine Collector
“Chance enounters, a mysterious death and countless twists and turns all ensue as Dandy bumbles her way through her first case. The book not only captures the atmosphere of the period but also the character of detective novels of the era. In short, a thoroughly entertaining debut...”
Quoted from a feature on After the Armistice Ball from the August 2005 issue. Click here for a clipping of the whole review.
Publishers Weekly, August 2005
“…With her husband at home and her children away at school, Dandy is bored until a friend asks her to help recover the Duffy family diamonds stolen from a country house after an elaborate armistice ball, artfully depicted in the prologue.
…Memorable supporting characters, both upstairs and downstairs, plus vivid descriptions of the Scottish landscape enhance a compelling mystery, but it is Dandy who shines as she smoothly and sometimes unscrupulously deals with people at all social levels in her quest for the truth. ”
A starred review from Publishers Weekly, the US publishers' trade paper. Click here
The Scotsman
“McPherson is an exemplary crime writer, effortlessly balancing the driest wit with melodramatic suspense. Her range of reference is seriously literary, her research impeccable, and her exuberance with period detail utterly beguiling. ”
Review from The Scotsman, 6th August 2005. Click here for a clipping of the whole review.
Crimesquad.com
“For many years we have been subjected to the intimate details of the autopsy room in most crime novels... It appears, in the last year, that a yearning for the Golden Age of crime writing has become quite prominent amongst many readers. There has been the success of David Roberts, and now we have Catriona McPherson who has given us a novel that even Dorothy L. Sayers would have been pleased with.”
Review from the "Fresh Blood" section of crimesquad.com. Click here to read the full review.
