A Step So Grave
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4.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
'McPherson's wit has been compared to that of PG Wodehouse or Nancy Mitford, and her finely researched and choreographed narratives to the work of Agatha Christie . . . an absolute delight . . . these are the perfect reads for a night by the fire.' Scotsman
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 . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Agatha-winner McPherson's exceptional 13th Dandy Gilver mystery (after 2017's Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble) puts a stylish spin on the traditional country house murder. In the winter of 1935, Edinburgh PI Dandy and her family travel to meet Mallory Dunnoch, Dandy's son Donald's fianc e, and Mallory's family at Applecross, the Dunnochs' estate in the Scottish Highlands. Oddly, Lady Lavinia, Mallory's mother, is absent during their visit. When the spring thaw reveals Lady Lavinia's body, Dandy returns to Applecross, accompanied by her fellow detective, Alec Osbourne, with his "sharper brain," to investigate. That everyone at Applecross has a motive for wanting Lady Lavinia dead provides multiple red herrings, but who had the opportunity to kill her? 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.
