For your enjoyment...by Cathy Ace

End of year recommendations - always tough, and I haven't read as much as I'd hoped this year. I've decided the best thing to do is to list those books which have stuck out for me, and try to help you understand what they are like. Not everything is everyone's cup of tea - but, whatever you read, enjoy the Festive Season, and thanks for your support, Cathy  

For juveniles: CHASE – Get Ready To Run by Linwood Barclay

This book won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for best Juvenile/YA book in 2018, and it’s great fun! Here’s what the judges said about it – they speak more eloquently than I could:

The plot is inventive and captivating from the opening chapter where the reader is taken into the mind of a dog as Chipper, the Border Collie, escapes from a top secret, scientific facility. This is a highly imaginative but believable story exploring the potential of cyber crime using a dog to mask the nefarious goals of his handlers. The book has strong boy and girl characters with the girl, atypically, being the computer expert and the boy expressing well the emotions and difficulties of being an orphan. It quietly introduces an emerging boy girl relationship suitable for the juvenile age group. The author employs age appropriate language and uses humour to temper the more frightening aspects of the story.

For those who enjoy an escapist adventure with wit, whimsy and dead bodies: A SPOT OF TOIL AND TROUBLE by Catriona McPherson

I’m catching up with my TBR pile and, although Catriona has a new book out in the Dandy Gilver series, I just read this one!  GREAT FUN!

Scotland, 1934.

Aristocratic private detective Dandy Gilver arrives at Castle Bewer, at midsummer, to solve the tangled mystery of a missing man, a lost ruby and a family curse.

The Bewer family's latest wheeze to keep the wolf from the door is turning the castle keep into a theatre. While a motley band of players rehearse Macbeth, the Bewers themselves prepare lectures, their faithful servants set up a tearoom, and the guest wings fill with rich American ladies.

Meanwhile, Dandy and her sidekick Alec Osborne begin to unravel the many secrets of the Bewers and find that, despite the witches, murders and ghosts onstage, it's behind the scenes where the darkest deeds are done.

A lone man on a lonely road? PAST TENSE by Lee Child

I settle into a Lee Child Reacher book with a certainty that I’ll enjoy it! This one is an instant CLASSIC!

Jack Reacher hits the pavement and sticks out his thumb. He plans to follow the sun on an epic trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been: the town where his father was born. He thinks, What’s one extra day? He takes the detour.

At the same moment, in the same isolated area, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians had been on their way to New York City to sell a treasure. Now they’re stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. The owners seem almost too friendly. It’s a strange place, but it’s all there is.

The next morning, in the city clerk’s office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in town. He’s always known his father left and never returned, but now Reacher wonders, Was he ever there in the first place?

As Reacher explores his father’s life, and as the Canadians face lethal dangers, strands of different stories begin to merge. Then Reacher makes a shocking discovery: The present can be tough, but the past can be tense . . . and deadly.

Fancy some dark deeds and damaged souls? DAMAGED by Martina Cole

Martina Cole never disappoints, so if you want Brit Grit at its best, this is for you!

DCI Kate Burrows might be retired, but when the bodies of missing schoolgirls start turning up in Grantley, she's the first person DCI Annie Carr calls for help.

Life for Kate and ex-gangster Patrick Kelly is thrown into chaos when his long lost son turns up out of the blue, bringing trouble with him. This new case could be just what Kate needs.

But as the body count grows, Kate and Annie face a race against the clock.

Without any clear leads, can they stop the killer before another schoolgirl dies?

I'd be honoured of you'd consider reading my work. You can find out all about it here:  http://www.cathyace.com/

I have a new book coming out on January 9th (PRE-ORDER now!) - and it's a bit different for me! Here are a couple of blurbs from two fellow Criminal Minds:

"A close-knit community in a quaint Welsh village in an area of outstanding beauty. Sounds cozy. But Cathy Ace's stunning new standalone, THE WRONG BOY, is about as cozy as a cornered snake. Told in a rising chorus of authentic voices, the story is deft and disturbing, creepingly claustrophobic, and with a grip that tightens to a choke-hold before its shattering conclusion."  Catriona McPherson, multi-award-winning author of ‘Go To My Grave’ 

“Drenched in Welsh atmosphere, forbidding weather, and mysterious folklore, THE WRONG BOY is a gem of a thriller that bewitches right up to the twisted ending you won’t see coming. Masterful plotting and characters so real, you’ll swear you know them. Ace is a master portraitist.” James W Ziskin, multi-award-winning author of The Ellie Stone Mysteries

Find out more: CLICK HERE

Giving it all away... by Cathy Ace

BUSINESS: If a major producer/production company wanted to option or buy your book…but wanted to change it in major ways, as often happens in Hollywood, would you still sell it? Explain your reasons and your limitations. But remember, once you sell something to Hollywood, except in extremely rare instances, you lose control over the film property.

This is an interesting question, and one I believe I would have answered differently a few months ago. This is a topic which has led me to many hours of pondering recently, and I have sought counsel from several authors I know who have already been through the process of having their work produced for the screen, be it of the large or small variety.

With author Ann Cleeves and Brenda Blethyn, who brings Vera Stanhope to life on-screen, at Malice Domestic 2018

What I have discovered is that the right response to having work “taken over” is different for different people, and that a certain amount of soul-searching is required to come up with the right answer for oneself. Do you want to focus on writing books, and let the production pros get on with their version of your books and characters? Was your deepest desire always to become a screen writer so you’ll grab the chance to be 100% on-board and take your novel as just the starting point for an on-screen adventure that you oversee completely? Or are you somewhere in between those two extremes? 

With James Runcie, at CrimeFest UK 2016

Linwood Barclay recently wrote the screenplay for the movie based on his book “Never Saw It Coming”, whereas Peter Robinson was absolutely hands-off the British TV productions of his DCI Banks novels. Ann Cleeves has an excellent, informal relationship with the company bringing Vera to our screens, while Maureen Jennings writes one script per season for the Murdoch Mysteries. James Runcie is an Executive Producer (but chooses to be informed of decisions, rather than giving input to them) for the Grantchester series, whereas MC Beaton is a script editor, often on-set, for the Agatha Raisin series. 

With Maureen Jennings, Bloody Words 2014

I’m thinking that, for me, it would be best to stand back and let the pros get on with what they want to do, but to keep the relationship with the production company lively and interactive. Ultimately, I see myself as a storyteller, not a film maker, so I can continue to tell my stories, while film makers interpret them for the screen. All that being said...any of these scenarios is still a dream for me, so you know...take it all with a handful of salt.

I'd be honoured if you'd consider reading my work - you can find out about it, and me, here: cathyace.com 

Four (or more) for four by Cathy Ace

“This is the time of year when thoughts turn to gift-giving. Could you suggest four books that would be ideal for "x" type of person - you get to define "x" - or a book for each of four different types of person…again, your choice of types.”

I’m choosing the “four different types of person” option for this question, and, who knows, maybe you know some folks like the ones I’m describing.

For my husband: he’s a huge Elmore Leonard fan, though he also enjoys Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce books too (hey, we all have our guilty pleasures) and he doesn’t get much of a chance to read novels, so, when he does, he likes to kick back and enjoy the adventure. As luck would have it, there’s a new Lee Child book available: Night School takes his character, Jack Reacher, back to 1996 when he’s still in the forces. For anyone who enjoys a lone-wolf scenario, Jack Reacher has to be their go-to character, and Lee Child their go-to writer. His style is easy to read and sucks you in from the beginning. This gift would earn me a couple of cooked breakfasts, I’m sure. (In order to ensure I get cooked breakfasts for a whole week, all I’ll need to do is also buy him Ian Rankin’s new Rebus book, Even Dogs in the Wild, and  Linwood Barclay’s most recent release, The Twenty Three).

For my mum: she’s a lover of traditional mysteries, an avid library-user, and reads a few books each week. Of course I’m her favourite author (allow me that, at least?) but, otherwise, I know she prefers British, rather than non-British, settings; despite the fact she’s visited me in Vancouver, Canada many times, she tells me she cannot envisage the settings in “American cozies” and finds the dialogue somewhat confusing, too.  She’s read everything Agatha Christie wrote - several times - and she’s the reason I love Christie and Marsh. That being said, she’s okay with books by those authors written at that time, but doesn’t like historicals – she’s particularly averse to anything set in the 1950s or 1960s; she doesn’t care for books that “try to be funny”, but enjoys them when they are light; she gets annoyed with “young things” (she’s in her eighties) traipsing about falling over clues; she seems to prefer main characters who are female (though she doesn’t admit it); she hates anything that smacks of romance. So…tough to choose for.  A “picky” reader. For her I’m going to get the books featuring Miss Silver by Patricia Wentworth. When mum and I went to The Mysterious Bookshop in New York last year, she found an old Miss Silver Mystery, was gifted it by the lovely people who run the store, and enjoyed it very much. I’ll stick with those for mum. She’ll lap them up, and will appreciate the fact I have hunted about for them on her behalf. 

Grandsons and granddaughters: (I’m counting this as two different types of person….though, being six people, they are really six different types of person, however young). I have three grandsons – aged zero to four, and three granddaughters – aged two to seven, so I’m going for something that can be read aloud to them, to begin with, so they can enjoy a brotherly and/or sisterly experience, and which they can then enjoy as they read alone for years to come. I travel a great deal, and always have....I would like all my grandchildren to understand how travel and exploration can help them learn, and broaden their horizons, so a set of books featuring Dora and Diego would be just the ticket.

Cathy Ace is the Bony Blithe Award-winning author of The Cait Morgan Mysteries (#8 The Corpse with the Ruby Lips was released on November 1st) and The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (#2 The Case of the Missing Morris Dancer was published in paperback in the USA & Canada on November 1st, and #3, The Case of the Curious Cook, will be released in hardcover in the UK on November 30th.)  You can find out more about Cathy, her work and her characters at her website, where you can also sign up for her newsletter with news, updates and special offers: http://cathyace.com/