The Reek of Red Herrings (Dandy Gilver Series #9)

by Catriona McPherson

Overview

Agatha Award Winner for Best Historical Novel: Something fishy is going on in this clever mystery with “an exciting climax” set in a tiny Scottish village (Publishers Weekly).

Winner, Lefty Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel
Finalist, Macavity/Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery

On the rain-drenched, wind-battered Banffshire coast, dilapidated mansions cling to cliff tops and tiny fishing villages perch on ledges that would make a seagull think twice. It’s nowhere for Dandy Gilver, a child of gentle Northamptonshire, to spend Christmas.

But when odd things start to turn up in barrels of fish—with a strong whiff of murder most foul—that’s exactly where she finds herself. Enlisted to investigate, Dandy and her trusty cohort, Alec Osborne, are soon swept up in the fisherfolks’ wedding season as well as the mystery. Between age-old traditions and brand-new horrors, Dandy must think the unthinkable to solve her most baffling case yet.
 
“A host of colorful characters…the setting of this cozy thriller is vividly detailed and full of creeping menace.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Not since Maisie Dobbs first surfaced has there been a pluckier or more winning heroine.”―Charles Finch, author of The Fleet Street Murders
 
“A dandy series.” ―The Boston Globe

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250090997
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/26/2024
Series:	Dandy Gilver Series , #9
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	9,649
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

CATRIONA MCPHERSON was born near Edinburgh, where she received her Ph.D. Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains won the Sue Feder Memorial Award in 2012, and Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder won an Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. Catriona lives in Davis, California, with her husband and two cats.

Editorial Reviews

10/10/2016
Gothic touches enliven McPherson’s ninth Dandy Gilver mystery set in Scotland (after 2014’s A Deadly Measure of Brimstone). In 1930, a distressed H. Birchfield of Birchfield & Sons, a fish distributor, approaches PI Dandy and her fellow investigator, Alec Osborne. Body parts found in barrels of herring clearly indicate foul play, yet the livelihoods of Birchfield’s far-from-wealthy employees will be threatened if word spreads and the authorities step in. Dandy and Alec trace the source to a village in Banffshire and masquerade as sibling folklorists to conduct discreet inquiries. They encounter townspeople with a permissive view of premarital sex, a minister and doctor who exchange dueling quotations, an eccentric pair of brothers with a museum of curiosities, an artistic English couple, and a less than gracious landlady. The Scots dialect and multiple names for villagers may pose some difficulties, but an exciting climax and the moral dilemmas confronting Dandy and Alec deliver rewards for readers. Agent: Lisa Moylett, Coombs Moylett Literary Agency. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Agatha Christie meets Upstairs Downstairs...[For] fans of Phyrne Fisher and Maisie Dobbs.” —Publishers Weekly

“A dandy series from a Scottish-born author; wit, humor, clues, and red herrings abound.” —The Boston Globe

“Agatha Christie lives! If you like this kind of book, and I do, you’ll love this book.” —John Lescroart

“Witty, humorous, and a thoroughly good read.” —M. C. Beaton

“I love Dandy Gilver’s wit and common sense. Curl up and prepare to enjoy!” —Deborah Crombie

“Not since Maisie Dobbs first surfaced has there been a pluckier or more winning heroine.” —Charles Finch, author of The Fleet Street Murders

From the Publisher

11/01/2016
Dandy Gilver (A Deadly Measure of Brim-stone) and fellow investigator Alec Osborne travel to northern Scotland to look into body parts found in barrels of fish. Quaint village ways clash with macabre villains.

Library Journal

2016-10-05
Dandy Gilver and her gentleman sidekick, Alec Osborne, take to the wintry coast of Scotland in their fifth investigation (A Deadly Measure of Brimstone, 2014, etc.).A prosperous merchant summons Gilver and Osborne with an unpleasant mystery: the barrels of herring he wholesales have turned up containing human remains. Desperate to keep the news out of the public eye, he dispatches Dandy and Alec to his source: Gamrie, a tiny fishing village clinging precariously to the cliffs over the North Sea. Presenting themselves as philologists, Dandy and Alec have license to ask nosy questions about not only the folk traditions and Scottish vernacular peculiar to these insular fisherfolk, but also any mysterious deaths or strangers come to town. Their dogged investigation uncovers a host of colorful characters: an exceedingly sanctimonious parson, a couple of Bohemian painters, a most uncanny pair of taxidermists, and the hearty young girls who follow the boats to gut and pack the herring. Dandy and Alec close in on the murderer just as a vicious storm closes in on Christmas Eve. The ending, telegraphed a bit early in the story, is fully gothic—a grisly shocker but also a tidy piece of justice. The detectives are stalwart stock characters of interwar Britain, but the setting of this cozy thriller is vividly detailed and full of creeping menace.

Kirkus Reviews