I am so excited to have Cait Morgan here today!!!!
Welcome Cait!!
Hi Everyone!
“Stay-cationing might be safer . . .”
Let me be clear—I enjoy my work as a professor of criminal psychology, specializing in victimology, at the University of Vancouver. Of course, some aspects are more pleasing than others, but that’s the same for any career. My favorite part of the job is when I get to focus on my research, some of the teaching—and even some of the students—can be rewarding too, but I detest grading papers and attending meetings. So, yes, a break from those aspects is always welcome.
Nowadays, I say that more cautiously than I used to, because the last few times I’ve managed to get a break from my normal life of academia, interspersed with the odd bit of consulting for the police forces in BC, I seem to have wound up with an all-too-real crime to solve. So, when I use the term “break”, it’s not altogether accurate when applied to the “criminal” aspects of my job.
For example, when I attended a birthday party for an old friend from my schooldays in Wales, whom I hadn’t seen in donkey’s years, things didn’t go exactly as planned . . . I ended up snowed into a hunting lodge with a corpse and a house full of suspects. I went to another birthday party when I was in the south of France, where I’d been sent to stand in for a colleague who was unable to deliver a research paper to an international symposium of criminologists, and my host did a face-plant into the escargots before we’d even finished our main course. Then there was the trip to BC’s wine country for what I thought would be a delightful foodie weekend, which ended up being deadly in more ways than one. There was no birthday party that time, so clearly that’s not the common denominator. No, as soon as I leave home, the corpses accumulate. So, maybe, it’s best if I take “stay-cations” in future.
I can see why staying at home, but acting as though you’re at some swanky resort, is gaining in popularity: often we don’t visit the attractions that surround us in the way that visitors do. In fact, when I lived in London, working at an advertising agency in Soho, I only visited places like Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, the London Wall Museum and Madame Tussauds when people were staying with me from out of town. Vancouver and the Lower Mainland—as the area around the city is known, and where I live now—has some great places to visit, as does the rest of British Columbia . . . most of which I haven’t even seen yet. Well, I’ve only been here a decade or so, and I haven’t had many people come to stay, so it’s no wonder I haven’t explored my own Province very much!
Two trips to Kelowna, in the Okanagan Valley, BC, have both led me to dead bodies . . . so maybe I should stay closer to home. Granville Island, which is cheek by jowl with downtown Vancouver, has its own brewery, and a great market where you can buy pretty much any sort of food, including mozzarella made from real buffalo milk, fresh wild Pacific salmon, the most indulgent range of nuts coated in everything from chilli salt to lemon and cane sugar, and the most beautifully presented vegetables you’ll see anywhere in the world. There’s even a traditional French bakery, and an excellent liquor store that specializes in wines from BC. Maybe next weekend I’ll treat myself to a “stay-cation” at Granville Island. And, maybe, it’ll be close enough to home to allow me to NOT find myself up to my neck in sleuthing. We’ll see . . .
~Cait
Book Details:
The Corpse with the Golden Nose
(A Cait Morgan Mystery)
2nd in Series
Genre: Traditional/Cozy Mystery
Published by: Touchwood Editions
Release Date: (March 12, 2013)
Paperback: 233 Pages
ISBN-13: 978-1927129883
E-Book File Size: 536 KB
ASIN: B00AY5G29O
We met Cait and Bud in the first book in this series, The Corpse With The Silver Tongue. This installment has them attending an exclusive gourmet event in British Columbia’s stunning wine country and investigating the death of a world-famous vintner.
Was she murdered or did she really commit suicide? Bud thinks she took her own life but Cait is not so sure. As Cait uses her special talents to piece things together she is led down a very surprising and dangerous path.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Cathy Ace’s stories really have that Agatha Christie feel. Her protagonist collects information, follows clues, is lead astray and then all the pieces fall into place. She then brings all the suspects together and slowly reveals the truth and the killer.
I really loved the setting of this story and the wine making and tasting tidbits were very interesting. I especially enjoyed learning about the caves that were used for storage back in time and still used today.
Again she has given us a wonderful supporting cast, mostly suspects, each with their own set of eccentricities. The Moveable Feast was a great way to meet them all.
Bud, the retired cop and criminologist Cait make a terrific team! Ace has blended them together with a fine mystery and some fine wine for a superior story.
I am anxious to see where Cait’s adventures will take us next!
About Cathy Ace
Welsh Canadian mystery author Cathy Ace is the creator of the Cait Morgan Mysteries, which include The Corpse with the Silver Tongue and The Corpse with the Golden Nose. Born, raised, and educated in Wales, Cathy enjoyed a successful career in marketing and training across Europe, before immigrating to Vancouver, Canada, where she taught on MBA and undergraduate marketing programs at various universities. Her eclectic tastes in art, music, food, and drink have been developed during her decades of extensive travel, which she continues whenever possible. Now a full-time author, Cathy’s short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies, as well as on BBC Radio 4. She and her husband are keen gardeners, who enjoy being helped out around their acreage by their green-pawed Labradors.
Links
Website: cathyace.com
Cathy Reads From Corpse With The Golden Nose.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cathy.ace.author?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AceCathy
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3913679.Cathy_Ace
Purchase From Amazon B&N Book World Powell’s Books Book Depository
The Corpse with the Silver Tongue (Cait Morgan Mysteries)
Book 1 of this series
Cathy’s tour has been fabulous! I am honored she asked me to coordinate it!!
There are still 3 stops left!!
July 31 – rantin’ ravin’ and reading – Review & Interview
August 1 – The Bookwyrm’s Hoard – Interview
August 2 – Socrates’ Book Review Blog – Review
Thanks Cathy!!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Sounds like a great series…must look for the first. Dee
Hi Deanna – thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy meeting Cait in person. Cathy
Thanks for inviting me and Cait to visit, Lori! And thanks for all your efforts organizing this Blog Tour. Three more “dates” to go! Cathy
Wonderful guest post! It’s so much fun when the “guest” is a character. And this was such a delightful mystery. I’m looking forward to hosting Cathy on Aug. 1!
Hello Lark – thanks for dropping into this blog. I’m looking forward to Cait and myself spending more time with you at your blog on August 1st! Cathy
I always loved Agatha Christie, and if Cathy ‘has that feel’, I’m sure I’ll like her stories also. I must say the visit and post by Cait was delightful.
Hi Donna – thanks for dropping by! I’m glad you enjoyed meeting Cait – here’s hoping you choose to spend some more time with her as she solves her mysteries! Cathy
I would hate to invite Cait to any function unless I hated everybody their. I want to go and read the other stories about Cait now.
That made me laugh! I used to have the same thought about Jessica Fletcher, the mystery writer portrayed by Angela Lansbury on “Murder, She Wrote.” If I saw that woman coming, I would run in the opposite direction! But that can really be said about almost any fictional amateur sleuth — people in their vicinity get bumped off with appalling regularity.
Hello Rhonda – you’re right, even poor Cait thinks that maybe she should stay at home…but she won’t, of course! Lark makes a good point, and it’s one reason why I decided, at the outset, that Cait would travel. I didn’t have it in me to write a series of books where a particular village/town lost half its inhabitants to a variety of murderous neighbours or visitors. It’s a tough choice, because the nature of the genre is that the sleuth finds themselves coming into contact with corpses…at least Cait’s will be dotted around the world!
Traveling seems an inspired solution to me, and Cait’s background and occasional work as a police consultant make her less of an amateur than some sleuths. It’s a good setup for a series!
Thanks, Lark. Cait’s consulting work for the cops is referred to in her short stories, novella and novels, rather than those consulting situations being used as the story itself. I think it’s important to adhere to the expectations of a traditional sleuth tale, but it does mean she’s familiar with police procedure.Her background as a professor of criminology means she has more than a passing knowledge of forensics, pathology, interview procedures…but she’d never claim to be an expert in any of these fields. That eidetic memory does mean she retains anything she reads though, so gathering and calling upon all sorts of “trivia” can be useful!
I enjoyed this one very much and it definitely reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel.
Thanks for dropping by, Yvonne, and for your kind words. Cathy