The Corpse With The Granite Heart by Cathy Ace

 

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You can buy The Corpse with the Granite Heart...Here

You can visit Cathy's website...Here

The Blurb...

Welsh Canadian criminal psychologist Cait Morgan, and her retired-cop husband Bud Anderson, are in London, England, to meet their friend John Silver’s freshly minted fiancée, the daughter of a recently deceased Shakespeare aficionado, and captain of industry. The trip is supposed to be filled with art galleries, good food, and Christmas spirit. However, an untimely death at a posh dinner party threatens to send shock waves through the upper strata of London society.

My Review...

This is the 11th book in the Cait Morgan series by Cathy Ace. In this series Cait travels the world to iconic locations tripping over corpses and investigating murder. 

This book can be read as a standalone or as part of the series.

For fans of Cluedo and Agatha Christie. A locked room, or in this case a closed mansion, mystery with only a few potential killers. This is a densely layered cosy, crime who-dunnit, which takes some unpicking. Set in suburban London mansion at Christmas, the bodies fall faster than snow. The story benefits from a fairly complex plot which makes the killer not too easy to spot. (Well I didn't spot them, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.) The characters will be familiar from the genre. The mis-matched twins, the old, blustering knight of the realm, the grasping, gold digger, the grim police detective et al.  

Only one thing threw me a little, and this is probably down to me being an old git and not "down with kids."The author uses the phrase mugged several times. As in "mugged a grin" or "mugged a salute." I couldn't work it out for a while. I was thinking, robbed in the street, with the threat of violence. Nope 🤔 eventually worked it out, it means to over react often in a smug/smarmy way. So there you go. Everyday's a school day. Apparently it's quite a well known thing too, these days. So its just me then....

The mansion is quite intricate with numerous rooms, outbuildings, stairs etc. The book may have benefitted from a floor plan, just to keep the locations clear. 

The author has an unusual style. It's like getting drawn into a conversation with a gossipy neighbour, and eventually becoming entangled into her world. Or when something like "Loose Women" is on TV. One minute your'e walking through the lounge and the next  you find yourself sat watching, wondering what will happen now that Simon has left Joanne with the kids and gone to shack up with that gold digger Serena Chardonnay.

Written in the first person. The protagonist is a very interesting character psychologically speaking. For one she has a propensity to say and do things to blend into her social surroundings whilst actually thinking something totally different. This duality/incongruence is not something I often come across. The only other protagonist I can think of like this is Patricia Highsmith's Talented Mr Ripley. Cait's chameleon act is very subtle and not as drastic as Ripley's but is there none the less. (see selected quotes.)

Secondly, it would appear she has some up close experience of the English Class system and definitely NOT a fan. A view with which I would have some sympathy. I could have picked several quotes to illustrate this but settled for just two (see selected quotes). Cait often uses her "think one way, act another" skill to camouflage herself in the society she dislikes intensely.

There is a section where Cait lists four characteristics of a psychopath. As I read them I thought, yep and you have at least three of them, but that doesn't make her a bad person just an effective investigator

All in all a very quotable and excellent example of the genre with a fascinating lead character. Always thinking outside the box... She would be a fantastic villain. 

Selected Quotes...

"I plastered what I hoped was a sympathetic look onto my face."

“Bella and Sasha, and Charles of course, were away at school for years,” began John. “Cheltenham and Eton, respectively.” Oh, the delights of moving in circles where the assumption is that all children go to boarding school, was what I thought. “Of course,” was what I mumbled

 "It was the first time I’d encountered the titanium mesh that binds together those who’ve endured the particular brand of cruelty and indoctrination that’s the stockin-trade of the English public school system."

"I reckon he’s overcompensating for something, though I don’t know what.” Possibly an unhappy childhood, packed off to board with the well-heeled but not necessarily super-bright? Was what I thought."

“Women have a much greater ability than men to be desperately cruel.”

"Until that moment I’d never considered a voice to be capable of slithering,"

About the Author...

Cathy Ace migrated from her native Wales to Canada at the age of 40. She is the award-winning author of the traditional Cait Morgan Mysteries featuring her Welsh Canadian criminology professor sleuth who travels the world tripping over corpses, which have now been optioned for TV. She also writes the cozier WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries featuring a quartet of female PIs who run their business out of a Welsh stately home. Both series have been well-reviewed. Her award-winning standalone, THE WRONG BOY, is a gripping novel of psychological suspense, set in Wales, and has also been optioned for TV.

Cathy's work has won the prestigious Bony Blithe Award for best Canadian light mystery, an IPPY and an IBA Award, and has been shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story.

Her short story "Dear George" appeared on the UK's O Level English Language syllabus and, together with another story, "Domestic Violence", has been produced for BBC Radio 4.