The Corpse with the Ruby Lips (A Cait Morgan Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
TouchWood Editions (November 1, 2016)
Paperback: 240 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1771511957

Synopsis

Quirky criminology professor Cait Morgan is invited to be a guest lecturer at a Budapest university, and although she’s hesitant to go without her husband and trusted sidekick, Bud, who must stay home to care for his aging parents, she decides to make the month-long trip on her own.

Soon after arriving, one of her new students, Zsofia, pleads with Cait to help her uncover any clues about her grandmother’s unsolved murder, which happened decades ago on the campus of Cait’s own home university in Canada. Cait agrees, but when she is repeatedly hassled by an creepy colleague, and as bizarre details about Zsofia’s family members come to light, Cait is beset by uncertainty.

As she gets closer to the truth, Cait’s investigation puts the powers-that-be on high alert, and her instincts tell her she’s in grave danger. Bud races to Budapest to come to Cait’s side, but will it be too late?

Guest Post

Welcome Cathy to StoreyBook Reviews!  I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and give us some insight into your newest book in the Cait Morgan series.

Thanks for having me along today, and for giving me the chance to talk about the eighth Cait Morgan Mystery, THE CORPSE WITH THE RUBY LIPS.

I’m going to take the chance to refer to something that comes up a good deal in the book – our ability as human beings to do what turn out to be bad things, for good reasons. I’m guessing most people reading this have told the odd “white lie”…you know the sort of thing I mean – we tell a little untruth, or don’t reveal the entire truth, for what we believe are the best of reasons.

Most of us know to not ask things like “Does my bum look big in this?” because we – probably quite rightly – don’t expect to get an honest answer (unless I’m asking my sister, in which case I’ll get an absolutely truthful one!). And most of us will be effusively kind when we’re complimenting a person, on their appearance or their choice of home décor for example, even if our true feelings are somewhat different. It’s how we all manage to rub along, nicely.

But what about taking things a step further? What about not saying something we’re tempted to say, and that omission changing the course of a person’s life? Or what about saying aloud that which is in our heart, without any thought about how destructive our words might be? There’s a fine line between helping and hurting in both cases…and, sometimes, it’s difficult to know where that line is, or should be, drawn.

In this book a young woman believes her chance for true happiness is blighted by her mother’s inability to discuss the murder of her grandmother, so she turns to our sleuth – professor of criminal psychology…and rabid foodie…Cait Morgan – for help. Cait has to tread a path along the almost invisible lines of what should and shouldn’t be said, and to whom, as she navigates the extraordinary family dynamics she encounters. Please consider coming with Cait to Budapest, where she finds herself mired in mysteries, and caught in a web of deceit…some of which has been woven from threads of what people believed were kindness, but which binds just as tightly for all that.

About the Author

Cathy Ace loves crime! It’s true – she discovered Nancy Drew in her local library, then found Agatha Christie on her Mum’s bookshelves, and she never looked back. Cathy happily admits that the characters she met between the book-covers as a child have influenced her writing. “Nancy Drew was plucky, strong and independent, and Agatha Christie’s puzzles engaged me every time. I love the sort of book that mixes intricate plotting with a dash of danger, and that’s what I’ve tried to create with my Cait Morgan Mystery Series. Beginning my new series, featuring the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency, I have been able to indulge my love of stately homes, village life and the interplay between characters that can take place in that sort of setting.”

Born and raised in Swansea, South Wales, Cathy is, like her heroine Cait Morgan, now a Canadian citizen. “Cait’s Welsh Canadian, as am I. They say ‘write what you know’, so a short, plus-sized Welsh woman, who’s quite bossy, fits the bill! But Cait and I are not one and the same: she’s got skills and talents I don’t possess,and I’m delighted to say that I don’t usually encounter corpses wherever I go! I’ve also chosen to burrow even deeper into my roots by creating a new cast of characters in the WISE women who come from all four corners of the United Kingdom and work in a uniquely British setting – a ducal estate set in the rolling Welsh countryside of the Wye Valley in Powys, where I spent a good deal of time when I was young.”

With a successful career in marketing having given her the chance to write training courses and textbooks, Cathy has now finally turned her attention to her real passion: crime fiction. Her short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies. Two of her works, “Dear George” and “Domestic Violence”, have also been produced by Jarvis & Ayres Productions as “Afternoon Reading” broadcasts for BBC Radio 4.

Cathy now writes two series of traditional mysteries: The Cait Morgan Mysteries (TouchWood Editions) and The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (Severn House Publishers).

Cathy is proud to be Chair of Crime Writers of Canada,  a member of Sisters in Crime, the Crime Writers Association, and Mystery Writers of America.

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