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Cait Morgan #11
The Corpse with the Granite Heart
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.
Cait and Bud’s desire to seek out the truth is blocked by a shadowy figure who’s been tasked with keeping the incident hush-hush, but – as the body-count rises – the investigation develops a dreadful momentum.
This is the eleventh Cait Morgan Mystery, and it finds our usually unstoppable duo running up against the immoveable machinery of power…with tragic consequences.
Cait and Bud’s desire to seek out the truth is blocked by a shadowy figure who’s been tasked with keeping the incident hush-hush, but – as the body-count rises – the investigation develops a dreadful momentum.
This is the eleventh Cait Morgan Mystery, and it finds our usually unstoppable duo running up against the immoveable machinery of power…with tragic consequences.
- GenresMystery
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 5, 2021
18 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Ace
40 books387 followersCathy 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.
"Ace is, well, an ace when it comes to plot and description.” The Globe and Mail
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. You can find out more about Cathy, her books, and events she'll be attending, at www.cathyace.com
"Ace is, well, an ace when it comes to plot and description.” The Globe and Mail
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. You can find out more about Cathy, her books, and events she'll be attending, at www.cathyace.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 3, 2021
I used to be a real stickler for reading a series in order, start with #1 and proceed, and I still prefer that. However, with age comes letting go of some of my hard, fast rules and learning to be more flexible. I have wanted to read Cathy Ace’s Cait Morgan series for some time, and I kept getting further and further behind. Well, with this year’s book, The Corpse with the Granite Heart, #11, I decided to dive in. I’m so glad I did.
Cait Morgan and her husband Bud Anderson have traveled from their home in Canada to visit their good friend John Silver in London and meet his new fiancée, Bella Asimov. Cait, who lived and worked in London previous to her move to Canada, is looking forward to visiting favorite London spots with Bud and enjoying the Christmas cheer of the season.
Though they both are fighting jet lag the afternoon they arrive, they are scheduled to attend a dinner at John’s fiancée’s home. The dinner is a strange affair to begin with, a morbid memorial dinner for the fiancée Bella’s recently departed father. The recently departed Asimov patriarch, Oleg Asimov, was an ardent admirer, if not an expert, on Shakespeare and financially supported local projects and endeavors concerning the famous playwright. His family thinks it was his only redeeming quality. Upon arriving, Cait realizes she knows Bella’s sister and brother-in-law from the time in Cait’s life before she gave up on her beloved London, a time in which they were part of her trouble. But, Cait has impeccably good manners and knows that they are there for John, not old grudges. All Cait and Bud really want to do is get through the dinner and go back to John’s to collapse in bed. However, it turns out that their rest will be delayed.
As the guests prepare to go into dinner, an odd routine of everyone taking a bathroom break before entering the dining room is announced. While the business of taking care of business is occurring, there’s a burst of activity at the front door as Cait’s and Bud’s driver rushes in to raise the alarm. Someone has fallen from the top room of the house to the driveway below. Cait, who is a well-respected criminal psychologist, and Bud, who is a retired cop, immediately react and get involved. The dead person is Sasha, Bella’s sister, and suicide is suspected.
A man who is obviously law enforcement but rather shadowy arrives with his subordinate to question everyone, still leaning towards a suicide. Cait has misgivings about that call and realizes that the case is being handled very carefully, which is no doubt due to the revered standing of the family and the father’s wealthy success. At last being given clearance to go back to John’s house, Cait hopes that she and Bud can go back to their plans of just being tourists.
Of course, a trip filled with visiting museums won’t happen, as the story is obviously going to involve Cait’s detecting skills. When another death, Sasha’s husband, occurs at the Asimov mansion on the hill, nothing seems done and dusted except for the bodies. And, there will be more death to befall the house. It’s a treacherous time to be in Beulah House, and the reader has to wonder if it will be a case of “then there were none.”
The detective, Mr. Worthington, finally checks out Cait’s credentials, which include solving other murders and an eidetic memory, and allows her to help him. There are all sorts of peculiar and sordid facts about the Asimov family, but who seems to want to kill them off? It’s interesting to watch the clues unfold and the guilty revealed. A nasty business it is, being at the top.
I enjoyed this, my first Cait Morgan, book. I hesitated to jump in on #11, but author Cathy Ace makes it possible to glean past information needed for the present story. I quickly became a fan of Cait and Bud, with their easy-going relationship and trust and respect for one another. There were many unreliable characters, for whom it wasn’t clear if they were trustworthy or not, and that added greatly to the suspense, which built with every death. The characters’ fear of who would be the next victim is keenly felt by the reader. There’s plenty of atmosphere to soak up in this narrative where money has built an empire of ill will.
I hope to go back and pick up at least some of the previous Cait Morgan books I’ve missed, as I’m curious about Cait’s and Bud’s relationship in its beginning and the cases they solved together. Of course, I’m not surprised I would enjoy this series, as I’m a fan of Cathy Ace’s writing in her Wales series and her stand-alone, The Wrong Boy. Ace has a good eye for interesting characters in all her stories, and a deft hand at writing stories that capture the flavor of a setting. The use of each chapter being headed by a quote from a Shakespeare play foreshadowing the chapter’s contents was a clever vehicle to use for The Corpse with the Granite Heart, as it connected to Oleg Asimov’s one true passion and created a dramatic atmosphere. So, I will happily recommend this latest book in the Cait Morgan series and the series itself.
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy of The Corpse with the Granite Heart from the author.
Cait Morgan and her husband Bud Anderson have traveled from their home in Canada to visit their good friend John Silver in London and meet his new fiancée, Bella Asimov. Cait, who lived and worked in London previous to her move to Canada, is looking forward to visiting favorite London spots with Bud and enjoying the Christmas cheer of the season.
Though they both are fighting jet lag the afternoon they arrive, they are scheduled to attend a dinner at John’s fiancée’s home. The dinner is a strange affair to begin with, a morbid memorial dinner for the fiancée Bella’s recently departed father. The recently departed Asimov patriarch, Oleg Asimov, was an ardent admirer, if not an expert, on Shakespeare and financially supported local projects and endeavors concerning the famous playwright. His family thinks it was his only redeeming quality. Upon arriving, Cait realizes she knows Bella’s sister and brother-in-law from the time in Cait’s life before she gave up on her beloved London, a time in which they were part of her trouble. But, Cait has impeccably good manners and knows that they are there for John, not old grudges. All Cait and Bud really want to do is get through the dinner and go back to John’s to collapse in bed. However, it turns out that their rest will be delayed.
As the guests prepare to go into dinner, an odd routine of everyone taking a bathroom break before entering the dining room is announced. While the business of taking care of business is occurring, there’s a burst of activity at the front door as Cait’s and Bud’s driver rushes in to raise the alarm. Someone has fallen from the top room of the house to the driveway below. Cait, who is a well-respected criminal psychologist, and Bud, who is a retired cop, immediately react and get involved. The dead person is Sasha, Bella’s sister, and suicide is suspected.
A man who is obviously law enforcement but rather shadowy arrives with his subordinate to question everyone, still leaning towards a suicide. Cait has misgivings about that call and realizes that the case is being handled very carefully, which is no doubt due to the revered standing of the family and the father’s wealthy success. At last being given clearance to go back to John’s house, Cait hopes that she and Bud can go back to their plans of just being tourists.
Of course, a trip filled with visiting museums won’t happen, as the story is obviously going to involve Cait’s detecting skills. When another death, Sasha’s husband, occurs at the Asimov mansion on the hill, nothing seems done and dusted except for the bodies. And, there will be more death to befall the house. It’s a treacherous time to be in Beulah House, and the reader has to wonder if it will be a case of “then there were none.”
The detective, Mr. Worthington, finally checks out Cait’s credentials, which include solving other murders and an eidetic memory, and allows her to help him. There are all sorts of peculiar and sordid facts about the Asimov family, but who seems to want to kill them off? It’s interesting to watch the clues unfold and the guilty revealed. A nasty business it is, being at the top.
I enjoyed this, my first Cait Morgan, book. I hesitated to jump in on #11, but author Cathy Ace makes it possible to glean past information needed for the present story. I quickly became a fan of Cait and Bud, with their easy-going relationship and trust and respect for one another. There were many unreliable characters, for whom it wasn’t clear if they were trustworthy or not, and that added greatly to the suspense, which built with every death. The characters’ fear of who would be the next victim is keenly felt by the reader. There’s plenty of atmosphere to soak up in this narrative where money has built an empire of ill will.
I hope to go back and pick up at least some of the previous Cait Morgan books I’ve missed, as I’m curious about Cait’s and Bud’s relationship in its beginning and the cases they solved together. Of course, I’m not surprised I would enjoy this series, as I’m a fan of Cathy Ace’s writing in her Wales series and her stand-alone, The Wrong Boy. Ace has a good eye for interesting characters in all her stories, and a deft hand at writing stories that capture the flavor of a setting. The use of each chapter being headed by a quote from a Shakespeare play foreshadowing the chapter’s contents was a clever vehicle to use for The Corpse with the Granite Heart, as it connected to Oleg Asimov’s one true passion and created a dramatic atmosphere. So, I will happily recommend this latest book in the Cait Morgan series and the series itself.
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy of The Corpse with the Granite Heart from the author.
April 7, 2022
Cait and Bud are at a family dinner in London when the patriarch drops dead. With some skepticism, the local police, who have checked Cait’s crime-solving history, allow her to be involved in the investigation. Each chapter is prefaced by a quote from Shakespeare, but the plot reads more like a Greek tragedy. I like the series but this story is so dismal that even discovering the murderer offers little in the way of resolution.
January 4, 2022
This is a "puzzle" whodunnit murder mystery set in contemporary London. It's got an intricate plot with a closed circle of suspects. Cait Morgan and her husband Bud, along with a mysterious government investigator, work through the witness interviews to solve the puzzle as the body count rises. The cast is made up of several well developed characters, each not quite what they seem to be. London is always in the background, adding local colour to the story. There's a dramatic reveal as Cait puts the pieces together to solve the mystery and bring the story to a bittersweet conclusion.
February 22, 2022
Cait and Bud are in London to visit their friend John Silver, and meet his fiancee, Bella. But almost immediately things start to go a little bit sideways — it turns out Cait use to work with Bella's sister, Alex (or Sasha, to her family); and Alex's husband had even made a pass at her. So the planned dinner party was going to be rather interesting. Unfortunately, it was also deadly for one attendee, so once again Cait and Bud try to help the investigators. Another excellent, hard-to-put-down mystery. Highly recommended.
July 13, 2022
Cathy Ace offers up yet another gem. Featuring incomparable criminal psychologist, Cait Morgan, her eidetic memory, and her solid-as-a-rock husband, Bud Anderson, The Corpse with the Granite Heart recalls the best of Golden Age country house mysteries. Its sharp characterizations—one of Ace’s many strengths—as well as the clever, intricate plot, pave the way to a most satisfying conclusion. The artistic and gastronomical treats, the touristic jags, Shakespeare, and Cait’s brilliant powers of deduction all conspire to make this the best yet in this ever-so-smart series.
April 27, 2024
Another great book by Cathy ace.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews