A Death in the Highlands

Caroline Dunford

Feb 2013 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

"A sparkling and witty crime debut with a female protagonist to challenge Miss Marple." Lin Anderson, Award winning Scottish crime author A Death in the Highlands - Books Two of the Euphemia Martin Mysteries After dodging criminal charges, Richard returns as head of the household at Stapleford Hall. Changing fortunes find Euphemia temporarily promoted to housekeeper for the first trip to the family's new hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands, where she is meets Rory Macleod, the new butler. Taking on her new role, she encounters angry locals with a grudge against the Staplefords and thwarts what she believes to be an attempt on Bertram Stapleford's life. A strange group of house guests arrive for the Glorious Twelfth, but with disastrous consequences. Euphemia finds herself caught in the midst of bitter rivalries, and evidence pointing to several murder suspects. Will she unravel the mystery?

About the author

Caroline Dunford has previously worked as a psychotherapist, a journalist and a non-fiction author. She has a deep love of story, which she believes is at the heart of human nature. She first declared, at five years old, that she wanted to be a writer but was told there was little options of it being a full time job. Undeterred, she started writing short stories, plays and mini novels. She became known for writing plays at primary school including casting and directing the performances. She then grew up and went to university, studied sensible subjects and decided she didn't like the 'real world' one bit. She started out as a freelance journalist and writer, sending off short stories to every magazine she could find and received rejection after rejection until she learnt to better her writing. As a journalist, she was somewhat of a failure as she didn't like upsetting people and therefore never made it to tabloid press. She then studied a part time degree in psychology, which she enjoyed more than her past studied subjects. Caroline then spent years working with other people helping them shape their personal life stories (she is a Freudian at heart) until she decided to take the plunge and write her own stories full time. She believes that writing fiction is now the only way she can stay sane. Euphemia Martins was partly inspired by the family legend of her great, great grandmother, who ran away from a very rich family and ended up working in service. Unlike Euphemia, she found the life far too hard, but was rescued by a tobacconist, whom she married and with whom she had thirteen children. Murder casts a sharp light over those around it, revealing characters and morality in unique sharpness. What forces one to take the life of another and how those around react reveals so much about human nature and the fragility of society. Caroline finds the period before WW1, when everyone was setting their playing pieces on the board for global conflict fascinating. She is also intrigued by the start of female emancipation and the class-system breakdown that was taking hold. Caroline loves puzzles and finds human beings the most exciting puzzles of all. But above all, she believes life must be enjoyed with humour. We must all bring whatever light we can to the darkness.