Dandy Gilver first appeared in After the Armistice Ball and one of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions, so let’s get to know Dandy.

What is your name?
Dandelion Dahlia Gilver. They call me Dandy.

How old are you?
I was born in November of 1886. I can’t bear to say more.

What is your profession?
What a peculiar question to ask of a lady. I was trained to be a wife and mother, a hostess and an asset. Mind you, I suppose that for the last fifteen years one could almost say I’ve been working as a private detective. Forgive me; it’s not really a strange question at all.

Do you have a significant other?
My colleague is Alec Osborne- Although, it occurs to me that you might mean my husband, Hugh. Your turn of phrase is a little difficult to decipher.

What is his name and profession?
Hugh? He would say he is a farmer, although most of the actual farming at Gilverton is done by his tenants. I would say he is a landowner. Our parents’ generation would have called him a gentleman, but that description makes the youngsters smile these days.

Any children?
Two boys. Men now. Donald is the elder. He is about to marry a sweet girl called Mallory. She is a little older but very steady. And he needed steadiness. Now Teddy, my younger, needs more steadiness than one woman could ever provide. He managed somehow not to get sent down from Oxford and is now in want of a settled purpose in life. Hugh thinks the trouble in Germany will give both our boys a very urgent purpose soon. I cannot bring myself to contemplate such a thing.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
My brother, Edward Leston, is all right in his own way. My sister, Mavis, is frankly a bit of a drip.

Do your parents live near you?
My parents are long gone, I’m afraid to say. They were trying – they called me Dandelion, for a start – but I was fond of them.

Who is your best friend?
Gosh, these questions are pointed. I began to say Daisy Esslemont. It has been the truth for many years. But Alec is my closest friend now. And my most intimate daily companion, strange to say, is my maid, Grant. As one’s life goes on, the glitter settles out of it and one’s true friends can be a surprise.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
My darling daffy Dalmatian, Bunty. She is Bunty II, the original Bunty having gone to her rest after a long life. What a joy a dog is. How uncomplicated and rewarding, compared with people.

What town do you live in?
We live at home at Gilverton these days. The town house was closed up during the first war and then sold in that terrible few years in the mid 20s. I don’t miss London as much I thought I would. What a depressing admission that is. I shall hurry past it.

House or building complex? Own or Rent?
I wonder what a building complex is. I don’t own any property, nor am I ever likely to, unless in my widowhood I take a flat at the seaside somewhere. Gilverton has no dower house, so it might come to that. As to renting: we do have tenants but most of them are workers or pensioned-off former workers these days. Hugh’s rents don’t furnish us with many luxuries.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
My sittingroom. It is absolutely mine and a long way from Hugh’s library, business room and billiards room. Because it is approached through the breakfast room – which has a broad edge of boards around the carpet – no one can creep up on me there. And since we put in a telephone and a door to the garden I am quite self-sufficient. Bunty sleeps in a chair there. I am never lonely.

Favorite meal? Favorite dessert?
I suppose I should credit my cook, Mrs Tilling, for her efforts. She was fearfully Scottish when I first moved up here and embarked upon household management. The barley broths, mashed swedes and long-stewed venison made me weep. She has made great strides: poaching pheasant in light wine; thinning soups with milk; creaming spring vegetables to a mousse. But nothing will ever shift her when it comes to suet pudding and custard. Dessert is not a treat in my dining room.

Favorite hobby?
Do I have a hobby? I’ve said detecting is my profession so I can hardly claim it as a pastime. My daily domestic round is pleasant enough, but most of it feels more like duty than diversion. If pressed, I suppose I would be forced to admit that I do enjoy trips to the cinema. I used to pretend I went to keep an eye on what the boys were seeing. But last year’s Gone With The Wind saw Mrs Tilling, Grant, Becky the head housemaid and I sitting in a row, quite agog. We went three times while it was at the local picture house.

Favorite color?
Anything but brown. I have got used to country life but there’s no need for that.

Favorite author?
Margaret Mitchell. I’m waiting with bated breath for her next one.

Favorite vacation spot?
The south of France. As soon as we pass Paris on the train I can feel Scotland begin to feel like a dream. A damp, chilly dream from which I have awoken at last.

Favorite sports team?
No, no, no. Not any more. My boys are men and I never have to watch another game of rugby football as long as I live.

Movies or Broadway?
Well now, given how much I adore the “movies” – are you an American, I find myself wondering – I imagine a Broadway show would knock my socks off. Although, I’ve never been all that fond of variety, nor of the shows one sees in Paris. I’d hate to see a Broadway “hit” and find it tawdry and disappointing. Thankfully, I don’t suppose I’ll ever know.

You can read more about Dandy in A Step So Grave, the 13th book in the “Dandy Gilver” historical mystery series, released November 5, 2019.

Wedding bells are set to ring as Dandy Gilver, family in tow, arrives in windswept Wester Ross on Valentine’s Day. They’ve come to celebrate Lady Lavinia’s fiftieth birthday and to meet her daughter Mallory, a less-than-suitable bride-to-be for Dandy’s son Donald.

But soon love is the last thing on Dandy’s mind when the news breaks that Lady Lavinia has been found dead, brutally murdered in the middle of her famous knot garden. Strange superstitions and folklore abound among the Gaelic-speaking locals. But , Dandy suspects that the tangled boughs and branches around Applecross House hide something much more earthly at work . . .

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

About the author
Catriona McPherson is the national best-selling and multi-award-winning author of the Dandy Gilver series of preposterous detective stories, set in her native Scotland in the 1930s. She also writes darker contemporary suspense novels, of which Strangers at the Gate is the latest. Also, eight years after immigrating to the US and settling in California, Catriona began the Last Ditch series, written about a completely fictional Scottish woman who moves to a completely fictional west-coast college town.

Catriona is a member of MWA, CWA and SoA, and a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime, committed to advancing equity and inclusion for women, writers of colour, LGBTQ+ writers and writers with disability in the mystery community.

To learn more about Catriona, visit her website at catrionamcpherson.com.

All comments are welcomed.