Why do you write the genre that you write?
I started writing crime because I loved reading it. I keep writing crime – I think – because putting characters through a shredder on the finest setting is such a great way to see what they’ve made of. And the puzzle is a challenge too. I enjoy playing the shell game.

Tell us how you got into writing?
I hated my job so much – I was a teaching at a university – that packing it in, selling my house, and sitting down in my rented house to type “chapter one” seemed like a good idea. Now that’s a bad job, right?

What’s next for you?
Ooft. I’m one week and two thousand hard words into a brand-new standalone but I stopped because I didn’t know who one of the characters was. It’s that bit of writing that’s hard to do when someone else is in the house to see it, because it looks a lot like gardening and jigsaw puzzles. I’ve worked out who this person is now so off we go. (And my garden looks lovely.)

What are you reading now?
Right now, I’m reading Christina Lane’s Edgar winner Phantom Lady – about Joan Harrison, a Hollywood producer who started with Hitchcock and became and independent powerhouse in her own right. It’s stirring stuff, but boy-oh-boy the more you hear about Hitch! And I just read Queering Agatha Christie by Jamie Bernthal, having been on an AC appreciation panel with him for Malice. It was fascinating. I also just devoured the fifteen stories from Cemetery Plots, The SinC Sacramento chapter’s forthcoming anthology. I’m writing the foreword. And next up? Well, yesterday the postie brought me S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears and – and! – Tracy Clark’s Runner, both of which I pre-ordered from the Book Cellar in Chicago, during Murder and Mayhem. It’s a bumper year for great books. Again!

Where can we find you?
At catrionamcpherson.com
On Twitter: @CatrionaMcP (my name’s too long)
On FB: Catriona McPherson author page

Now to have some fun . . .

Vanilla or chocolate
Vanilla (chocolate ice-cream isn’t sweet enough!)

Pizza or burgers
Pizza every Friday night, but oooooh when I can go back to JJ’s Burger Shack at San Juan Battista . . .

Broccoli or squash
Broccoli

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
Dinner. I can eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day and not mind.

Mountain or beach
Beach, beach, beach!

Introvert or Extrovert
Introvert, I think. I gather energy in solitude and expend it in company. I’ve been absolutely
fine this last year. It must have been hell on extroverts.

And even more fun . . .

You are stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
Boring answer: sunblock, water purification tablets, medical supplies.
But if it’s a fantasy: books, reading glasses, coffeeandtea. (Did you see what I did there?)

My bio:
Multi-award-winning and national-bestselling author, Catriona (kuh-TREE-nuh) McPherson was born in Scotland and lived there until immigrating to the US in 2010. She writes historical detective stories set in the old country in the 1930s. The Turning Tide is nominated for a 2021 Lefty award. She also writes a strand of contemporary psychological thrillers, including the Edgar-shortlisted The Day She Died. After eight years in the new country, Catriona kicked off the comic Last Ditch Motel series, which takes a wry but affectionate look at California life. Scot On The Rocks, book 3, is just out in hardback in the USA. Catriona is a member of MWA, CWA, Society of Authors, a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.