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Cait Morgan #13
The Corpse with the Opal Fingers
“I was ten years old when I found a murder weapon…it had killed ‘The Girl with the Opal Fingers’…”
Welsh Canadian professor of criminal psychology Cait Morgan, and her retired-cop husband Bud Anderson, are visiting Cait’s sister, Siân, and brother-in-law, Todd, in Australia. They’re enjoying the bustling delights of Sydney, and looking forward to a few quiet days in the famed Blue Mountains.
However, soon after it’s revealed that Todd once worked closely with a man convicted of a brutal slaying, the decades-old murder casts a threatening shadow over the foursome. Cait and Bud must discover the truth behind that case, as well reveal the complex reasons for an ever-growing number of deaths they fear might be associated with it, before tragedy can engulf Cait’s family.
Packed with local color, and quirky, memorable characters, this thirteenth book in the series is certainly unlucky for some. Will it prove to be the same for Cait and Bud?
Welsh Canadian professor of criminal psychology Cait Morgan, and her retired-cop husband Bud Anderson, are visiting Cait’s sister, Siân, and brother-in-law, Todd, in Australia. They’re enjoying the bustling delights of Sydney, and looking forward to a few quiet days in the famed Blue Mountains.
However, soon after it’s revealed that Todd once worked closely with a man convicted of a brutal slaying, the decades-old murder casts a threatening shadow over the foursome. Cait and Bud must discover the truth behind that case, as well reveal the complex reasons for an ever-growing number of deaths they fear might be associated with it, before tragedy can engulf Cait’s family.
Packed with local color, and quirky, memorable characters, this thirteenth book in the series is certainly unlucky for some. Will it prove to be the same for Cait and Bud?
296 pages, Paperback
Published November 10, 2023
8 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Ace
43 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 13, 2023
Cait and Bud Anderson are enjoying a break away from their usual lives as a criminal psychologist and a retired homicide detective and are hoping that for once they can have a holiday that avoids all matters criminal. The couple are in Australia, visiting Cait’s sister, Siân, and her husband, Todd. On their first few days in Sydney Todd had been occupied with an annual mining conference while Siân, Cait and Bud have gone sightseeing. Now the conference has finished, and Todd is free to join the others and they celebrate by going on a sunset dinner cruise.
As the cruise draws to an end Cait and Bud listen to a group of men telling stories. They are known as the Mob and their company specialises in making roads through wild terrain for mining companies to access new mines. The first yarn is told by a man called Lennie who claims that when he was a boy he discovered a rifle in a waterhole but his grandfather took it away from him and he only found it again years later after his grandfather’s death. Lennie took it to the police and they established that it was used to murder a young aboriginal woman called Lowanna Swan and the owner of the weapon was convicted of murder. Another man, Shorty, tells a story about seeing a man stabbed; then one of the youngest members of the Mob, who is known as Ditch, says that he knows about a man who got away with murder because nobody realised it was murder.
A diversion occurs and Ditch does not tell the rest of his story. Cait hopes to find out more about it later, but she is aware that his claim could have been that of a drunk young man boasting in an attempt to impress his seniors. She is also intrigued by the details of Lennie’s story about the murder of Lowanna, twenty years ago. Lowanna was known as the girl with opal fingers because she could look at a map and locate places where opals could be mined. Originally there was a very cursory investigation because the authorities assumed she had been murdered by her father and they believed this was confirmed when her father committed suicide. When the rifle was given to the police they accused the weapon’s owner, Philip Myers, of murder, he was convicted and is still in prison. Cait is shocked when she realises that her brother-in-law, Todd, had worked for Myers and been very close to him; in fact, Philip Myers and his wife had attended Siân and Todd’s wedding in Wales.
Even though the conference is over, Cait and her family keep encountering the Mob. Ditch refuses to talk further about his claim, but Cait becomes increasingly concerned about the young man’s mental health. Even when Cait, Bud, Siân and Todd move to the Blue Mountains, on the next stage of their holiday, the Mob turn up again, also on holiday. Then tragedy strikes and people die.
Todd becomes increasingly convinced that his life is in danger as well as that of his family because of threats he has received concerning his connection with Philip Myers. When Bud reaches out to a colleague to ask for assistance the woman confirms that Todd’s fears are justified and that he and his family are in grave danger. This seems to tie the source of danger into the present-day mining industry but Cait is still convinced that the deaths are connected to the murder of the girl with the opal fingers. Cait engages her eidetic memory and psychological skills in a determined and increasingly desperate attempt to discover the truth before tragedy engulfs the people she loves.
The Corpse With The Opal Fingers is the thirteenth book in the series featuring Cait and Bud Anderson. It has a complex, well-constructed plot and magnificent descriptions of the Australian scenery. It also has a cast of fascinating characters, who are beautifully drawn and skilfully developed, as the book explores, with subtlety and insight, the near impossibility of taking a person totally away from their roots, both in speech and thoughts. The protagonists, Cait and Bud, are engaging and likeable, while the peripheral characters are often flawed but all develop in interesting and often positive ways throughout the book. The Corpse With The Opal Fingers is a page-turner which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron
For Lizzie Sirett (Mystery People Group)
As the cruise draws to an end Cait and Bud listen to a group of men telling stories. They are known as the Mob and their company specialises in making roads through wild terrain for mining companies to access new mines. The first yarn is told by a man called Lennie who claims that when he was a boy he discovered a rifle in a waterhole but his grandfather took it away from him and he only found it again years later after his grandfather’s death. Lennie took it to the police and they established that it was used to murder a young aboriginal woman called Lowanna Swan and the owner of the weapon was convicted of murder. Another man, Shorty, tells a story about seeing a man stabbed; then one of the youngest members of the Mob, who is known as Ditch, says that he knows about a man who got away with murder because nobody realised it was murder.
A diversion occurs and Ditch does not tell the rest of his story. Cait hopes to find out more about it later, but she is aware that his claim could have been that of a drunk young man boasting in an attempt to impress his seniors. She is also intrigued by the details of Lennie’s story about the murder of Lowanna, twenty years ago. Lowanna was known as the girl with opal fingers because she could look at a map and locate places where opals could be mined. Originally there was a very cursory investigation because the authorities assumed she had been murdered by her father and they believed this was confirmed when her father committed suicide. When the rifle was given to the police they accused the weapon’s owner, Philip Myers, of murder, he was convicted and is still in prison. Cait is shocked when she realises that her brother-in-law, Todd, had worked for Myers and been very close to him; in fact, Philip Myers and his wife had attended Siân and Todd’s wedding in Wales.
Even though the conference is over, Cait and her family keep encountering the Mob. Ditch refuses to talk further about his claim, but Cait becomes increasingly concerned about the young man’s mental health. Even when Cait, Bud, Siân and Todd move to the Blue Mountains, on the next stage of their holiday, the Mob turn up again, also on holiday. Then tragedy strikes and people die.
Todd becomes increasingly convinced that his life is in danger as well as that of his family because of threats he has received concerning his connection with Philip Myers. When Bud reaches out to a colleague to ask for assistance the woman confirms that Todd’s fears are justified and that he and his family are in grave danger. This seems to tie the source of danger into the present-day mining industry but Cait is still convinced that the deaths are connected to the murder of the girl with the opal fingers. Cait engages her eidetic memory and psychological skills in a determined and increasingly desperate attempt to discover the truth before tragedy engulfs the people she loves.
The Corpse With The Opal Fingers is the thirteenth book in the series featuring Cait and Bud Anderson. It has a complex, well-constructed plot and magnificent descriptions of the Australian scenery. It also has a cast of fascinating characters, who are beautifully drawn and skilfully developed, as the book explores, with subtlety and insight, the near impossibility of taking a person totally away from their roots, both in speech and thoughts. The protagonists, Cait and Bud, are engaging and likeable, while the peripheral characters are often flawed but all develop in interesting and often positive ways throughout the book. The Corpse With The Opal Fingers is a page-turner which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron
For Lizzie Sirett (Mystery People Group)
March 21, 2024
Lowanna Swan was reputed to be able to look at a map and point to a place where opals could be found. And if you do not doubt that, you probably have sufficient capacity for suspension of disbelief for the rest of this story. In a murder mystery it is necessary for at least one person to die, but I have never been able to understand authors who enjoy injuring their characters.
May 9, 2024
The last book so far in the series and a good one, but not as good as some of her others. Still good though and with a twist. I hope she writes some more.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews