Eilidh
Cameron comes to Wales from the Scottish Highlands following a tragic and
bitter divorce. As the house manager for a centuries-old castle in the
village of Thistlecross, it's her job to make sure the children of Annabel
Baines are comfortable and entertained while they visit Annabel. And as
Annabel's friend, it's her fear that Annabel's sons are hiding something. From
the moment the first son arrives with his wife, it's clear there are tensions
in the family that will have to be resolved for the sake of peace in the
castle. And when a shocking murder takes place, Eilidh feels it is her duty to
remain at the castle to help Annabel through the painful aftermath. But
Eilidh's fierce devotion to Annabel may prove to be more dangerous than she
could have imagined.
From the author:
When I started the Malice series, my publisher asked me
to write three books that were connected without sharing the same main
character. I chose to write about three short branches of the same family tree,
beginning with Greer Dobbins and her daughter Ellie in The House on Candlewick Lane, continuing with Greer’s sister Sylvie
in Highland Peril, and finally,
ending with Greer and Sylvie’s cousin Eilidh in Murder in Thistlecross.
There
were positives and negatives to writing three main characters instead of one
main character, which is standard for most series.
For
example, I love varying the settings in my stories, and writing with three main
characters allowed me to set my books throughout the United Kingdom without
seeming herky-jerky. If the same character were to move to three different
places during the course of a series, it might get a little unnerving for the
reader.
Here’s
another example: each main character has personal interests, likes, dislikes,
and issues that differ from the others. Writing the Malice series the way I did
allowed me to explore each character’s backstory and personality traits.
On
the other hand, writing three main characters didn’t allow me the time and
space I felt I needed to really delve into each character’s story. It also
might have been fun to be able to populate the books with secondary characters and
explore them in more depth, but there wasn’t time or space for that.
Did
it work to write a series with three different main characters over three
books? The readers will have to be the ultimate judges of that, but I can say
this: I enjoyed writing the books and I grew to love all the main characters. I
hope you’ll agree!
Buy Links for Murder
in Thistlecross:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2fObci7
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2AXt1XO
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2rqpeyu
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2n2yseL
iTunes: https://apple.co/2Dvvw5M
Independent Bookstore: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781516100194
Amy M. Reade is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Malice Series,
consisting of The House on Candlewick
Lane, Highland Peril, and Murder in
Thistlecross, all of which are set in the United Kingdom. She has also written a cozy mystery, The Worst Noel, and three standalone
novels of gothic suspense: Secrets of
Hallstead House, The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, and House of the Hanging Jade.
Amy is a recovering
attorney living in Southern New Jersey. She is active in community organizations
and loves reading, cooking, and traveling when she’s not writing. She is
currently working on a contemporary mystery set in Washington, DC, a historical
mystery set in Cape May County, New Jersey, and a second cozy.
