Articles
Julie Hale - BookPage
Part of an article 'Playing with the past: Novellists have their way with history'
April 2010
Best-selling author Katharine McMahon (The Alchemist’s Daughter; The Rose of Sebastopol) is a former magistrate who worked for 20 years in England’s legal system. Her law expertise is on full display in The Crimson Rooms, a sophisticated thriller set in 1920s England with a plucky up-and-coming attorney as its heroine. Dedicated to her vocation, 30-year-old Evelyn Gifford lives with her mother, aunt and grandmother. The family is still in shock over the loss of Evelyn’s brother, James, who died in the Great War. A new chapter opens in the Giffords’ lives when a nurse and her young son arrive on their doorstep. The nurse insists that James was the boy’s father, and that they conceived the child during wartime in a hospital. The Giffords allow the pair to stay, while Evelyn turns her attention to a new case involving a war veteran accused of murdering his wife. When a dashing (and married) attorney named Nicholas Thorne joins forces with her on the case, Evelyn finds herself falling for him. But she’s disturbed by suspicions about her newly acquired nephew and the woman claiming to be his mother. The mysteries accrete to spine-tingling effect in this smartly constructed tale. McMahon based the character of Evelyn on a real lawyer named Carrie Morrison, a groundbreaking British barrister, and the cases she features in the book were drawn from true events. The historical foundation gives weight and significance to her briskly paced thriller.
