LoveReading Says
A well-crafted story, beautiful language, a mystery and a wild cat with a sense of humour. What's not to like about this book? It grabs the reader's attention from the start and holds on to it throughout the story. I also love the information about Wild Cat conservation which appears before the story starts: hopefully this will encourage readers of all ages to take an interest in the conservation of this beautiful animal. I normally clear my downloads after reviewing a book, but I will be keeping this one to reread and I can't wait to read about Catastrophe's next adventure
Pauline Braisher, A LoveReading Ambassador
LoveReading Ambassador
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Catastrophe A Wildcat's Tail Synopsis
Catastrophe A Highland Murder Most Fowl. Who needs gritty, dark psychological thriller when you can curl up in your armchair with your furry companions and read a cosy murder mystery especially one where a feisty Scottish wildcat pits his superior feline wits against a delightfully wicked murderer in the rugged heart of the Scottish Highlands? A wildcat moves softly through his Highland world describing it through feline eyes in exquisite golden detail. Scent is a language of its own. His is an elemental world of rain and snow, of forest, moorland and mountain. A world of changing seasons and the endless dance of life and death; predator and prey. Although the wildcat's home is a world of poetic beauty it is also one of sudden terrifying violence where the ultimate predator is mankind. Shot deliberately by a gamekeeper on a shooting estate the wildcat nearly dies before being rescued by a young couple. After a spell in the vets he convalesces in their Perthshire cottage where he learns to love their old bony cat, Haggis, and author Mary, The hunting moon is barely on the rise when bad news arrives from the solicitors. Mary's beloved Aunt Edith suddenly dies and the couple head north into the Highlands with Catastrophe. Arriving at Driechandubh Castle, where Mary was raised by Aunt Edith, they barely escape with their lives as a large chunk of masonry 'accidentally' falls in a storm. Things don't improve as they meet odious Aunt Maud, Edith's envious sister who has ensconced herself in the castle like a cuckoo, under the pretext of nursing Edith. As an apex predator Catastrophe instinctively sees through Maud's charade as grieving sister: he can smell her underlying fear and hostility at her niece's unexpected arrival and hear the falsehood in her voice. Aunt Maud is hiding a terrible secret. Aunt Maud mistakenly sees Catastrophe merely as a fashion accessory. Divided by mutual loathing Catastrophe finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue, murder and adventure that will test our magnificent wildcat sleuth to his limits. Can Catastrophe unravel odious Aunt Maud's dastardly plans before it's too late?
About This Edition
About Lucinda Hare
Lucinda Hare is the author of the Dragonsdome Chronicles, and her heroine Quenelda’s passion for dragons is based on Lucinda’s childhood in rural East Lothian; it was there that her lifelong passion for animals – from earwigs to elephants – history, reading and drawing began. She and her family share their Edinburgh home with a large number of rescued animals. She adopts the old and ill, cats with special needs and animals with behavioural problems, and friends often comment that she can weave magic and talk to the animals – a real life ‘whisperer’!
It should be no surprise, then, that the characters at the heart of The Dragonsdome Chronicles - apart from sorcerers, gnomes, dwarves and trolls – are in fact dragons; dragons with their own language and character, from the teasing Chasing the Stars to those with serious attitude like the carnivorous battledragon, Two Gulps & You're Gone. The dragons owe the inspiration for their names to Native American culture, and their characters draw on some of her large adopted family of animals.
Lucinda was able to return to those childhood passions, and very soon their house in Lasswade filled up with ever more rescued animals (dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and ex-battery hens), books, and pastel and watercolour drawings and illustrations covered in dirty paw marks – the cats do always like to help out! This led to Paul’s suggestion that she should try putting pen to paper – or rather, given Lucinda’s chaotic writing style, get a laptop and start writing. The result was a rapid explosion of ideas and the start of The Dragonsdome Chronicles.
Lucinda was born in Edinburgh and spent her childhood in rural East Lothian, where she spent much of her time roaming the beaches and woods, watching deer, pheasants, geese and rabbits, and listening to the croon of eider ducks float down the Firth of Forth on the evening breeze. It was then that her lifelong passions for animals – from earwigs to elephants – history, reading and drawing began.
You can find Lucinda's blog thedragonwhispererdiaries.blogspot.com
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