Wednesday, August 20, 2025

What is Maria Malone reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Maria Malone, author of Death in the Countryside: A Novel.

Her entry begins:
The Winds from Further West by Alexander McCall Smith

“Sometimes you want to get away from something that’s become too much. You want to put something behind you.”

I picked this up recently, shortly after returning from a holiday in Scotland, during which a trip to the Isle of Mull was cancelled due to ferry problems. The book was the perfect read, leaving me determined one day to visit Mull. The story perfectly evokes island life and illustrates the ease with which something entirely innocent can abruptly get out of hand in today’s society.

During a lecture, Dr Neil Anderson unknowingly offends a student and finds himself the subject of a complaint. All he has to do to make the problem go away is apologise … for something he never said. Madness. He can’t, he won’t.

With one seemingly small event, a single flimsy allegation, everything is about to change.

Soon, his life in Edinburgh – ordered, settled, happy, unremarkable – is in a state of collapse. Discredited, facing an uncertain future, he resigns. On impulse, he decides he needs a break to get away from things, and escapes to the Hebridean island of Mull, off Scotland’s west coast, where he...[read on]
About Death in the Countryside, from the publisher:
The sudden disappearance of a local woman reopens an old case in a small English town where everyone knows everyone’s business.

This debut police dog mystery will delight fans of Ann Cleeves and Margaret Mizushima.


Sergeant Ali Wren has recently returned to her charming Yorkshire hometown of Heft, accompanied by her trusty canine companion Officer PD Wilson, a Springer Spaniel with a nose for trouble. Together they are the police force quietly serving the town.

When Brian, an older resident, reports his wife, Melody, missing, Ali at first suspects a routine case. Melody, tired of playing dutiful wife to an inattentive husband, may simply have left. But suspicion soon begins to mount when it emerges that Brian’s first wife died under tragic circumstances and Ali uncovers evidence of Melody’s recent puzzling behavior.
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Writers Read: Maria Malone.

--Marshal Zeringue