Come to Harm

March 16, 2015
Keiko Nishisato, the heroine of this grisly standalone from Edgar-finalist McPherson (The Day She Died), has traveled from Tokyo to Scotland to work toward her doctorate at an Edinburgh university. She has received funding from a mysterious source, as well as free accommodation in the small village of Painchton. Her apartment is less than salubrious, with horrible British plumbing in the bathroom and a vile smell emanating from the kitchen drain. Keiko soon finds herself more fascinated by the locals than by her studies, with their strange idiomatic speech and obsession with meat, from tripe to steak pies. When Keiko discovers an anonymous threat lodged under her radiator, she begins to wonder exactly what happened to the apartment’s previous occupant. Some sleuthing reveals that several local girls have gone missing from the village. It becomes quickly apparent where the plot is headed, leaving little room for the element of surprise. Agent: Lisa Moylett, Coombs Moylett Literary Agency.

Starred review from March 1, 2015
A Japanese graduate student convinces herself that a small Scottish town is filled with dark secrets.Keiko Nishisato has come to the University of Edinburgh for her Ph.D. She dreams of a wise adviser, friendly fellow students, and a busy life in a city steeped in history. Instead, her adviser seems uninterested and her fellow students, cold. Even worse, her grant from the Painchton Traders provides her with lodgings above a butcher shop in the little town of Painchton, a long bus ride from Edinburgh. The leader of the Traders, Jimmy McKendrick, and his fellow board members have been attracted to her thesis because it has something to do with food, a subject dear to their hearts. So her apartment's fridge and cupboards are stuffed with every imaginable foodstuff, all provided by the Traders. The Pooles, who own the butcher shop, include a widow and her two sons, Malcolm, who seems obsessed with meat, and Murray, a classic-motorcycle buff who's returned to the shop only since his father died. Keiko makes friends with Fancy Clark, a young mother recently returned to the village, and Murray, who helps her exercise every evening in the makeshift gym where he keeps his motorbikes. A threatening note under her radiator and stories about three young women who've vanished from the village suggest some deep, dark mystery. Using questionnaires the villagers fill out for her thesis helps her get some insight into the people who are willing to help, but her discomfort only increases. Are the villagers really hiding some awful secret? Or are Keiko's imagination and the strangeness of a different culture getting the better of her? The latest from this master of psychological thrillers (The Day She Died, 2014, etc.) is more cerebral than physical. But every page will draw you in and deepen your dread.

May 1, 2015
McPherson's latest is set in a quaint Scottish village, where dark deeds lurk behind a quiet facade. Keiko Nishisato comes to the town of Painchton from Japan on scholarship, planning to do postgraduate psychology work at the nearby University of Edinburgh. She is living in an apartment over the Poole family butcher shop. Mrs. Poole, unlike other villagers, treats her coldly, and snippets Keiko picks up about previous female tenants who went away also prove unsettling. The two Poole brothers, Murray and Malcolm, appear to know more than they say. Keiko finds herself confronting more questions than answers. McPherson's small-town tale is far more a thriller than a cozy and might even draw fans of Dennis Lehane, along with McPherson's established audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)