One of the joys of writing short stories is that you can be bold and explore settings and themes outside the limits of your novels. With one bound she was free!
Marjorie Eccles is known for her intricately plotted police procedural novels featuring Superintendent Gil Mayo and Inspector Abigail Moon, set in the fictional Black Country town of Lavenstock. But in her short stories she ventures further afield, into Egypt, France, Armenia, Austria and South Africa. As always, she writes from a secure knowledge of each location; we can tell at once that these are places she knows well, and not merely as a tourist. The intensity of The Egyptian Garden speaks of an intimate knowledge not only of gardening, but also of the daunting challenge of making a garden in Cairo
You will find much in these pages that is familiar territory in Marjorie’s writing. Her fascination with family loyalties put under strain by the prospect of inheritance is central to Peril at Melford House and Portrait of Sophie. In case that is too confining, she gives us stories set in the walking-country of the Pennines and the Scottish Highlands. Yet a word of warning is necessary: you may well find yourself ambushed by something you haven’t ever encountered in a Marjorie Eccles novel. You will time-travel to the Siege of Mafeking. Or to the Second World War. You’ll get the strange thrill of the supernatural. Just when you think you know how a story will come out, you’ll be hit by a double whammy—surprise on surprise.
The one thing I can safely predict is that you will get the sense of completion, of justice done, that is the hallmark of every Marjorie Eccles story. She can bring the most tangled plot to a satisfying conclusion.
Now, why don’t you enter her world? With one bound you are free!