100 word bio:

Catriona (she/her) was born in Scotland and lived there until 2010, then immigrated to California where she lives on Patwin ancestral land. A former academic linguist, she now writes full-time. Her multi-award-winning and national best-selling work includes: the DANDY GILVER historical detective stories, the LAST DITCH mysteries, set in California, and a strand of contemporary standalone novels including Edgar-finalist THE DAY SHE DIED and Mary Higgins Clark finalist STRANGERS AT THE GATE. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, The Crimewriters’ Association, The Society of Authors and Sisters in Crime, of which she is a former national president.

Longer bio:

I was born near Edinburgh and lived there, in Ayrshire, in Dumfriesshire and in Galloway before moving to California in 2010, where I live on the land of the Patwin people.

I don't know how they did it, those early emigrants who set off forever from Leith docks. I'm back home every year for a couple of months and I still can't watch Burnistoun without sobbing.

A born swot, I finally left school at age thirty with a PhD in linguistics from Edinburgh University. Proper jobs have included banking (hopeless), library work in local studies and fine art (heaven), and a short burst of academia (hell). But I've been a full-time writer since 2005 and hope never to have a proper job again.

When not writing or talking about writing, I'm reading, gardening, cooking and baking, cycling in Davis, swimming (anywhere but a pool), strolling through walnut orchards, peching exactly like a bull mastiff on my trampoline, peching quite like a bull mastiff on my yoga mat, getting to grips with this outlandish and enormous country (49 states visited so far) and practising an extreme form of Scotch thrift*, from eating home-grown food to dumpster-diving/skip-surfing for major appliances.

*when "making a living" as a writer, thrift helps a lot

Awards and honours

• SCOTZILLA shortlisted for the 2025 humorous Lefty award
• HOP SCOT shortlisted for the 2024 humorous Lefty award
• SCOT IN A TRAP won the 2023 Anthony award for best humorous novel
• IN PLACE OF FEAR shortlisted for the 2023 Historical Anthony
• IN PLACE OF FEAR shortlisted for the 2023 Sue Feder award
• IN PLACE OF FEAR shortlisted for the 2023 Historical Agatha
• SCOT IN A TRAP shortlisted for the 2023 humorous Lefty award
• IN PLACE OF FEAR shortlisted for the 2023 Bill Gottfried memorial lefty for historical mystery
• THE MIRROR DANCE shortlisted for the 2022 historical Lefty
• THE TURNING TIDE shortlisted for the Sue Feder Memorial Macavity
• THE TURNING TIDE shortlisted for the 2021 historical Agatha
• THE TURNING TIDE winner of the 2021 historical Lefty
• SCOT AND SODA shotlisted for the 2020 Anthony award for best paperback original
• STRANGERS AT THE GATE shortlisted for 2020 Mary Higgins Clark award.
• Guest of Honour at Left Coast Crime 2021, Albuquerque (Remember 2021? This became LCC 2022)
• Toastmaster at Bouchercon 2020. (Remember 2020? This became virtual) 
• Guest of Honour at Sleuthfest 2020, Deerfield Beach, Florida, all being well. (All was not well. Sleuthfest was cancelled)
• SCOT AND SODA, winner of the 2020 Lefty award for best humnorous mystery
• SCOT FREE winner of the 2019 Lefty award for best humorous mystery
• HOUSE-TREE-PERSON, shortlisted for the Silver Falchion Reader's Choice Award
• Toastmaster for Malice Domestic 30
• THE REEK OF RED HERRINGS winner of the 2017 historical Macavity
• QUIET NEIGHBORS shortlisted for the 2017 Agatha award for best contemporary novel
• THE REEK OF RED HERRINGS winner of the 2017 Agatha award for best historical novel
• QUIET NEIGHBORS shortlisted for the 2017 Mary Higgins Clark award
• QUIET NEIGHBORS bronze medal for mystery category 2107 IPPY awards.
• THE REEK OF RED HERRINGS winner of the 2017 Bruce Alexander Memorial Lefty for best historical mystery
• Authored the introduction to STRIDING FOLLY, the final volume of Hodder & Stoughton's 2017 Dorothy L Sayers re-issue.
• THE CHILD GARDEN finalist for the 2016 Macavity award for best mystery
• THE CHILD GARDEN finalist for the 2016 Anthony award for best novel
• THE CHILD GARDEN finalist for the 2016 Agatha award for best contemporary novel
• THE CHILD GARDEN finalist for the 2016 Mary Higgins Clark award
• Toastmaster at Left Coast Crime 2016
• THE DAY SHE DIED winner of the 2015 Anthony award for best paperback 
• THE DAY SHE DIED winner of the 2015 Silver Falchion award for best literary suspense
• THE DAY SHE DIED shortlisted for the 2015 Macavity award for best novel
• A DEADLY MEASURE OF BRIMSTONE winner of the 2015 Sue Feder Memorial Macavity
• A DEADLY MEASURE OF BRIMSTONE winner of the Bruce Alexander award for historical mystery, Left Coast Crime, 2015T
• THE DAY SHE DIED finalist for an Edgar award for best paperback original 
• 2014-15 national president of Sisters in Crime.
• AS SHE LEFT IT winner of the IndieFab gold medal for mystery 2014
• A BOTHERSOME NUMBER OF CORPSES shortlisted for the Sue Feder Memorial Macavity 2014
• AS SHE LEFT IT won the 2014 Anthony Award for best pbk original.
• DANDY GILVER AND A BOTHERSOME NUMBER OF CORPSES winner of the Bruce Alexander Award  2014
• AS SHE LEFT IT shortlisted for the Calamari Award at Left Coast Crime, Monterey, 2014
• AN UNSUITABLE DAY FOR A MURDER Winner of the Historical Agatha Award, 2013
• AN UNSUITABLE DAY FOR A MURDER winner of the Bruce Alexander Award, 2013
• AS SHE LEFT IT, Kirkus top 20 mystery/thrillers of 2013
• THE PROPER TREATMENT OF BLOODSTAINS winner of the Sue Feder Memorial Macavity Award, 2012
• DANDY GILVER AND THE PROPER TREATMENT OF BLOODSTAINS, Boston Globe’s top 10 picks of 2012.
• Moved to the USA, baby! It's gone pretty well.
• THE BURRY MAN’S DAY longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Award, at Harrogate International Crime Festival, 2006
• AFTER THE ARMISTICE BALL shortlisted for the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger, 2005

I like:

• Dr Who, Jane Austen, Stephen King, Kathleen Jamie, Toni Morrison, meat pies (see left), kittens, violin music, Vicki Feaver, Stavangerflint, Doris Day, Max Bruch, Star Trek, watermelon juice, Gardener's Question Time, The Dress Barn, The Wire, Jenny Diski, Mary Higgins Clark, my PT Cruiser (RIP), Arbroath smokies, Dorothy Whipple, the Gulf Stream, the cha-cha-cha, Joan Didion, Coronation Street, Kate Bush, Mr Giles the librarian's green Fire King cup, The Sugarpine Diner in Mariposa, the Avid Reader, the new Forth Bridge, the new Bay Bridge, sisters, donkeys, rain, the London Underground, barkcloth, Cush Jumbo's eyeshadow, Sarah Waters, Mishka's, Junior's cheesecake, Black Twitter, Terry Gross's laugh, Nancy Wiegman [for pointing out that I didn't have Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Michael Innes on here] the Milky Way, Gilmore Girls, Hawaii, okra, Mrs Wilkes' Boarding House, the Grand Canyon, ironing, PayDay Bars, all the worlds in the multiverse where PayDay Bars are healthfood, The Repair Shop, Koi carp, Schitt's Creek, Calfire, Aaron Rupar's baby daughter, Scottish grit lorries, Simone Biles, Pointless, Flanders and Swann, science (Science!), Christmas, Molly Goddard, HR40, Meal Deals, the Brett Domino Trio's banger, "Meal Deal", Alexei Sayle, Marmite, cashews, Marmite cashews, roadkill tomatoes, Bill and Oti, Matterport, "Tour de France" (the Kraftwerk track, not the thing with all the bikes), BIC Cristals, Jennifer Coolidge, tinsel, Coronation Street, postcards, allotments, radio drama, cupboards, socks and sandals, pumpkin pie if I make it, Bramley apples, the beach, DC, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mariann Edgar Budde, follow-up questions . . . to be continued

I could live without*:

• Brits who can't pronounce "Los Angeles" (It's Los Angeles: too good to miss not Los Angeles: the bee's knees); sauerkraut , anyone who calls their unbelievable good fortune "I work hard" . . .  to be continued (maybe, unless I decide there's enough negativity around)

*As well as murder, Nazis, halitosis and all that