New Release by Catherine McKenzie, and ROW80 Update

ew release!


You Can't Catch Me by Catherine McKenzie

"Do you want to play a game?

Twelve years ago Jessica Williams escaped a cult. Thanks to the private detective who rescued her, she reintegrated into society, endured an uncomfortable notoriety, and tried to put it all behind her. Then, at an airport bar, Jessica meets a woman with an identical name and birth date. It appears to be just an odd coincidence—until a week later, when Jessica finds her bank account drained and her personal information stolen.

Following a trail of the grifter’s victims, each with the same name, Jessica gathers players—one by one—for her own game. According to her plan, they’ll set a trap and wait for the impostor to strike again. But plans can go awry, and trust can fray, and as Jessica tries to escape the shadows of her childhood, the risks are greater than she imagined. Now, confronting the casualties of her past, Jessica can’t help but wonder...

Who will pay the price?"

This description doesn't quite hint at the twistiness of this tale, or its somewhat unreliable narrator.

The story carries you along, as you wonder which character can be trusted and which can't. The final revelation was a total surprise to me -- and then there was another revelation on top of that! I should have seen the first one coming, but didn't guess the second one at all. Very thrilling!

I'd like to read this one again in a few months, to see if I can now spot the clues. And I'd really like a sequel, to find out how the "real" Jessica Williams is doing.


This book is due to be released in June, but if you're a NetGalley member, you can read it now!


McKenzie has also written the first chapter of a new story on Serial Box, First Street.

Chapter 1 is called Death Clerk, and is available for free!

"As four young clerks dive headfirst into the world of the Supreme Court, they’re forced to face the high-pressure decisions and shocking secrets that could make or break their careers.

Created by Catherine McKenzie. Written by Catherine McKenzie, Jasmine Guillory, Elyssa Friedland, Shawn Klomparens, Randy Susan Meyers, Kermit Roosevelt III. Narrated by Janina Edwards.

Death Clerk: As the four clerks-to-be fight for their places, the court hears a death penalty case with a twist: can a man with a traumatic brain injury inflicted in prison be executed for a crime he can’t remember?"

Round one of ROW80 ends on 26 March!

I haven't been posting updates here, but I've participated in the February writing exercise on thelitforum (all about dialogue), and have been semi-regularly editing Captive of the Sea. I'm up to about chapter 8, or about 1/4 of the book based on the last page count in Word. This is misleading, as I know lots of scenes are still missing from the end. Not to mention all the research I need to do, for a story that takes place in 1470...

One thing I've started doing this year is getting back to regularly reading research books. I've just finished the wonderful Before Galileo by John Freely. Next up is The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England by Antonia Fraser.

What's a good mystery you've recently read?
And what about a book set in an earlier century?