I first had the pleasure of meeting Ann Shortell through Crime Writers of Canada, at the Ontario Library Super Conference in February 2018. It’s my honor to welcome her to New Release Mondays with her debut mystery novel.
Author Name: Ann Shortell
Book Title: Celtic Knot
Book Genre: Historical Mystery
Release Date: March 22nd, 2018
Publisher: FriesenPress
Synopsis: 1868 Ottawa: D’Arcy McGee is assassinated. As John A. Macdonald cradles his friend’s bloody head, he blames transplanted Irish terrorists, the Fenian Brotherhood. Within a day, Patrick James Whelan is arrested. After a show trial, Whelan is publicly hanged.
That much is history. Did Whelan do the deed?
In this twist of history, Clara Swift, a mere slip of a girl, opens the door at Trotter’s Boarding House moments after the murder and sees the trace-line of a buggy turning off Sparks Street. She’s distraught that she might have saved her hero—and that nobody cares about the whereabouts of Mr. McGee’s hot political manuscript.
Housemaid and scribe Clara understands her dead mentor’s shorthand, and forges an unlikely alliance with the Prime Minister’s investigator. She ends up being trusted by the condemned man’s wife — and by Lady Agnes Macdonald.
Clara is a spirited narrator who uses wit and intuition to shed light on a mystery for the ages. This Irish colleen who’s too smart by half must step beyond the horror of McGee’s slaughter—and four other deaths linked to the assassination—before she truly understands the cost of crossing a new country’s threshold.
Celtic Knot. It’s reimagining a crisis that tested a nation. It’s history with a mystery. It’s the first Clara Swift Tale. And it all begins with a shot in the dark.
About the author: Ann Shortell was born in Kingston, Ontario. In a previous century, she was an award-winning business journalist and non-fiction author. She wrote Celtic Knot in homage to the Irish storytelling tradition D’Arcy McGee embodied. She thanks Crime Writers of Canada for selecting Celtic Knot, her debut novel, as a 2017 finalist for the Unhanged Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished Crime Manuscript. Ann lives in Toronto with her husband. Celtic Knot is the first in a planned series of Clara Swift Tales.
I’m thrilled to include this Kirkus review of Celtic Knot.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ann-shortell/celtic-knot/
Terrific review! Kudos.
Judy,
It’s an honour and a pleasure to be this week’s featured new release.
I thank you & my protagonist Clara Swift thanks you!
I love the cover! Good luck with your nomination for the Arthur Ellis award.
Thanks for stopping by Janet. The AE nomination was 2017, not 2018, and while Ann didn’t win, it’s still a huge honor.
Thank you!
I found this girl’s image, painted by the poet W.B. Yeat’s father, and she became my Clara Swift. (The painting is at the National Gallery of Ireland.) Being a finalist for last year’s CWC Unhanged Arthur manuscript competition spurred me on to publish!
Hi Gillian, getting shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis award really says a lot about Ann’s talent for storytelling. There are always many entries, and only a handful are shortlisted. I hope you check out her book! I love supporting authors, especially Canadian authors.
You do a great job of promoting writers, Judy. It’s very good that you list publishers. So many firms I’ve never heard of before. Nice to hear about a new Canadian historical novel – The Celtic Knot. Always found I learned more about history from historical novels than from dry text-books.
Thank you Gillian. I too love my history to come with a mystery. Thank you Judy!