Mark de Castrique’s Dangerous Women is a Winner

Charlotte Readers Podcast

In this episode 376, we welcome back Charlotte novelist Mark de Castrique, author of 23 novels. Today, we focus on his novel, Dangerous Women, the latest in his series featuring Ethel Fiona Crestwater, a seventy-five-year-old retired FBI agent who now rents rooms to active agents and is the smartest and most fearless of anyone in her household. Publishers Weekly gave Dangerous Women a Starred Review, calling it "A bewitching political thriller," and Library Journal, with its own Starred Review, says: "Politics and climate issues are entangled in a complex case that still has moments of humor."
Show discussion highlights:
• The Story of Ethel’s creation
• How Book 1 led to Mark’s nomination for the Edgars 2023 Sue Grafton Memorial Award: Secret Lives
• Why Mark wanted to bring Ethel back and why he likes the character
• The book title: Dangerous Women
• Themes of the book: climate change and the paradox of fighting climate change with lithium batteries
• Plot line: a Supreme Court leak; how fiction can come true during the writing process
• The humor: not overweight, just undertall; double first cousin twice removed
• Character names and the supporting cast
• A reading from the book
• Novel writing techniques and practices employed in this book
Author bio:
Mystery writer Mark de Castrique has authored twenty-three books. His novels have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. The CHICAGO TRIBUNE wrote, “As important and as impressive as the author’s narrative skills are the subtle ways he captures the geography – both physical and human – of a unique part of the American South.”
Mark is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business. In Washington DC, he directed numerous news and public affairs programs and received an EMMY Award for his documentary film work. His years in Washington inspired his DC thrillers, THE 13TH TARGET, involving a terrorist plot against The Federal Reserve, THE SINGULARITY RACE, a winner-take-all quest for Artificial Intelligence, and SECRET LIVES and DANGEROUS WOMEN, featuring Ethel Fiona Crestwater, a seventy-five-year-old retired FBI agent who now rents rooms to active agents and is the smartest and most fearless of anyone in her household. SECRET LIVES was nominated for the Edgars 2023 Sue Grafton Memorial Award.
Mark lives in Charlotte, but he and his wife Linda can be often found in the NC mountains or the nation’s capital.
Learn more about the author and their books HERE.
http://www.markdecastrique.com
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