Pat McIntosh is a Scottish writer of historical

mystery fiction Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

Life and career

McIntosh was born and raised in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

, Scotland. Having begun to write at age seven, she credits the author who inspired her to write as "probably

Angus MacVicar Angus MacVicar (28 October 1908, Argyll – 31 October 2001, Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute) was a Scottish author with a wide-ranging output. His greatest successes came in three separate genres: crime thrillers, juvenile science fiction, and a ...

!" She lived and worked in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

for many years before moving to the west coast of Scotland. Prior to making her mark as an author, she worked as "a librarian, a receptionist for an alternative therapy centre, taught geology and palaeontology, ndtutored for the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

.""Pat McIntosh" (interview at Art of Detection website)
/ref> Her first success as a writer came with a string of fantasy short stories published in the series of ''

The Year's Best Fantasy Stories ''The Year's Best Fantasy Stories'' is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in 1975. Despite the anthology's title, it actually gathers together pieces originall ...

'' anthologies in the late 1970s, but she is best known as the author of the Gilbert and Alys Cunningham series of historical mysteries set in medieval Scotland, beginning with ''The Harper's Quine'' in 2004. The books have been published by

Constable & Robinson Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an imprint of Little, Brown which publishes fiction and non-fiction books and ebooks. Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co., and by Nick Robinson as Robinson Publishing Ltd in 1983, ...

in the United Kingdom and

Carroll & Graf Carroll & Graf Publishers was an American publishing company based in New York City, New York, known for publishing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction by both new and established authors, as well as issuing reprints of previously hard-t ...

in the United States.

Bibliography

Gilbert and Alys Cunningham mysteries

#''The Harper's Quine'' (2004) #''The Nicholas Feast'' (2005) #''The Merchant's Mark'' (2006) #''St. Mungo's Robin'' (2006) #''The Rough Collier'' (2008) #''The Stolen Voice'' (2009) #''A Pig of Cold Poison'' (2010) #''The Counterfeit Madam'' (2011) #''The Fourth Crow'' (2012) #''The King's Corrodian'' (2013) #''The Lanimer Bride'' (2016)

Short stories

*"Falcon's Mate" (1974) *"Cry Wolf" (1975) *"Ring of Black Stone" (1976) *"The Cloak of Dreams" (1978) *"Child of Air" (1979)

References

External links

* Scottish mystery writers Scottish fantasy writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Scottish women writers British short story writers Women mystery writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers {{scotland-writer-stub