12 August 2010

Forgotten Books: THE STONE HAWK, Gwen Moffat

This week's contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Gwen Moffat:
Gwen Moffat (born 1924) is a British climber and writer.
Moffat was a free spirit who loved and lived the Bohemian lifestyle through the forties, fifties and sixties, making a living from climbing, and becoming the first female British guide. She described her life in her classic autobiography Space Below My Feet.[1] She subsequently went on to write detective fiction, in particular the Miss Pink series featuring Melinda Pink, a middle aged magistrate and climber.

I read THE STONE HAWK,  published in 1989, early in 1990.
It was the 10th title in the Miss Pink series. I haven't been able to find a cover, but here is a descripion:
In a remote corner of Utah, the community on Salvation Canyonseems a sanctuary, but in such a place there must be secrets.

The series began in 1973 with LADY WITH A COOL EYE
The warden of the Adventure Centre, Charles Martin, is a weak man whose unfaithful wife, Bett, has driven him to drink. Bett is found dead in her husband's crashed Jaguar. It is assumed to be an accident or suicide, but further developments show that it is murder. Tough, middle-aged Miss Pink, one of the Centre's directors, proves herself to be a shrewd amateur detective. She realises that the Centre is being used as a cover for something very serious.

Between 1973 and 1999, Moffat published 15 titles in the Miss Pink series, and between 1964 and 2007 another 18 novels.

There's the beginning of an intriguing interview with Gwen Moffat in the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo Ltd., which starts
Rock climbing was more than a love affair for Gwen Moffat, who went AWOL from the army to pursue her true passion. Jill Tunstall talks to her about mountain memories and discovers that, at nearly 80, the affair is not over 

Gwen Moffat certainly sounds a character!
For more information see these pages at Tangled Web UK.

4 comments:

Jose Ignacio Escribano said...

Kerrie, thanks for calling our attention to such a fascinating woman and crime fiction writer

Kerrie said...

Thanks Jose Ignacio - I've corrected the typo in the title too :-)

Anonymous said...

Kerrie - Fine choice for a "forgotten book." You always find the most interesting books. I wasn't familiar with this series before, and now you've intrigued me...

pattinase (abbott) said...

The name is terribly familiar but not the title.

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