Praise for Mr. Catherine
“Mr. Catherine is an intimate, psychologically acute exploration of more than one kind of mystery. Stacey Margaret Jones compels the reader with the hope of discovering the truth behind a beloved woman’s disappearance, then deftly reveals the truths we hadn’t thought to consider, the disappearances we’ve failed to notice. At once a page-turner and a perceptive, sensitive meditation on marriage and identity, guilt and forgiveness, Mr. Catherine is a terrific debut by Jones.”
Trenton Lee Stewart, New York Times best-selling author of
The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Secret Keepers
“Mr. Catherine, Stacey Margaret Jones’ exquisitely written thriller about a missing wife, is multi-dimensional, tortured and utterly believable. The main character’s quiet voice hooks the reader from the page one. Deftly crafted, Mr. Catherine will keep you up late into the night pondering the missteps we all take and the chances for redemption we all seek.”
Jennie Fields, Author of The Age of Desire
“Mr. Catherine is a masterpiece of a first novel. It has everything a reader could possibly ask for: suspense, surprise, high drama, and high stakes. Stacey Margaret Jones has written not just a gripping mystery tale about the suspicious disappearance of a prominent businesswoman, her husband’s desperate search to find her, and the criminal elements he must eventually contend with, but she has at the same time created a profoundly insightful depiction of the human complications of marriage: its disappointments and betrayals, but also its marvelous new directions, the many manners in which love can change and deepen us, in ways we could never expect. This book is a pure pleasure and a real achievement, one that issues notice: This is a writer to watch.”
John Vanderslice, Author of The Last Days of Oscar Wilde
“A blood-thrumming thriller and a wise study of middle-class contemporary marriage, Mr. Catherine is a page-turning debut that is both entertaining and heartbreaking. Stacey Margaret Jones takes the age-old tale of a fallen woman and drives a compelling and disturbing plot in a finely observed world of conservative southern America.
Jones paces her protagonist’s eight-day journey of terror with precision. Her storytelling skills will leave you surprised with compassion for her flawed characters and a map of Little Rock, Arkansas, etched for all time on the back of your hand.
A memorable story of ego and identity, forgiveness and revenge.”
Rebekah Clarkson, author of Barking Dogs
“Stacey Margaret Jones should be proud of this debut. Mr. Catherine is a murder mystery with Southern ambience. The sense of place infused the story with such energy I felt like I was living in Arkansas as I was reading. And the narrator—I never knew how much to trust him (and his version of Catherine) until I finished the last page.”
Shady Cosgrove, author of What the Ground Can’t Hold
“Mr. Catherine is a page-turner of psychological intrigue, a modern-day thriller that delivers more questions than answers about what unravels and then hopes to heal a wounded marriage. In the immediate aftermath of a successful businesswoman’s disappearance one foggy morning, her true story is revealed through her devoted husband’s memories and regrets alongside reality. He smells the lingering scent of her perfume and examines her handwriting in her journals, while the police search for clues—evidence that may implicate him in her disappearance or may lead to something far more sinister. In the expert hands of author Stacey Margaret Jones, it soon becomes clear that there is not just one mystery to solve, not just one missing person to save. There may be more than one murder to prevent or put to justice. Even for an expert psychotherapist such as Mr. Catherine, though, grief is complicated. Trust is elusive. And his taking action to find his beloved wife may put her at the greatest risk.”
Nancy Freund, author of Rapeseed (2013), and Mailbox (2015)”
“With the precision of a Victorian naturalist, Stacey Margaret Jones has drawn an exquisite botanical portrait of two particular people adapted particularly to the microclimate of their marriage, set against an equally vivid sketch of their southern suburban habitat. In elegant command of her prose, the author maintains an exquisite tension between a nearly illicit feeling of intimacy with the main characters at some times, and a dispassionate, almost clinical, distance at others. I was engrossed from the opening sentence to the last.”
Kyran Pittman, author of Planting Dandelions
stacey margaret jones 