Mcgregor, Elizabeth (Holly Fox, pseudonym)

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McGREGOR, Elizabeth (Holly Fox, pseudonym)

PERSONAL:

Female; children: one daughter.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Dorset, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Dutton Publicity, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER:

Civil servant, teacher, antiques dealer.

WRITINGS:

An Intimate Obsession, Headline (London, England), 1994.

Little White Lies, Headline (London, England), 1995.

You Belong to Me, Headline (London, England), 1995.

Out of Reach, Headline (London, England), 1997.

Second Sight, Pan (London, England), 1999.

The Wrong House, Pan (London, England), 2001.

The Ice Child, Dutton (New York, NY), 2001.

(As Holly Fox) This Way Up, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2001.

(As Holly Fox) Up and Running, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2002.

A Road through the Mountains, Bantam (New York, NY), 2004.

Also author of several scripts for British television.

ADAPTATIONS:

The novel Little White Lies was adapted into a television movie, aired in Great Britain.

SIDELIGHTS:

Elizabeth McGregor has been writing novels since the mid-1990s, with half a dozen psychological thrillers published in Britain. Her suspense stories often center on women dealing with broken marriages, dark secrets, and obsessions that sometimes lead to violence.

In 2001 McGregor made her United States publishing debut with The Ice Child. Coping with the end of her marriage and the death of her mother, McGregor decided to depart from the thriller formula that dominated her earlier novels. Her fascination with the doomed Northwest Passage Franklin Arctic expedition of 1845 combined with her familiar topics of families in emotional turmoil, and the resulting book, The Ice Child ended up being three novels in one. The plot jumps back and forth between a fictional recounting of the fatal Franklin expedition from the viewpoint of a twelve-year-old crew member, a complex modern tale of two damaged families entangled by obsessions over the 150-year-old Franklin expedition, and the story of an arctic polar bear mother protecting her cub.

Combining themes of exploration and mothering instincts created what a critic for Publishers Weekly described as a "dramatic, fast-paced tale of adventure, survival, romance and enduring parental love" that "shifts its focus without losing steam." A Kirkus Reviews contributor found it to be "hopelessly contrived" and the Publishers Weekly reviewer thought the book has "perhaps one dramatic twist too many." However, that critic also felt the book "artfully mixes historical background, up-to-date medical information about a rare disease, a bit of pop psychologizing and some upbeat lessons about the survival of the human spirit." Brad Hooper of Booklist agreed The Ice Child is a "consuming novel" with "a riveting narrative." Delilah Hill of BookReporter observed that "the transitions between the chapters, as well as the connections between them is exceptional" and that overall, it is "an enjoyable read."