Ramsay, Caro

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Ramsay, Caro

PERSONAL:

Born in Glasgow, Scotland. Education: Attended British School of Osteopathy.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Physician and writer. Osteopath and acupuncturist with private practice in Glasgow, Scotland.

MEMBER:

Johnstone Writers' Club.

WRITINGS:

Absolution (novel), Michael Joseph (London, England), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Caro Ramsay is a physician and writer living in Glasgow, Scotland, where she has a private practice as an osteopath and acupuncturist. Ramsay treats both people and animals, including working with injured wild animals, such as badgers and foxes, and has some renown as a "fox whisperer." While recovering from a back injury that had her confined to a hospital bed, Ramsay began penning the first draft of her debut novel, Absolution, published in 2007. The popular press was enthusiastic in its reception of the this crime thriller, lauding Ramsay as the "new Ian Rankin" (a reference to one of the United Kingdom's top-selling crime writers, famous for his several dozen "Inspector Rebus" novels and stories, which are largely set in Edinburgh, Scotland).

Ramsay's first novel is a lengthy and ornate tale set in Glasgow, featuring a large cast of characters, and drawing on aspects of both the police procedural and the psychological thriller. The nominal protagonist is Detective Chief Inspector Alan McAlpine. As a rookie in the throes of several family hardships (including a seriously ill mother and recently dead brother), McAlpine is given a cushy assignment guarding the hospital room of an anonymous pregnant woman, the victim of an acid attack that has left her unrecognizably scarred and unable to communicate. Shortly after giving birth, the despairing young woman, who McAlpine has dubbed "Anna," commits suicide. McAlpine, having fallen in love with his idea of the woman, continues to pine for her. Anna's case remains unsolved. Twenty-two years later McAlpine, now a celebrated detective with a beautiful and talented wife, is called back to his old precinct to lead an investigation into a series of grisly murders that the media have attributed to the "Crucifixion Killer." As the novel progresses, McAlpine's obsession with the long-cold case of Anna wreaks havoc on his career and marriage, and nearly derails his current investigation.

The consensus among reviewers of Absolution was that the book is ambitious, and Ramsay's talent formidable, leaving reviewers to debate as to whether her talent is yet fulfilling its potential. Allison Block, in a review for Booklist, called the novel a "promising, if somewhat lethargic, debut," and a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that "the pacing is sluggish, but Ramsay manages to paint a vivid picture of rain-lashed Glasgow." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Ramsay shows some promise, but unlikely coincidences, a forest of characters, meandering dialogue and Scottish-centric colloquialisms hamper the story"—qualities of Ramsay's writing that met with unalloyed praise from other reviewers, such as the Washington Post's Patrick Anderson, who felt that the novel, "although leisurely, is highly literate and entirely engrossing," going on to place it "among the year's best literary thrillers." Such sentiments were echoed by Michael Leonard of the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site. As with many reviewers, Anderson closed his Washington Post review by noting that, "based on this first effort, we have reason to expect more good things from Caro Ramsay." The nuanced vividness of Ramsay's description and characterization met with special praise, such as that from Otto Penzler, describing Ramsay in the New York Sun as "a Scottish author who is able to write scenes of heartbreaking tenderness nestled amid evocations of such grotesque violence that it is difficult to imagine that they can coexist as such sublime interlocking pieces of the whole," or Yvonne Klein, contributing to the ReviewingTheEvidence.com Web site, who wrote that "Ramsay writes often brilliantly and always sensuously. She can invent convincing characters and bring them to life with a telling detail." Ann Vicarel, writing for Library Journal, concluded that she was certain that readers of this genre would be "pleased with Ramsay's skillful plotting and anxious to see more of her work."