Beth Castrodale
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About Beth Castrodale
Beth Castrodale worked as a newspaper reporter until her love of books led her to the publishing field. She was a senior editor at Bedford/St. Martin's and is the founding editor of Small Press Picks. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including Marathon Literary Review, Printer's Devil Review, and the Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine. Her debut novel, MARION HATLEY, was a finalist for a Nilsen Prize for a First Novel from Southeast Missouri State University Press, and an excerpt from her second novel, IN THIS GROUND, was a shortlist finalist for a William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Award. Castrodale's latest novel, I MEAN YOU NO HARM, is forthcoming from Imbrifex Books. Get a free copy of her novel Gold River when you sign up for her e-newsletter, at http://www.bethcastrodale.com/gold-river/.
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Books By Beth Castrodale
Marion Hatley: A Novel
Apr 20, 2017
$9.99
To escape a big-city scandal, a Depression-era lingerie seamstress flees to the countryside, where she hopes to live and work in peace. Instead, she finds herself unraveling uncomfortable secrets about herself and those closest to her.
In February of 1931, Marion Hatley steps off a train and into the small town of Cooper’s Ford, hoping she’s left her big-city problems behind. She plans to trade the bustling hubbub of a Pittsburgh lingerie shop for the orderly life of a village schoolteacher. More significantly, she believes she’ll be trading her reputation-tainting affair with a married man for the dutiful quiet of tending to her sick aunt. Underpinning her hopes for Cooper’s Ford is Marion s dream of bringing the daily, private trials of all corset-wearing women especially working women to an end, and a beautiful one at that.
Instead, she confronts new challenges: a mysteriously troubled student; frustrations in attempts to create a truly comfortable corset; and, most daunting, her ailing aunt. Once a virtual stranger to Marion, her aunt holds the key to old secrets whose revelation could change the way Marion sees her family and herself.
As her problems from Pittsburgh threaten to resurface in Cooper’s Ford, Marion finds herself racing against time to learn the truth behind these secrets and to get to the bottom of her student s troubles. Meanwhile, Marion forms a bond with a local war veteran. But her past, and his, may be too much to sustain a second chance at happiness.
In February of 1931, Marion Hatley steps off a train and into the small town of Cooper’s Ford, hoping she’s left her big-city problems behind. She plans to trade the bustling hubbub of a Pittsburgh lingerie shop for the orderly life of a village schoolteacher. More significantly, she believes she’ll be trading her reputation-tainting affair with a married man for the dutiful quiet of tending to her sick aunt. Underpinning her hopes for Cooper’s Ford is Marion s dream of bringing the daily, private trials of all corset-wearing women especially working women to an end, and a beautiful one at that.
Instead, she confronts new challenges: a mysteriously troubled student; frustrations in attempts to create a truly comfortable corset; and, most daunting, her ailing aunt. Once a virtual stranger to Marion, her aunt holds the key to old secrets whose revelation could change the way Marion sees her family and herself.
As her problems from Pittsburgh threaten to resurface in Cooper’s Ford, Marion finds herself racing against time to learn the truth behind these secrets and to get to the bottom of her student s troubles. Meanwhile, Marion forms a bond with a local war veteran. But her past, and his, may be too much to sustain a second chance at happiness.
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I Mean You No Harm: A Novel
Aug 3, 2021
$9.49
The enemy of my enemy is my sister
Career criminal Vic Doloro isn’t the kind of guy you’d send a card to on Father’s Day. Layla Shawn never has. She’s spent most of her thirty-two years estranged from her father and haunted by the mysterious death of her mother.
Then Vic dies, leaving Layla—an unemployed artist—a tempting inheritance of ill-gotten money. Urging her to take the money is Vic’s other daughter, Bette, with whom Layla shares a troubled past. On a cross-country road trip, the two women mend fences, but Layla finds herself caught in the middle of an unsettled and lethal score between her father and a man who knows more than he should about her mother’s death.
As Layla zeroes in on the truth and wrestles with her own demons, she finds herself face to face with a killer.
Career criminal Vic Doloro isn’t the kind of guy you’d send a card to on Father’s Day. Layla Shawn never has. She’s spent most of her thirty-two years estranged from her father and haunted by the mysterious death of her mother.
Then Vic dies, leaving Layla—an unemployed artist—a tempting inheritance of ill-gotten money. Urging her to take the money is Vic’s other daughter, Bette, with whom Layla shares a troubled past. On a cross-country road trip, the two women mend fences, but Layla finds herself caught in the middle of an unsettled and lethal score between her father and a man who knows more than he should about her mother’s death.
As Layla zeroes in on the truth and wrestles with her own demons, she finds herself face to face with a killer.
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In This Ground
Sep 18, 2018
$9.99
Just as his indie-rock band was poised to make it big, Ben Dirjery traded it all in for fatherhood and the stability of a job at Bolster Hill Cemetery. Now closing in on fifty, the former guitarist finds himself divorced and at loose ends, and still haunted by the tragic death of his former band's lead singer, who is buried, literally, under Ben's feet. Then Ben’s daughter begins questioning a past he has tried to bury. If he can face her questions, he might finally put to rest his guilt over his bandmate’s death, and bring music back into his life.
“Startlingly incongruous parts—graveyards, guitars, and mushrooms—come together in satisfying and unexpected ways. Sharp writing and an unconventional plot make for a darkly enjoyable read.”—Kirkus Reviews
“In This Ground brings both music and joy to an otherwise mournful landscape. Castrodale challenges us to come to terms with what is important in our lives by confronting the inevitability of death, and she does so with such frankness and grace that we are compelled to embrace, rather than fear, the unknown.”—Wendy J. Fox, author of The Pull of It and The Seven Stages of Anger
"Castrodale makes a cemetery not only come to life but also become a central character. Deep in the soil of this unlikely ground, [she]has buried great heart. She channels Richard Russo in her ability to command a large cast of characters about whom we care greatly."—Jen Michalski, author of The Summer She Was Under Water
“That a graveyard can be a stage for so much vigorous, multilayered life is one of the many surprises in Beth Castrodale’s warm and wonderful novel. The paths of vividly drawn characters intersect to create a vibrant canvas of uncommon richness and breadth. With the deftness of a magician and uncanny insight, Castrodale weaves together the present moment with its contending dramas and the past with its tragedies, in this moving and deeply satisfying novel that illuminates how hearts break and how they mend.” —Lynn Sloan, author of This Far Isn’t Far Enough and Principles of Navigation
“This novel possesses a mythic sweep. Yet the characters are so sharply drawn, so intimately detailed, they feel like people we all know—people who, while full of regret and self-deception, hidden pain and longing, still manage to find a bittersweet redemption in living. In This Ground shows Beth Castrodale to be a writer well attuned to the music of the human heart.”—Jeff Fearnside, author of Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air
“If I didn’t already love hanging out in cemeteries, Beth Castrodale’s In This Ground would prompt me to take a sudden field trip to my local graveyard, to stalk plotted rows with a fresh perspective, one that discerns the politics of burial and exhumation, and the complexity of death. But even more compelling is the novel’s compassionate treatment of the living. Park your car in the upper lot and prepare yourself for all that unfolds when unexpected alliances form under the luminescence of mushrooms and moonlight.”—Jodi Paloni, author of They Could Live with Themselves
“Startlingly incongruous parts—graveyards, guitars, and mushrooms—come together in satisfying and unexpected ways. Sharp writing and an unconventional plot make for a darkly enjoyable read.”—Kirkus Reviews
“In This Ground brings both music and joy to an otherwise mournful landscape. Castrodale challenges us to come to terms with what is important in our lives by confronting the inevitability of death, and she does so with such frankness and grace that we are compelled to embrace, rather than fear, the unknown.”—Wendy J. Fox, author of The Pull of It and The Seven Stages of Anger
"Castrodale makes a cemetery not only come to life but also become a central character. Deep in the soil of this unlikely ground, [she]has buried great heart. She channels Richard Russo in her ability to command a large cast of characters about whom we care greatly."—Jen Michalski, author of The Summer She Was Under Water
“That a graveyard can be a stage for so much vigorous, multilayered life is one of the many surprises in Beth Castrodale’s warm and wonderful novel. The paths of vividly drawn characters intersect to create a vibrant canvas of uncommon richness and breadth. With the deftness of a magician and uncanny insight, Castrodale weaves together the present moment with its contending dramas and the past with its tragedies, in this moving and deeply satisfying novel that illuminates how hearts break and how they mend.” —Lynn Sloan, author of This Far Isn’t Far Enough and Principles of Navigation
“This novel possesses a mythic sweep. Yet the characters are so sharply drawn, so intimately detailed, they feel like people we all know—people who, while full of regret and self-deception, hidden pain and longing, still manage to find a bittersweet redemption in living. In This Ground shows Beth Castrodale to be a writer well attuned to the music of the human heart.”—Jeff Fearnside, author of Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air
“If I didn’t already love hanging out in cemeteries, Beth Castrodale’s In This Ground would prompt me to take a sudden field trip to my local graveyard, to stalk plotted rows with a fresh perspective, one that discerns the politics of burial and exhumation, and the complexity of death. But even more compelling is the novel’s compassionate treatment of the living. Park your car in the upper lot and prepare yourself for all that unfolds when unexpected alliances form under the luminescence of mushrooms and moonlight.”—Jodi Paloni, author of They Could Live with Themselves
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