Today I’m asking Kate Murdoch 5 questions about her latest book!
1. What’s the name of your latest book – and how hard was it to pick a title?
The Orange Grove as a title came to me quite easily as I was writing the novel. It’s a central location in the story where the characters meet and interact and it also conceals a crucial event in the story.
2. If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest book?
Henriette would be played by Cate Blanchett, Romain by Ewan McGregor, Letitia by Rose Byrne, and Charlotte by Margot Robbie.
3. What five words best describe your story?
Romantic, compelling, surprising, dramatic and twist-filled.
4. Who is your favourite fictional team/couple ?
Katharine and Almásy in The English Patient.
5. What song reflects a theme, character, relationship or scene in your book?
Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto, ‘The Emperor’, 2nd movement. This could describe the emotional balance I tried to strike between joy and sadness in the novel.
About The Orange Grove
Blois, 1705. The chateau of Duc Hugo d’Amboise simmers with rivalry and intrigue.
Henriette d’Augustin, one of five mistresses of the duc, lives at the chateau with her daughter. When the duc’s wife, Duchesse Charlotte, maliciously undermines a new mistress, Letitia, Henriette is forced to choose between position and morality. She fights to maintain her status whilst targeted by the duchesse who will do anything to harm her enemies.
The arrival of charismatic tarot reader, Romain de Villiers, further escalates tensions as rivals in domestic politics and love strive for supremacy.
In a society where status is a matter of life and death, Henriette must stay true to herself, her daughter, and her heart, all the while hiding a painful secret of her own.
Buy The Orange Grove
- Regal House Publishing
- Booktopia
- Angus and Robertson
- Readings
- Boomerang Books
- QBD Books
- Dymocks
- Fishpond
- Amazon Australia
- The Orange Grove
Amazon US
- Book Depository
- Kobo
- Barnes and Noble
- Waterstones
- Foyles
- Blackwells
Amazon USAbout Kate Murdoch
Kate Murdoch exhibited widely as a painter both in Australia and internationally before turning her hand to writing.
Her short-form fiction has been published in various literary journals in Australia, UK, US and Canada.
Her debut novel, Stone Circle, a historical fantasy novel set in Renaissance Italy, was released by Fireship Press in December 2017. Stone Circle was a First in Category winner in the Chaucer Awards 2018 for pre-1750’s historical fiction.
Kate was awarded a KSP Fellowship at the KSP Writers’ Centre in 2019 to develop her third novel, The Glasshouse. Her novel, The Orange Grove, about the passions and intrigues of court mistresses in 18th century France, was published by Regal House Publishing in October 2019.
Social Media
- Website: https://katemurdochauthor.com/
- Blog: https://kabiba.wordpress.com/
- Twitter: @KateMurdoch3
- Instagram: @katemurdoch2
- Goodreads
So many book launches and author talks have had to be cancelled, I’ve decided to run as many Quintettes as I can to share some great upcoming work – and let you stock up on things to read while we’re all self-isolating.