Scones and Scoundrels

October 30, 2017
The deaths of an author and a tourist pose complications for the operators of Yon Bonnie Books in MacRae’s lively follow-up to 2016’s Plaid and Plagiarism. The bookstore and café partners—motherly Janet Marsh, sharp ex-lawyer Tallie (Janet’s daughter), imperious Christine Robertson, and gifted baker Summer Jacobs—have their hands full when environmental author and former resident Daphne Wood returns to the Highland town of Inversgail with a long list of demands for her accommodations and her signings. Daphne alienates much of the town through her rude and cruel behavior as well as her fixation on an American tourist who died outside a local pub, so it is little surprise when her body is found. The bookshop investigators wonder whether her death might relate to that of the tourist, the disappearance of a high school teacher who moonlights as a photographer, and the members of a mysterious secret society. An array of neighbors, such as a clueless mystery writer who styles himself a supersleuth, adds color, humor, and even wisdom to the proceedings. Cozy fans are in for a treat.

November 1, 2017
A second murder mystery for four intrepid Highland sleuths.Janet Marsh, her daughter, Tallie, Tallie's friend Summer Jacobs, and Janet's friend Christine Robertson have moved from Illinois to the Scottish coastal town of Inversgail. They run a bookshop, an attached bakery, and an upstairs B&B and are active in local affairs--which is why they're involved in plans to welcome Daphne Wood, who will spend the next three months as author-in-residence. Daphne, like Christine, grew up in Inversgail, but she's lived a hermitlike existence for many years in the Canadian wilderness with only her Pekingese, Rachel Carson, for company. Writer and dog are much more demanding than Gillian Bennett, the high school English head who arranged the visit, had expected. Somehow Janet and company find Daphne a house after their original choice is foiled by a no-pets rule. Unfortunately, Daphne's rudeness and sudden changes of attitude antagonize the villagers despite her impressive talents as a writer and environmentalist. When a young American visitor who had stayed at the B&B is found murdered outside their favorite pub, the ladies have no plans to get involved despite their experience helping the police solve another murder (Plaid and Plagiarism, 2016). But Daphne insists they would make a great crime-solving team. Daphne's sleuthing efforts introduce her to many of the locals, a few of whom remember her girlhood, but she makes so many new enemies that when she's found dead, the suspects are almost too many to count, leaving the four friends no choice but to confront the profusion of likely killers.Enough motives and suspects to provide plenty of twists and turns, but once again MacRae draws out her tale too long to sustain interest till the denouement.

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January 1, 2018

Janet Marsh, the co-owner of Yon Bonnie Books in Inversgail, Scotland, having previously solved a murder in Plaid and Plagiarism, is pushed to investigate once again by the local author-in-residence when a man is killed outside the local pub. Daphne Wood, author and environmental activist, once lived in Inversgail before immigrating to Canada. Now, as she digs around, she irritates almost everyone in town, demands special treatment, and stirs up trouble. When Daphne ends up dead, poisoned by scones from the bookshop's tea room, Janet and her friends realize they may be the next targets of a killer. VERDICT With its cast of appealing amateur sleuths and quirky town residents, this leisurely paced mystery will attract cozy fans of Paige Shelton's "Scottish Bookshop" mysteries, as well as lovers of bibliomysteries by Carolyn Hart or Vicki Delany.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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