Scones and Scoundrels (Highland Bookshop Mystery Series #2)

by Molly MacRae

Overview

The new mystery in the Highland Bookshop series, bringing together a body outside a pub, a visiting author determined to find the killer, and a murderously good batch of scones . . .

Inversgail, on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, welcomes home native daughter and best-selling environmental writer Daphne Wood. Known as the icon of ecology, Daphne will spend three months as the author in residence for the Inversgail schools. Janet Marsh and her business partners at Yon Bonnie Books are looking forward to hosting a gala book signing for her. Daphne, who hasn’t set foot in Scotland in thirty years, is . . . eccentric. She lives in the Canadian wilderness, in a cabin she built herself, with only her dog for a companion, and her people skills have developed a few rough-hewn edges. She and the dog (which she insists on bringing with her) cause problems for the school, the library, and the bookshop even before they get to Inversgail. Then, on the misty night they arrive, a young man—an American who’d spent a night in the B&B above Yon Bonnie Books—is found dead outside a pub.

Daphne did her Inversgail homework and knows that Janet and her partners solved a previous murder. She tries to persuade them to join her in uncovering the killer and the truth. To prove she’s capable, she starts poking and prying. But investigating crimes can be murder, and Daphne ends up dead, poisoned by scones from the tearoom at Yon Bonnie Books. Now, to save the reputation of their business—not to mention the reputation of their scones—Janet and her partners must solve both murders. And Daphne’s dog might be able to help them, if only they can get it to stop howling . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643130279
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	04/09/2019
Series:	Highland Bookshop Mystery Series , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	160,887
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Molly MacRae is the national bestselling author of Plaid and Plagiarism, Scones and Scoundrels, Thistles and Thieves, and Heather and Homicide, all available from Pegasus Crime. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine for more than twenty years, and she has won the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Molly lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois.

Editorial Reviews

A new cozy mystery series in which the drama is tempered with humor. 

Marilyn Stasio - The New York Times (Praise for PLAID AND PLAGIARISM)

MacRae is a sterling storyteller. The girls who own Yon Bonnie Bookshop are an interesting bunch of dedicated women, working hard together to make their business enterprises a success in this charming locale. I look forward to the next in the Highland Bookshop Mystery series. Great job, Ms. MacRae. Tapadh leat!”

Flash Fiction

Details of small-town life on the western coast of Scotland enliven this smooth-flowing cozy, populated by a cast of engaging characters.

Booklist

MacRae is a skilled writer. She has great characters. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Reviewing the Evidence

10/30/2017
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. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Details of small-town life on the western coast of Scotland enliven this smooth-flowing cozy, populated by a cast of engaging characters."

Booklist

"A new cozy mystery series in which the drama is tempered with humor. "

Marilyn Stasio

Full of fascinating local characters and highland color, this series debut will charm everyone who loves Scotland. Recommended for enthusiasts of Ann Ripley or Dicey Deere.

Library Jounal

A new cozy mystery series in which the drama is tempered with humor.

Marilyn Stasio - The New York Times

01/01/2018
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

Library Journal

2017-10-17
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.

Kirkus Reviews