Of Books and Bagpipes

February 13, 2017
In Shelton’s enjoyable second Scottish Bookshop cozy (after 2016’s The Cracked Spine), Edwin MacAlister, owner of the Edinburgh bookshop the Cracked Spine, dispatches his American assistant, Delaney Nichols, to Castle Doune, a well-preserved ruin in the countryside, where she’s to meet a mystery man with a 1930s comic book to sell, Oor Wullie. Atop the battlements, Delaney finds her contact lying dead, dressed in medieval costume. Spotting the copy of Oor Wullie near the body, Delaney impulsively hides it in her jacket. The victim turns out to have a complicated link to Edwin’s past and the four members of a secret society from Edwin’s college days. But who would kill over a comic book, and what’s its connection to Edwin and his college chums? Delaney once again turns sleuth, putting her life in peril in a way she could never have imagined before moving from Kansas to Scotland. Fortunately, handsome pub owner Tom Fletcher is on hand to provide some romantic interest amid the dark doings. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary Agency.

February 15, 2017
A murder at a Scottish castle reveals a murky past.Kansas transplant Delaney Nichols and her protective landlord drive to Castle Doune outside Edinburgh to do a favor for her boss, Edwin MacAlister. Purveyor of rare books and manuscripts, Edwin owns The Cracked Spine bookstore in Edinburgh, and he's asked Delaney to pick up a vintage comic book from a William Wallace re-enactor. They find the re-enactor in full costume and as dead as Wallace, with the comic book half-hidden on the castle roof. The dead man, Billy Armstrong, was the son of Gordon Armstrong, an old friend of Edwin's, though the two men fell out 50 years ago and Gordon supposedly died in a recent fire. Almost immediately, Gordon shows up at the bookstore, very much alive and smelling of fish from the market where he works under an assumed name, accusing Edwin of having something to do with his son's death. Assisted by her boyfriend, Tom, Delaney returns to the castle to try to find a paper--a handwritten account of why Gordon has been in hiding--that was supposedly inside the book. Instead they turn up a dirk--a foot-long Scottish knife--and a business card printed with the name "Grizel Sheehy, Bagpipes," that has Billy's last name written on the back. Delaney's fondness for Edwin leads her to lie to the police, nose her way into other people's business, and walk into danger as she attempts to find out not only who killed Billy, but what really happened 50 years ago to come between Gordon, Edwin, and other members of a secret society. Is the real message to Edwin the dirk that Delaney found? How many times will the name William figure into past and present mysteries? Did Grizel kill Billy with her bagpipes? And will all the literary voices--quotations from fictional characters--help Delaney find the answers she seeks or get her killed? This sequel to The Cracked Spine (2016) is rich in Scottish dialect and eccentric characters, including a well-meaning heroine who brings on most of her own troubles.

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March 1, 2017

In her second Scottish outing (after The Cracked Spine), American Delaney Nichols is running an errand for her bookshop boss Edwin MacAlister to pick up a rare comic book, when she stumbles upon the body of the seller. Once again, she is on the trail of a crime in Edinburgh, with links to Edwin's mysterious past. Shelton's breezy cozy series may interest readers who enjoy Sheila Connolly's "County Cork" mysteries.--LH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017
American Delaney Nichols works in an Edinburgh bookstore, Cracked Spine, which sells old books, rare manuscripts, and artifacts. Her boss, Edwin MacAlister, asks her to go to Castle Doune to pick up a comic book. When she and her landlord, Elias, get to the battlements where the meeting is supposed to take place, they find their contact, Billy Armstrong, dressed as William Wallace and quite dead. Edwin is stunned by the murder, and Delaney becomes involved in the investigation when she realizes that Edwin is not telling her the truth, or at least not the whole truth, about events that occurred in the distant past that may be connected to Armstrong's murder. Interviewing Edwin's former friends as well as a group of William Wallace reenactors, and with help from her boyfriend's father, a librarian, Delaney ferrets out the truth while endangering her life. The Edinburgh and greater Scotland settings are lovingly woven through the story, which includes details of literature and Scottish history. In this first-person account, Delaney is a bright, sympathetic figure surrounded by well-drawn secondary characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)