SCONES AND SCOUNDRELS

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.