THISTLES AND THIEVES

A box full of old books may hold the secret to a mysterious death in a small Scottish town.

American-born Janet Marsh and Scottish-born former social worker Christine Robertson have moved from Illinois to open a book shop, bakery, and B&B in the lovely coastal town of Inversgail, where Janet had spent many vacations before her divorce. Joining them is Janet’s daughter, Tallie, and Tallie's friend Summer Jacobs, whose purview is food and lodging. Janet, returning to biking after many years, is determined to finish the Haggis Half-Hundred. While she’s out for a ride, she discovers a body in a stream. This is the third corpse she’s discovered (Scones and Scoundrels, 2018, etc.), so she knows to call Constable Norman Hobbs to the scene. Her self-satisfied neighbor, bestselling author Ian Atkinson, identifies the dead man as Dr. Murray, a retired general practitioner whose sister, Florrie, lives with him and whose brother, Gerald, lives nearby. A visit to Florrie finds her vague and not very upset about her brother’s demise. The Road Policing Unit in charge of the investigation is not at all interested in the amateur sleuths’ input, and Hobbs, who does listen to their ideas, claims to know little of the investigation. Returning to Yon Bonnie Books after another bike ride, Janet finds a box at the front door with a note asking her to look after the books inside. Seeing that most of them are old and well-used, and suspecting that some may be valuable, Janet puzzles over who left them and wonders whether they could have belonged to Dr. Murray. When Janet and Christine visit Gerald Murray’s home, their discovery of him dead in a pool of blood only encourages them to delve deeper into past and present motives for murder.

This slow-paced look at a Scottish backwater is best for those who eschew action in favor of cerebration.