Death at a Scottish Halloween: A Scottish Shire Mystery #8 by Traci Hall

 

Murder at a Scottish Halloween

The Scottish Shire Mysteries #8

Traci Hall

Book 8 of the Scottish Shire Mystery series is the first one to be set during the Samhain season, and main character Paisley Shaw is ready to celebrate Halloween even though it will not include activities with her son Brody as he is not so little anymore. This series is set in the coastal town of Nairn, which is a real place in Scotland and is on my cozy mystery location bucket list. Paisley is a small business owner who specializes in yarn and all things knitting related. She even sells items that she has artfully crafted such as an adorable witch hat. Her cozy store has enabled her to take care of herself, her son Brody, and her Grandpa, and her great employees have enabled her to be able to step away from the store to sleuth when needed. Paisley never goes looking for murder or mystery, but she cannot stand by and do nothing when it involves her friends or family. This time is no different as Paisley dons a mama bear attitude to protect her son when a soccer hazing leads to a wrong place at the wrong time. Some things to know about this series is that Paisley is a kindhearted and fiercely loyal character who would do anything for her son Brody. She has been on an amazing journey of character development since the series started but you do not have to be a current reader of the series to know what is going on or what has transpired. Ms. Hall does a great job of knitting bits of Paisley’s past history throughout the story without giving away solutions to past mysteries. In addition to the fictional aspects of the story, Ms. Hall also includes current events, real situations, and real locations such as Rait Castle, home of the story’s Rait Wraith. The victim was giving a very realistic portrayal of the wraith at her brother’s bidding, but what happened and why. Paisley doesn’t start out looking into the untimely and unfortunate death, she starts out trying to protect her teenage son who is struggling with finding the dead girl and feelings of guilt and shame. What is a mother to do when she sees her child hurting? Well in Paisley’s case, she uses her sharp mind and friendly demeanor to follow the clues. It also helps that local Detective Inspector Mack Zeffer is rather fond of her and respects her ability to figure things out and is happy to share information. Theirs has been a relationship that resembled a roller coaster, highs and lows and all together worth it. This story has a plot, a subplot, various suspects, laughter and tears, not to mention a thriller of a reveal. There are a few red herrings and all things cozy including an adorable dog named Wallace who gets to wear bat wings as his Halloween costume. The story was easy to follow and hard to put down, plus there is mention a Dundee fruitcake, which sounded so tasty that I just had to try one. Mine did not have the height of a traditional Dundee fruitcake, but it was the perfect afternoon tea accompaniment. As good as the cake was, the ending of the story is amazing, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Hysteria at the Historical Society: A Halloween Bookshop Mystery #3 - By Emmiline Duncan

A locked vault cozy mystery during the Christmas season in the year-round Halloween Town of Elyan Hollow that had me craving a cookie pie.

Hysteria at the Historical Society
A Halloween Bookshop Mystery #3
Emmiline Duncan

Welcome back to the hauntingly cozy town of Elyan Hollow, Oregon as it celebrates the winter holidays in a very “Nightmare Before Christmas” way. But what else would you expect from a town that voted to theme the city center with year-round Halloween. There is even a Santa Paws scavenger hunt, which Bailey Briggs, proprietor of the Lazy Bones bookshop helped to organize. I bet you are imagining puppy paws, and you would be wrong because in Elyan Hollow there are a variety of Santa Sasquatch to be found in various stores and locations. 

The true nightmare in this cozy mystery seems to stem from the rivaling historical societies. What was once one had become two after a disagreement over coffee, but that was years ago and doesn’t have a bearing on this story. This story is book three of the Halloween Bookshop Mysteries and it does a very good job as a stand-alone cozy mystery. This story starts with a verbal altercation including imputed honor and ends up with a locked vault murder in the town’s new escape room. Bailey might have been able to step back from investigating, if only it hadn’t happened at her friend (with potential) Finn’s new escape room, during the test run and if she and her dad, best-selling horror author Rex Abbot had not been at the scene. So how does a man get murdered in a locked bank vault in such a small group of people? Sounds like an easy one to figure out, right? Wrong. There is more than meets the eye to this location and the participants. First off, the victim, Walter, who was a member of the Historical Society of Elyan Hollow, was a man of unplumbed depths.  His best friend Graham Clark, the director of the same society had been seen in an animated discussion with Walter just earlier that day. There are other witnessed confrontations with Karolyn Robertson, the Society’s treasurer, ex-wife Emma and grown sons Daniel and Ant. Last but not least is Jude Collins, the director of Elyan Hollow Historical Society. Jade and Walter had words and Graham made accusations. 

Detective Whitlock definitely has his work cut out for him. His wife, Bianca who works part time for Bailey, would really like for Bailey to do that thing that she does so well and help solve this mystery so that Detective Whitlock can spend time with his kids this Christmas. Bailey has her sleuthing cap on and is ready to ask questions regardless of how pointed they may seem with Jack as her wingman or wing dog that looks like a big white abominable snow dog aka a Great Pyrenees, he is truly a gentle giant. That is unless he can sense a bad vibe coming off of someone. 

This was a very entertaining holiday locked room who-done-it and while I thought I had figured it out, I was way off. The plot moves the overall storyline ahead at a great pace and there is even a sly little cliffhanger at the end.  The only thing that it is missing are some pie recipes to tie in the amazing twenty-four-hour pie vending machine. I went in search for a pie cookie recipe and settled on a pecan pie cookie that is so good!

Thank you to the authors, publishers, and/or NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The recipe review and food pairing found on my Instagram feed are of my own doing.