Of books and bagpipes

Paige Shelton

Book - 2017

"Delaney Nichols has settled so comfortably into her new life in Edinburgh that she truly feels it's become more home than her once beloved Kansas. Her job at the Cracked Spine, a bookshop that specializes in rare manuscripts as well as other sundry valuable historical objects, is everything she had dreamed, with her new boss, Edwin MacAlister, entrusting her more and more with bigger jobs. Her latest task includes a trip to Castle Doune, a castle not far out of Edinburgh, to retrieve a hard-to-find edition of an old Scottish comic, an "Oor Wullie," in a cloak and dagger transaction that Edwin has orchestrated. While taking in the sights of the distant Highlands from the castle's ramparts, Delaney is startled when s...he spots a sandal-clad foot at the other end of the roof. Unfortunately, the foot's owner is very much dead and, based on the William Wallace costume he's wearing, perfectly matches the description of the man who was supposed to bring the Oor Wullie. As Delaney rushes to call off some approaching tourists and find the police, she comes across the Oor Wullie, its pages torn and fluttering around a side wall of the castle. Instinct tells her to take the pages and hide them under her jacket. It's not until she returns to the Cracked Spine that she realizes just how complicated this story is and endeavors to untangle the tricky plot of why someone wanted this man dead, all before getting herself booked for murder"--

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MYSTERY/Shelton Paige
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Subjects
Genres
Mystery fiction
Published
New York : Minotaur Books 2017.
Language
English
Main Author
Paige Shelton (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
304 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781250057495
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

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.--O'Brien, Sue Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

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. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

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 Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

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 papera handwritten account of why Gordon has been in hidingthat was supposedly inside the book. Instead they turn up a dirka foot-long Scottish knifeand 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 voicesquotations from fictional charactershelp 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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.