About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

OF BOOKS AND BAGPIPES
by Paige Shelton
Minotaur, April 2017
304 pages
$25.99
ISBN: 1250057493


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

OF BOOKS AND BAGPIPES continues the lighthearted story of Delaney Nichols, a bookish transplant from Kansas to Edinburgh, Scotland. In this second book of the series, after THE CRACKED SPINE, Delaney is committed to the family she has constructed from her boss, her older kilt-wearing lover, her cab-driving landlord father substitute, and her fellow bookstore employees. She's been entrusted with some of the more sensitive tasks needed by Edwin, the bookstore owner, and this time around that trust leads her to a murdered man at the top of a castle.

As Delaney attempts to figure out why this man died, she stumbles upon the secret society Edwin was a part of during his university days and slowly begins to piece together the effects of that group on Edwin, his fellow students, and eventually the murdered man. Even with death and the threat of harm that surround the remaining members of that secret society, Shelton keeps the tone of the book light. There is no graphic violence, and any hint of sex is just that – a hint. Delaney is a sweet girl, and even the villains seem to be essentially good people brought to their actions through circumstances beyond their control. This sense of human goodness draws the reader in and provides a sympathetic group of characters for readers who don't want to read about human unkindness.

Shelton transports the reader to Scotland. The author would make a good travel guide. As Delaney moves from one castle to another, following a group of history enactors, the reader can almost feel the cold and damp, as well as see the countryside and the castles. The settings, both present and past, are very strongly depicted, becoming almost characters in themselves. It's difficult to imagine the plot taking place in just this way in any other location. And it's easy to see why Delaney would not want to go back to Kansas.

Throughout the book, Delaney gathers snippets of information about Edwin's life in university that she attempts to puzzle together to make sense of the murder of the man in the castle. However, it is not until the final scene when Edwin sits down with her and explains it all (or nearly all) that the full picture emerges. This means of wrapping up a plot always seems a bit contrived to me. This is only book two of the series, so I am hopeful that in the future Shelton will see her way to including the clues within the plot rather than simply having one character explain it all in the end.

§ Sharon Mensing, retired educational leader, lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors in rural Wyoming.

Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, April 2017

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]