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Paige Shelton's Scottish bookshop mysteries are always entertaining and, if not high literature, they are better written than the average cozy. THE BURNING PAGES, number seven in the series, continues the story of a small-town Kansas girl, Delaney, who moves to Edinburgh to work as an archivist in a bookshop and falls head over heels for Scotland in spite of finding herself in the midst of the occasional murder investigation (or maybe because of it). The title is a clever pun on the importance of Robert Burns to both Scottish literary history and this book, and the importance of fires to the plotline.
There is a strong feeling of the past in this book, as Delaney becomes enmeshed in history related to Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, as well as the lives of the poor over the last few generations. Shelton's descriptions of the dark alleys and crumbling buildings predominate, giving a sort of Dickensian atmosphere to the book (although I'm sure it's heretical to say so). The reader feels transported to an earlier time of gas-lit buildings and social inequality.
Several plot lines converge over the course of the book, one dealing with an old birth certificate Delaney finds in a bookshop filing cabinet and another with a group of Burns enthusiasts that has unexpectedly invited Delaney to join in a celebration of Burns' life. Several fires with literary implications bring focus to the connections between the various threads of the story. In all of the books in the series, Delaney "hears" snippets of guidance from literary voices, and this book is no exception. Whether these voices are supernatural in nature or simply Delaney's memory of bits and pieces from her own reading history is up to the reader to decide. In this particular book, focused so much on the past, it's not hard to imagine that they might be somehow ghostly in nature.
As always in this series, the book is a fast read with the plot moving along quickly and the overall tone being kind. Delaney has made many friends in Scotland, and they are as supportive and caring as is Delaney herself. Having read all of the books in the series, I may not be the best judge of whether the continuing main characters are fully fleshed out in this book alone, but the new supporting characters, who may or may not reappear, feel like real people. This is a series that keeps the reader wanting more without resorting to the device of leaving the reader hanging. Each book is a self-contained mystery, resolved at the end. Shelton has managed to continue to find book-related mysteries for Delaney to become involved in without becoming repetitive and that always share Delaney's love of Edinburgh.
§ Sharon Mensing, retired educational leader, lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors in Arizona.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, May 2022
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