It's a hoot, mon!

Nobody but the peerless Mary Daheim combines mirth, mayhem, and murder with such page-turning pleasure, and her latest Bed-and-Breakfast mystery is a 150-proof shot of Scottish plots with a twist.

Hoping to dispel the late winter gloom, innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn flies off for a much-needed vacation to Scotland. Instead, she and prickly Cousin Renie find themselves marooned in an ancient castle perched high above the North Sea while their husbands go off on a fishing trip with a local police inspector. But when an explosion rocks Grimloch Castle, leaving a dead body in its fiery wake, an ever-curious Judith is once again up to her neck in a murder investigation.

The victim is a young man who seemed to have it all: marriage to a bonnie oil heiress, a baby son, and a stately mansion. His lovely widow has an abysmal track record with men, all of whom have met with untimely ends. But is she merely unlucky in love . . . or adept at dealing death? The cousins have plenty of other suspects, not to mention some less-than-earthly voices that reverberate around the castle, lending credibility to spooky tales of a restless ghost sharing their royal quarters. Then there's Chuckie, a distillery owner's oddball son and heir, who's more interested in the castle's dungeon and torture chamber than he is in whiskey. The situation grows even murkier when the husbands and their Scotland Yard buddy go missing. . . .

The hunt is on for a killer through the bonnie braes and sea-green glens of Scotland. And if Judith and Renie aren't careful, this could turn out to be their most dangerous—and last—Highland fling.

"'Daheim's enjoyable 23rd B&B mystery (after 2006's Saks and Violins) takes Judith McMonigle Flynn, her cousin Serena 'Renie' Jones and their husbands to a remote town in Scotland. The idea is to get away from the stresses of running an inn, and from Judith's pesky habit of stumbling over corpses and solving murders, but when a new Scottish acquaintance mysteriously dies, Judith can't help poking around. Why would anyone kill Harry Gibbs? Perhaps his wife, now twice widowed, had developed a romantic relationship with someone else, or perhaps a complex business deal lies behind Harry's demise. The tight-knit locals aren't always willing to open up to Judith, and soon more people die. The many eccentric Scottish characters aren't especially well developed, but the local color — fine wool, romantic castles, freely flowing whiskey and tea — is charming. This cozy makes a good vacation read, whether or not your destination is Scotland.' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Judith and Renie go on vacation to a Scottish castle, where they investigate a deadly crime and do battle with a not-so-friendly ghost.

Loony locals, evil spirits, and murder most foul await amateur sleuths JudithMcMonigle Flynn and Renie Jones in this splendid new entry in the bestsellingbed-and-breakfast mystery series.

When Judith and her cousin Renie go on vacation in a remote and possibly haunted Scottish castle owned by a rich whiskey distillery baron strange things start occurring. They meet Harry Gibbs, a dissolute young man who is estranged from his wife and is found smothered to death shortly after Judith and Renie arrive. His widow, Moira, is suspect No. 1, of course, but there are plenty to go around since Harry was a real jerk and wanted to run the petrol company Moira inherited from dear old dad. Suspects include Moira's bastard half-brother, Blackwell Petroleum's sleazy CEO, the wily comptroller, an even wilier corporate attorney, the whisky baron, Moira's former mother-in-law who mixes delicious jams along with her not-so-delicious poisons, Moira's apparent lover, and, last but not least, Chuckie, the dwarfish epileptic who runs around castle. There's a ghost, some goofy villagers, and enough suspects to overwhelm any police force, but no challenge is too daunting for the cousins.

Mary Richardson Daheim is a Seattle native with a degree in communications from the University of Washington. Realizing at an early age that getting published in books with real covers might elude her for years, she worked on daily newspapers and in public relations to help avoid her creditors. She is married to David Daheim, a humanities professor emeritus, and lives in her hometown in a century-old house not unlike Hillside Manor, except for the body count. Daheim is also the author of the Alpine mystery series and the mother of three daughters.