Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Mary Richardson Daheim is a Seattle native with a communications degree 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 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, the mother of three daughters, and the grandmother of two granddaughters, all of whom live within shrieking distance.