Sunday, July 16, 2017

Horror in the Highlands (Reverend Annabelle Dixon Mystery #5), by Alison Golden (author), Jamie Vougeot (author)

Alison Golden, June 2017

Reverend Annabelle Dixon is off for a quiet visit with her brother and niece, on a little island off the coast of Scotland. It will be a time for rest and relaxation, with the only work being filling in for the village's regular vicar, who is taking a well-deserved vacation himself.

Surely it won't be anything like the busy excitement Upton St. Mary's has experienced recently.

Annabelle meets some interesting people, including an American couple who have purchased a lairdship on the island and want to see the three square feet of land that goes with it, a retired rock star, and Harry Anderson, the pub owner and bagpipe player who enlivens everything he can with his bagpipes.

This is all within the range of the expected. What isn't expected is a theft from the church safe, followed by Harry's brutal murder.

Clues lie with her niece Bonnie's young friend Felicity, Felicity's rather unpleasant aunt, Kirsty, and retired rock star, Pip Craven, who is suspected of being the source of the drugs suddenly circulating in the area. The American couple, Mitch and Patty, and their increasingly frustrating quest to meet the man who sold them the lairdship and see their tiny patch of Scottish land, is surely a distraction.

It's a quaint, charming village peopled by quite real human beings. Golden gives us humor without laughing at her characters. It's warm and comfortable while being a mystery more than interesting enough to hold the reader's attention--very much what I want a cozy to be.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the author and am reviewing it voluntarily.

No comments:

Post a Comment