ARC Review: Death at a Scottish Halloween by Lucy Connelly

Death at a Scottish Halloween
Author: Lucy Connelly
Series: Scottish Isle Mysteries (Book 5)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (August 11, 2026)

Description: When Dr. Emilia McRoy stumbles upon a dead body in a haunted house, she resolves to find the killer before another body can fall.

Halloween isn’t the only cause for fright in the fifth Scottish Isle mystery, perfect for fans of Paige Shelton and Connie Berry.

It’s the week of Halloween—or as they say in Scotland, All Hallows' Eve—and the town of Sea Isle is full of spooky celebrations. Dr. Emilia McRoy loves being part of her new community and is eager to help out in any way she can. But the festivities are interrupted when she and her assistant, Abigail, find a dead body in a haunted house. A real one. They’re too late to save the victim, but they’ll do whatever it takes to find his killer.

There’s just one problem: There are too many suspects.

Constable Ewan would prefer the good doctor and her friends stay out of the investigations, but that isn’t how Dr. Em rolls. As she and her gang investigate, they realize the killer is searching for something—and has no problem murdering anyone who gets in the way of finding it.

Dr. Em must stay one step ahead if she’s to survive this Halloween season alive—either that or she might just end up the next victim.

My Thoughts: It is Halloween week in Sea Isle and the town goes all out to celebrate. Dr. Em and her friends are all involved in the local haunted house. However, they aren't expecting to find a murdered man in one of the exhibits. And certainly not one killed by the butcher knife that was part of Em's tableau. 

Duncan Craig was an artist who also worked on offshore oil rigs. He was a newcomer to the town. His sister and best friend were working on his tableau with him but went ahead of him to the pub while he rearranged the scene a bit. Em and Abigail discover the body when they are checking that no one was left behind after closing. 

The big surprise comes the next day when a woman with a small child comes to identify Duncan's body. However, neither his sister nor his best friend knows her. She is apparently looking for a different Duncan Craig. This one owns an antiques shop and was off on a buying trip attending estate sales in the area. 

Ewan and his deputies are now on the hunt for the missing Duncan Craig while trying to figure out who stabbed the other Duncan Craig.

Unfortunately, Em discovers a man slumped outside her doctor's office door when returning from another festivity. This one turns out to be the missing Duncan Craig. He appears to have died of being frightened to death. He had undiagnosed diabetes and an enlarged heart which contributed to his death. 

These murders are baffling. Is someone out to rid the world of Duncan Craigs? Do the two men have anything in common? Ewan and Em and her Scooby gang have their work cut out for them in this fifth in the Scottish Isle Mysteries series. And they have to fit their investigations in around a variety of Halloween celebrations. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Ode to the Bones by Carolyn Haines

Ode to the Bones
Author: Carolyn Haines
Series: Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery (Book 30)
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 26, 2026)

Description: The next novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney.

Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney returns to her Mississippi Delta roots, hoping that long drives through cotton fields and the companionship of her dogs will ease her restless spirit. Instead, she’s confronted by a ghostly vision of a woman in white on the Tallahatchie Bridge, who disappears before Sarah Booth can investigate further.

When the local bank president hires her to find a missing farmer, Danny Anderson, Sarah Booth is forced to shift her focus back to the land of the―hopefully―still living. Danny is about to lose his family’s generational farm to foreclosure and is rumored to be entangled in a secret affair with a preacher’s wife. As Sarah Booth and her feisty partner Tinkie dig deeper, they uncover a web of gossip, ghost sightings, and a shadowy land buyer snapping up vulnerable farms.

With the help of her resident ghost-turned-spiritual-guide, Jitty, and her own unrelenting instincts, Sarah Booth must unravel the mystery of Danny’s disappearance, confront a town full of half-truths, and decipher the cryptic clues left behind―including those wrapped in lyrics and riverwater. But someone is watching her every move, and if she isn’t careful, she may be the next body swept away by the Tallahatchie’s current.

My Thoughts: Sarah Booth Delaney and her partner Tinkie are hired by Tinkie's bank president husband to find Danny Anderson. He's a farmer who is about to lose his farm to foreclosure. 

As they search the Mississippi Delta for him, they uncover secrets and plots. There's a rumored affair between Danny and a local preacher's wife. There's a jealous woman fanning the rumor mill. There's a beautiful model home from New York also searching for Danny. There're buried gold coins from the Civil War era that could save a number of the local farmers farms from foreclosure. 

Sarah Booth is aided by Jitty, a ghost turned spirit guide, who appears to her in the guise of a number of singers from the past including Bobbie Gentry and Bob Dylan who provide musical clues. Sarah Booth also sees a woman in white on the haunted Tallahatchie Bridge made famous in Gentry's Ode to Billy Jo. 

This was another engaging episode in this long-running series. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Spellbound by Murder by Stacie Ramey

Spellbound by Murder
Author: Stacie Ramey
Series: A Mystic Hollow Bookshop Mystery
Publication: Crooked Lane (March 10, 2026)

Description: Gilmore Girls meets Charmed in this spellbinding cozy mystery featuring a magical bookshop run by three generations of women.

When her grandmother suffers a nasty fall and asks for help managing the family business, coffee-addicted single mother Veronica Blackthorne moves her sixteen-year-old rom-com-obsessed daughter to Mystic Hollow, Connecticut. Veronica is ecstatic to return to New England, but when she arrives, she quickly finds out that Mystic Hollow Books, her grandmother’s pride and joy, needs more than a little TLC.

Hoping to save the bookstore from a big-box rival, Veronica enlists her sometimes mentor and sometimes crush, Adam Whitford, a controversial but popular author, as the keynote speaker to kick off a literary festival that will hopefully bring in a new wave of customers. But when Adam turns up dead, all that romantic potential turns into a nightmare as Veronica becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

As the local sheriff investigates his murder, Veronica decides to take matters into her own hands to solve the case and clear her name. With the bookstore’s future on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Until her gran reveals the biggest secret of all—the bookstore is magical, and it was a botched love spell that led to this entire mess.

Witty and heartfelt, this mystery explores the price of magic and how it might be more hefty than one can hope, perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Nina Simon.

My Thoughts: Veronica Blackthorne comes back to Mystic Hollow, Connecticut, with her sixteen-year-old daughter Phoebe when she gets a call that her grandmother has fallen and needs help running her bookstore. The call is timely since her daughter was in an incident at her school and has been suspended and because a hurricane is bearing down on their home in Florida.

She arrives in time to help organize a book festival which will provide needed cash for the town and save the failing bookstore. When the keynote backs out, Veronica calls on an author she's met at conventions and writing workshops since she is an aspiring author.

Adam Whitford is a controversial but popular author. When he is murdered, Veronica needs to solve the crime since she's a prime suspect. She enlists her mother, daughter and daughter's new friend to be part of her Scooby gang to solve the crime. 

There is magic in the story. The bookstore is magical and her grandmother is part of a secret coven. There are magical springs and a Lady of the Forest who helps. And Veronica needs the help. She has ADHD which often makes it difficult for her. But she's also bright and, with a little magical assist, is able to figure out the proper villains. 

This was a fun story. I enjoyed the interactions between mother and child. Veronica and Phoebe have a great relationship. I also liked the magic and the setting for the story. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Locked Tomb Mystery and Other Stories by Elizabeth Peters

The Locked Tomb Mystery and Other Stories
Author: Elizabeth Peters
Publication: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (October 9, 2018)

Description: Four classic stories by the New York Times bestselling “grandmaster” of mystery, each paired with an incisive new introduction (Publishers Weekly).

A thriller writer is embroiled in a real-life whodunit when a friend drops dead with her hatpin impaled in his back. The violation of a sealed West Bank tomb, its rock walls intact, provides a Thebes investigator with a mystifying conundrum. Two sisters take shelter in a shuttered old house at the end of a country road…only to discover they’re not alone. And the author’s most beloved characters, Amelia Peabody and Radcliff Emerson, make an appearance in a newly uncovered tale with a witty nod to Sherlock Holmes.

The Locked Tomb Mystery presents an unforgettable quartet of short mysteries from one of the genre’s greatest practitioners. An expanded edition of Peters’s Mystery Stories, this volume includes the never-before-collected story, “Vengeance of Sekhmet”—along with a new preface by Barbara G. Mertz and new introductions to each story by mystery authors Tasha Alexander, Juliet Blackwell, and Daniel Stashower, and Egyptologist Salima Ikram.

My Thoughts: This book includes four of Barbara Mertz's short stories which each come from one aspect of her writing. Mertz was an Egyptologist who wrote under the names of Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters for her fiction work and her own name for popular books on Egyptology.

The book includes a short story which brings back her beloved characters Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson who need to solve a mystery of a presumed curse. There is another mystery set in ancient Egypt.

The Runaway was a ghost story which fits in with most of her work as Barbara Michaels. And Liz Peters, PI was evidence of the humor she infused in many of her stories. It tells of a mystery author who also works as a private investigator and is a gender bent send-up of the hard-boiled mystery genre.

I enjoyed the introductions to each of the stories which tell how Mertz influenced a variety of writers and egyptologists in her long career. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Phantom Evil by Heather Graham

Phantom Evil
Author: Heather Graham
Series: Krewe of Hunters (Book 1)
Publication: MIRA; First Time Paperback edition (July 13, 2020)

Description: Return to where it all started: New Orleans, the birthplace of the Krewe of Hunters, the FBI’s elite paranormal investigation unit. Rediscover the first case in book 1 of the New York Times bestselling series, only from Heather Graham.

Though haunted by the recent deaths of two teammates, Jackson Crow knows that it’s the living who commit the most heinous crimes. As a police officer using her sometimes-otherworldly intuition, Angela Hawkins already has her hands full of mystery and bloodshed.

Under the oversight of Adam Harrison, Jackson and Angela will join a newly formed unit of the FBI, with the extraordinary opportunity to use their psychic talents.

And the first assignment calls to them too strongly to resist. In a historic mansion in the French Quarter, a senator’s wife falls to her death. Most think she jumped; some say she was pushed. Yet others believe she was beckoned by the ghostly spirits inhabiting the house—once the site of a serial killer’s grisly work.

In this seemingly unsolvable case, only one thing is certain: whether supernatural or all too human, crimes of passion will cast Jackson and Angela straight into danger.

My Thoughts: This paranormal romantic suspense title begins the long-running Krewe of Hunters series. 

FBI Agent Jackson Crow returns from a leave of absence to find that he is being charged with forming a new unit. The purpose of the unit is to investigate unusual crimes with a possible paranormal twist. Despite a number of possibly paranormal events in his life, Jackson is a skeptic. He much prefers the idea of human killers to ghostly ones. 

Jackson's new team consists for five others. Angela Hawkins is a police officer in Virginia who has a sensitivity to ghosts. Whitney Tremont is a Creole from the French Quarter who has done camera work for a paranormal television series. Jake Mallory is a musician with a gift for finding people. Jenna Duffy is a registered nurse. Will Chan has done theater work as a magician.

There first case takes them to New Orleans to investigate the death of the wife of a State Senator. Mrs. David Holloway died in her French Quarter home by falling off a balcony. The case was ruled a suicide caused by depression after the death of her child. The Senator believes that she was killed by the ghosts who inhabit the house. The ghosts include Madden C Newton, a carpetbagger responsible for the torture killings of at least twenty. 

I enjoyed this story which was originally published in 2011. I liked the combination of paranormal and normal investigations. I liked the wide variety of suspects. I liked getting to know Jackson and Angela who begin a romance in this book. The other members of the team have lesser roles in this one but I'm eager to read their stories in the other books in the series. 

I bought this one January 12, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Last Line by Scott Lyerly

The Last Line
Author: Scott Lyerly
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (July 23, 2024)

Description: Featuring a neurodiverse lead living with Tourette's syndrome, Ellie Marlowe is ready for a curtain call as her latest production sells out, but when the starring male lead drops dead, and everyone in the cast is a potential suspect or the next victim, she must catch a killer before they pull another show-stopping murder.

The new production at Ellie Marlowe’s community theater could save her from financial ruin, but her overbearing lead, Reginald Thornton IV, is determined to antagonize every cast member. Nervous and with her Tourette’s syndrome flaring, Ellie is relieved when opening night seems to be going well. But then Reginald’s death scene at the end of the play turns out to be all too real.

The state police write the death off as a heart attack, but several things don't add up, and Ellie and her childhood friend, Bill Starlin, the local chief of police, begin investigating. When another person linked to the theater is attacked, they’re convinced a killer is on the loose.

As Ellie and Bill reveal connections between cast members, they uncover dark secrets and must race to find the killer before it’s curtains for someone else.

My Thoughts: Ellie Marlowe has given up her high stress job and returned to the town where she grew up to open a theater. She lives with Tourette's syndrome. Her new theater is in danger of going under if she doesn't have some financially successful performances soon. 

When the star of her latest production dies in the final act, she fears that will be the end for her theater. No one liked the leading man, but Ellie needs to find out who of a host of possibilities murdered him. She is assisted by her childhood friend Bill who is now the Chief of Police. They are pretty much on their own because Bill left the State Police after exposing a scam and many of the investigators there are holding a grudge.

As Ellie and Bill look into Reginald Thornton IV's life, they find that he had many enemies and a lot of them are working on the theater's current production Murder in a Teacup. The director, who is dying of cancer, was being blackmailed by Thornton. The lead actress had been assaulted by him and was being harassed by him. Thornton had argued and belittled most of the cast and crew of the production. 

Meanwhile, Ellie and Bill are dealing with other problems too. Bill's wife is jealous of his relationship with Ellie who was his sister's best friend. And Ellie and her husband are having some marital problems relating to their desire to have a child which adds more pressure to Ellie.

This was an entertaining story with interesting characters. I don't think I've ever read a story where the main character had Tourette's and appreciated the way the author included details of that syndrome.  

Favorite Quote:

She thought of it like a bread trail, with herself and Bill a Hansel and Gretel. The found a crumb and chewed on it for a bit, wondering if there were more, then suddenly spied another crumb off in the distance. All the while, they went deeper into the forest and got more lost while each crumb tasted the same--bitter. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Overdue or Die by Allison Brook

Overdue or Die
Author: Allison Brook
Series: Haunted Library Mystery (Book 7)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (October 3, 2023)

Description: Carrie Singleton has a wedding to plan, a killer to catch, and a conspiracy to uncover in this charming seventh novel of Agatha Award-nominee Allison Brook’s Haunted Library mysteries.

Carrie Singleton has more than her fair share on her plate: her job at the Clover Ridge Library, preparing for her wedding to Dylan Avery, and hoping that the local art gallery doesn’t steal away one of her part-time employees. Her fiancé Dylan accompanies her to the beautiful home of Victor Zalinka—art collector and successful businessman—to select paintings for an art show at the library. While Carrie muses that Victor's home would be the perfect wedding venue, Dylan spots a forgery among the paintings in Victor's collection.

Then Martha Mallory is found murdered in her art gallery. With the assistance of Evelyn, the library ghost; the resident cat, Smoky Joe; and the office manager of Dylan’s private investigation company, Carrie comes up with a suspect list long enough to rival the size of an encyclopedia. During her investigation, Carrie stumbles across a terrible truth: Martha’s murder was part of something far bigger and more dangerous than she could have ever imagined. And it all leads back to the art gallery.

How far will Carrie go to find the killer and uncover the truth? If the killer finds her first—will Carrie finally be taken out of circulation?

My Thoughts: Carrie Singleton is really busy in this seventh Haunted Library Mystery. The new wing is opening. She's trying to find a venue for her wedding. She's worried about losing her best assistant to the local art gallery. And she has three murders to solve.

A local art dealer is murdered in her shop which leads to an art forgery ring. Dylan has spotted a forgery at the home of Victor Zalinka who has a wonderful art collection. In fact, he will be showcasing some of his collection in the library's new gallery. 

Then an elderly lady with dementia is murdered. She's the same lady who disrupted the dedication ceremony of the new wing by claiming that the building belonged to her. Evelyn, the library ghost, is encouraging Carrie to find her murderer since Evelyn knew and liked her when she was alive. 

This story was filled with twists and turns and with lots of suspicious characters who have all sorts of hidden relationships with each other. I like the way Carrie manages to gather clues and share them with the police. 

Fans of the series won't want to miss this episode. New readers will find great characters and an interesting plot. 

Favorite Quote:

"I think I'll stop in at the wake tomorrow evening," I said, remembering other wakes that had provided me with unexpected information. "Maybe I'll be lucky and solve a few mysteries while I pay my respects."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: A Baby's Bones by Rebecca Alexander

A Baby's Bones
Author: Rebecca Alexander
Series: Sage Westfield (Book 1)
Publication: Titan Books (May 1, 2018)

Description: Archaeologist Sage Westfield has been called in to excavate a sixteenth-century well, and expects to find little more than soil and the odd piece of pottery. But the disturbing discovery of the bones of a woman and newborn baby make it clear that she has stumbled onto an historical crime scene—one that is interwoven with an unsettling local legend of witchcraft and unrequited love.

Yet there is more to the case than a four-hundred-year-old mystery. The owners of a nearby cottage are convinced that it is haunted, and the local vicar is being plagued with abusive phone calls. Then a tragic death makes it all too clear that a modern murderer is at work . . .

My Thoughts: Archaeologist Sage Westfield and a couple of students are excavating an old well from the 1580s and find bones - human bones. The dig was begun because the new owners of the cottage had planned to add an extension before the husband was diagnosed with cancer. Now the wife and young daughter are dealing with a gravely ill husband and father and are also dealing with a cottage that seems to be haunted. 

The discovery of the bones of a baby and woman send Sage, who is also pregnant, on a hunt to discover who they were and how they ended up in the well. Her hunt leads her to the local lord of the manor and the historical society and also to the local pub which is a great resource for the stories that have been passed down for hundreds of years.

Sage is also having a difficult time in her personal life. She has tried to break things off with her married lover, but he isn't willing to get out of her life. She also learns some disturbing things about her parents when their marriage crumbles. And she meets a new man - widowed Vicar Nick Haydon - and begins a romance with him. 

Meanwhile, we are given glimpses of the Tudor past of the area via the journal and memoirs of Vincent Garland who was the illegitimate son of the previous Lord Banstock and the Steward of the present Lord.

The two stories echo each other in forbidden love, obsession, and murder. I really enjoyed the way the stories were woven together. I liked the information about archaeology. I liked the way the past spawned stories and legends still told in the present. 

Sage was an interesting character. I liked getting to know her and see her life. 

Favorite Quote:

'This is your uterine wall. This.' she indicated a line, 'is the edge of your placenta, lying low, possibly over the cervix. It's called placenta praevia.'

'I know. It's one of those complications you skip over in the books.'

I bought this one December 15, 2021. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: A Baby's Bones by Rebecca Alexander

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

Monday 25th March

It was a bone from a baby's arm. Like a twig on Sage Westfield's glove, the ends crumbled away by the action of the sieve, it was still distinctive to a trained eye.

Friday 56:

Saturday 13th April

'Lady George?' Sage took a step into the hall. the golden retriever padded over, wagging her tail, followed by Lord Banstock, who took a bite out of a sandwich held in one hand.

This week I am spotlighting a recent arrival on TBR Mountain. A Baby's Bones by Rebecca Alexander is the first in the Sage Westfield series. It was a Kindle Daily Deal for $1.99 then. Here is the description from Amazon:

Archaeologist Sage Westfield has been called in to excavate a sixteenth-century well, and expects to find little more than soil and the odd piece of pottery. But the disturbing discovery of the bones of a woman and newborn baby make it clear that she has stumbled onto an historical crime scene—one that is interwoven with an unsettling local legend of witchcraft and unrequited love.

Yet there is more to the case than a four-hundred-year-old mystery. The owners of a nearby cottage are convinced that it is haunted, and the local vicar is being plagued with abusive phone calls. Then a tragic death makes it all too clear that a modern murderer is at work . . .