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.

Book Review: Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch

Amongst Our Weapons
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Series: Rivers of London (Book 9)
Publication: DAW (April 12, 2022)

Description: The ninth novel of the bestselling Rivers of London urban fantasy series returns to the adventures of Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, as he solves magical crimes in the city of London.

There is a world hidden underneath this great city.

The London Silver Vaults—for well over a century, the largest collection of silver for sale in the world. It has more locks than the Bank of England and more cameras than a paparazzi convention.

Not somewhere you can murder someone and vanish without a trace—only that’s what happened.

The disappearing act, the reports of a blinding flash of light, and memory loss amongst the witnesses all make this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit.

Alongside their boss DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands and, most terrifying of all, the North!

And Peter must solve this case soon, because back home his partner Beverley is expecting twins any day now. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something—and somebody—that nobody ever expects…

Effortlessly original, endlessly inventive and hugely entertaining—step into the world of the much-loved, bestselling Rivers of London series.

My Thoughts: The ninth Rivers of London contemporary fantasy begins with a murder in the London Silver Vaults. Detective Peter Grant and the SAU are called in because the man died with a hole in his chest and no weapon or killer has been found. 

Investigating the victim leads to a group of college students back in 1989 who formed a religious group complete with mystical rings. The first victim was looking for his ring when he was murdered. Now the team has to track down the other ring bearers before the killer who has been described and an angel complete with wings finds them first. 

Peter's rival Lesley also has a contract with someone to find the rings first. 

Meanwhile back at home, Peter's wife Beverley is getting ready to deliver twins any day. She wants Peter to get the case wrapped up before the babies are born. 

I enjoyed this story which I half-read and half-listened to. I like all the history that the author manages to include in the story and I love all the fantasy elements too. 

Favorite Quote:

The government were in their sixth year of trying to cut crime bu reducing the number of active police officers. So management were getting shirty about expenses. 

I bought this one April 13, 2022. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: A Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths

A Dying Fall
Author: Elly Griffiths
Series: Ruth Galloway (Book 5)
Publication: Mariner Books (March 5, 2013)

Description Forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway investigates a heart-stopping case: an old university friend and fellow archeologist murdered in an arson attack.

When Ruth Galloway learns that her old university friend Dan Golding has died in a house fire, she is shocked and saddened. But when she receives a letter that Dan had written just before he died, her sadness turns to suspicion. The letter tells of a great archaeological discovery, but Dan also says that he is scared for his life.

Was Dan’s death linked to his find? The only clue is his mention of the Raven King, an ancient name for King Arthur. When she arrives in Lancashire, Ruth discovers that the bones reveal a shocking fact about King Arthur—and that the bones have mysteriously vanished.

The case draws in DCI Nelson, determined to protect Ruth and their eighteen-month-old daughter, Kate. But someone is willing to kill to keep the bones a secret, and it is beginning to look as if no one is safe.

My Thoughts: Ruth hears from a college friend that another of their fellow students has died in a house fire. She recalls Dan Goldman fondly but hasn't seen him for twenty years. The next day she receives a letter from Dan who tells her that he has made an extraordinary discovery but now is in fear for his life. 

Ruth is invited by the Dean of Dan's department to come to see if Dan's discovery was as amazing as he thought. Since it is a term break, Ruth gathers her 18-month-old daughter and her friend Cathbad and heads for Lancashire. Unknown to her at the time is that Nelson and his wife are also planning a brief vacation in Lancashire where they will spend time with both their families. 

Ruth's first discovery is that the bones she has been asked to look at aren't consistent with being found in a grave from the 400s. In fact, they are the mixed bones of two different people. Kate wonders where the bones actually are, why Dan sent them to a crime lab for analysis, and why he sent of some samples to still another lab, this one in New York.

Ruth has been receiving threatening texts since even before she got to Lancashire which make her worry for her child's safety. The more she looks into things the odder they become. It seems that the university is having an outbreak of white supremacy and whose followers have a strange fascination with King Arthur.

Dan's discovery might be King Arthur but without the bones or the laptop where he kept all his data which disappeared when his house was torched, Ruth has no concrete evidence. Once she tracks down the lab in New York doing the testing something even odder comes to light which could provide a reason Dan was killed. And this new information puts Ruth in even more danger. 

This was an intriguing story with an interesting archaeological puzzle. The interpersonal dynamics are also intriguing as Ruth and Nelson try to figure out what kinds of relationship they are going to have. Cathbad also has some decisions to make.

I enjoyed this story and am eager to read the next in the series.

Favorite Quote:

Neither of her parents shares her passion for the past and her mother is often heard loudly lamenting that Ruth (such a clever girl at school) couldn't have studied something more useful, like nursing or accountancy or full-time religious mania.

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

Book Review: The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman

The Blessing Way
Author: Tony Hillerman 
Series: A Leaphorn and Chee Novel (Book 1)
Publication: HarperTorch; Reprint edition (March 7, 1990)

Description: From New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman, the first novel in his series featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn & Officer Jim Chee who encounter a bizarre case that borders between the supernatural and murder.

Homicide is always an abomination, but there is something exceptionally disturbing about the victim discovered in a high, lonely place—a corpse with a mouth full of sand—abandoned at a crime scene seemingly devoid of tracks or useful clues. Though it goes against his better judgment, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn cannot help but suspect the hand of a supernatural killer.

There is palpable evil in the air, and Leaphorn's pursuit of a Wolf-Witch leads him where even the bravest men fear, on a chilling trail that winds perilously between mysticism and murder.

My Thoughts: This mystery introduces Joe Leaphorn, a police officer on a Navaho reservation in the Southwest. He is a Navaho who is also college educated and who served in the military with duty in Korea. His case this time deals with the death of Luis Horseman who was wanted for questioning after a knife fight. When his body was found 100 miles from where Joe expected him to be and his cause of death was unusual, Joe begins to visit people and ask questions.

Meanwhile, Joe's friend anthropologist Bergen McKee is summering on the reservation looking for information about Wolf-Witches for a paper he is planning to write. McKee is traveling with archaeologist J. R. Canfield who is exploring Anasazi ruins. McKee is also talking to people about rumors of witchcraft.

Joe's investigation and McKee's overlap since opinion on the reservation is that Horseman's death was caused by a witch. And both investigations find them encountering an unexpected villain with murderous intentions. 

The mystery was interesting and well-plotted and took some unexpected turns. I enjoyed becoming immersed in Navaho culture and beliefs as I read this story. I liked the way Leaphorn fit into his environment and altered his investigative style to fit with the culture. Leaphorn was an interesting character that I would like to know more about. Luckily, this is the first of a long series. 

Favorite Quote:

He saw no tire tracks and he expected to see none. That would have been luck. Leaphorn never counted on luck. Instead he expected order--the natural sequence of behavior, the cause producing the natural effect, the human behaving in the way it was natural for him to behave. He counted on that and upon his own ability to sort out the chaos of observed facts and find in them this natural order. Leaphorn knew from experience that he was unusually adept at this.

This was a Christmas gift from a friend. You can buy your copy here.