Scots on the Rocks

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.