As is usual for me, I will not provide a plot summary. There are enough of them out there—and, especially with mysteries, they can ruin the unfolding of the story for a reader. This is the first time I've read an A. D. Scott mystery—I won an ARC of North Sea Requiem through First Reads—and I really enjoyed it. I'm especially fond of the Scots and their charming and colorful way of speaking, which the author used to good advantage. Scott also crafted the plot nicely; the primary characters were well drawn; and the scene was set in such a way that I could feel the atmosphere. The device of centering the story around a newspaper office allowed characters to realistically track down information.

The only two elements of the story that didn't work for me were 1) not telling the non-Scots reader a bit more about shinty (yes, we learn it's a game but even a mention that it is like a more violent version of field hockey or that it involves a stick, something, anything!!) and 2) the character Malcolm Forbes's unstinting love for his crazy wife just didn't seem the least bit realistic to me, especially compared with how real the other characters were. (Did love his name, however.)


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As is usual for me, I will not provide a plot summary. There are enough of them out there—and, especially with mysteries, they can ruin the unfolding of the story for a reader. This is the first time I've read an A. D. Scott mystery—I won an ARC of North Sea Requiem through First Reads—and I really enjoyed it. I'm especially fond of the Scots and their charming and colorful way of speaking, which the author used to good advantage. Scott also crafted the plot nicely; the primary characters were well drawn; and the scene was set in such a way that I could feel the atmosphere. The device of centering the story around a newspaper office allowed characters to realistically track down information.

The only two elements of the story that didn't work for me were 1) not telling the non-Scots reader a bit more about shinty (yes, we learn it's a game but even a mention that it is like a more violent version of field hockey or that it involves a stick, something, anything!!) and 2) the character Malcolm Forbes's unstinting love for his crazy wife just didn't seem the least bit realistic to me, especially compared with how real the other characters were. (Did love his name, however.)


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This is the fourth book in a somewhat cozy murder mystery series set in the 1950’s in the Scottish Highlands. The recurring characters operate a small newspaper, the Highland Gazette. Sometimes, in order to get the bottom of a story, they end up investigating and solving a crime as well.

This book begins when Nurse Urquhart, who tends any injuries of the local shinty team coached by her husband, discovers a severed leg in the team’s laundry. (Shinty is a team game similar in some ways to field hockey and hurling.) The leg was found to come from a random corpse in the graveyard, so at first it seems like competitors are just getting a little nasty with one another. But attacks on the nurse - including anonymous threatening letters, continue. Soon two other women are also receiving the letters: Joanne Ross, a reporter on the Gazette, and Mae Bell, a glamorous visitor from America. Ms. Bell has put classified ads in the Gazette asking for any information on the death of her late husband, whose plane went down in the vicinity in 1952.

Joanne befriends Mae; as in the previous story, she is fascinated by anyone she perceives as more sophisticated and worldly than she. McAllister, Joanne’s boss, is also bedazzled by Mae, but he is solidly in love with Joanne, and nothing can change that. It is Joanne who is wary of letting her guard down with McAllister; both her father and her previous husband subjected her to abuse, and she has not yet learned it is safe to trust another.

All of this emotional wavering becomes moot when a murder occurs, and then both Mae and Joanne go missing. The others on the staff - particularly McAllister, Don (the deputy editor who loves Joanne like a daughter), and Ron, the young hotshot reporter who is like a brother to Joanne, join forces to find the women. They grow increasingly desperate as the days tick by with no clues.

Evaluation: As with her previous books, the author makes the Highlands come to life with her very atmospheric paeans to the singular landscape, and her ability to evoke the concerns and mores of that particular time and place. I especially love the frequent use of Scottish words that add so much flavor to these stories. The tension is ratcheted up a notch in this book, which made it hold my interest more than previous books, especially as the denouement approached. ( )

This is the fourth book in the acclaimed mystery series evoking the mores, values and people of the Scottish Highlands of the 1950s.

Nurse Urquhart discovered a severed leg in the washing coming from the shinty team after their Saturday match against a rival town. Sundays was a forbidden day for washing and she was upset about this sunny day going to waste when time was limited. She pulled the muddied and bloodied shorts and shirts out of the container and let out a scream who had her husband, the trainer of the local shinty team, fainting.

The news splashed all over the front page of the newspaper, about the foot in the shinty boot, had the town talking the hind legs of the donkeys. For some inhabitants in the laid-back quiet town in the Scottish Highlands it was a sick prank, yet for others it would become the opening salvo for a chain of events that would divide the town, lead to murder, introspection, new discoveries, redemption and perhaps happiness.

The town was ruled by a bleak God, who was suppose to be the father of a loving Son, who resided in buildings with high walls, built with unforgiving stone, worshipped by unforgiving people and preaching the Gospel according to men.

Joanne Ross, a soon to be divorcee, wanted to prove that she can be a real news reporter, write more than just school events, church happenings and recipes for plum duff puddings. She wanted to liberate herself from a society who regarded women as mothers, not persons with dreams and thoughts of their own.

The appearance of Mae Bell, seeking more information about the death of her husband Robert, had Joanne brewing like a volcano seeking a place and time to explode. Her inner rebellion was fueled by the staunch believe of the male society that real women arranged everything, was always right, paid the bills, did the washing, the ironing, the shopping, the cooking, remembered everyone's birthdays, anniversaries, funerals, as a good wife should. In the men's eyes, that was how good women expressed love. Those who refused, or chose another way of expressing themselves were dealt with the right way, the justified way: physical abuse and/or rejection. Would she trust men again? Can she believe in love? Does it really exist?

Mae Belle represented everything Joanne wanted to be: confident, elegant, well-traveled, mysterious. But what was she hiding?

Only the police and the staff of the Highland Gazette were eager to get behind the sinister message and would lead to a lot of leg work to keep the investigators running for their money ...

I was in a little bit of a dwam myself after being drawn into the kurfuffle of solving the mystery. The story and characters were so real, so possible, so familiar, apart from the delightful introduction to Scottish words and customs. The narrative is a mystery, leading the reader through a maze of suspicions - exhilarating thoughts - of who's-dunnits' as well as added elements to throw us off the track. It was highly successful! And of course I was half-right half-wrong in the end, leaving me sneaking away tail between the legs! The conclusion was highly dramatic.

My thoughts on why it is a four-and-half and not a full five star read: The story is overall predictable in the sense that the recipe is the same for most of the books in this genre.Everything happens when it should, sort of. The scene where the guilty party was realized, had my legs pulled from under me though. It was too sudden, coming out of nowhere. I paged back to see where I missed the run-up paragraphs to it, but couldn't find anything in the previous few pages. I might be totally wrong and will accept it, but I had the impression that the story was shortened. The concluding events were too drawn out and lost the rhythm of the exploded drama.

However, the shocking surprise lies waiting, the final moment of sucking in your breath hard and fast. It is something so totally unexpected, it will make you laugh or cry. Who was the late Robert Bell really?

The events, characters, scenes, and everything else making this an excellent read, are all there in detail. There is so much depth to the story and people in it. It was definitely worth the time. Everything is concluded.

This book not only inspired me to read more books by A.D.Scott, but also to visit this amazing country and meet the inhabitants. I promise you, this severed leg is going to shake YOU right out of your socks!

PS: Adjectives: I love to use it! ( )

net-galley, mystery-thriller, britain-scotland, published-2013, series, sport, autumn-2013, women, cosy, cover-love, period-piece
Read on September 16, 2013

ARC from NetGalley: ATRIA, Simon and Schuster.

Dedication:For Maeve Nolan

The front quote is from Stormy Weather

Opening: Mrs Frank Urquhart was dead against the Sabbatarians.

Shinty.

This is the fourth book featuring the staff of The Highland Gazette, circa mid 50s, and Joanne Ross in particular. The plight of highland women in that post-war decade or so, is brought to the readers' attention, yet everywhere is flabby cartoon interactions between two-dimensional characters.

A dreich story whichever way it is viewed, with underscored emphasis on dreary, wet, dull and miserable. Sorry Simon and Schuster, I think this will be one big flop.

croosposted: goodreads, anobii, librarything, netgalley.
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