A Very Bookish Murder by Dee MacDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A Very Bookish Murder is the 3rd-book in the Ally McKinley Mystery series, which has quickly become one of my favorite, currently-running Cozy Mystery series.
These books, set in the Scottish Highlands, follow recent-retiree and widow, Ally McKinley, who fell in love with the village of Locharran while on a holiday. Shortly thereafter, she purchased the old malthouse and transformed it into a now successful B&B.
Ally has settled into her new life very well. She’s made many great friends, adopted a beautiful Labrador puppy, Flora, and has even found a charming new love interest.
Her quiet life in the Highlands is going better than she could’ve ever dreamed. Well, except for the fact that she keeps finding herself adjacent to suspicious deaths.
Silver lining: Ally has turned into quite the intrepid amateur sleuth. There’s no stopping her once she starts digging.
This mystery revolves around a group of women authors, who are all visiting Locharran to attend a Writers’ Retreat Workshop led by successful novelist, Jodi Jones. A few of the women, including Jodi herself, will be staying at Ally’s B&B, while the rest stay in the village at the local hotel.
The women who check themselves into Ally’s guest house are all pleased with the accommodations, and hospitality. They seem to take to her, and invite her to attend one of the very first sessions of the retreat, which is being held at the hotel, the Craigmonie.
Ally is certainly interested by all the goings-on, and is surprised to hear a few complaints lodged against the host, Jodi Jones. Jodi’s accused of stealing plots, and plagiarism, amongst other things, and then Ally finds the famous author strangled in the Ladies restroom.
The authorities, as well as Ally, believe that the culprit is most likely one of the other retreat attendees. Ally uses her past experience cracking cases to methodically work her way through the cast of suspects, discovering new evidence and plenty of potential motives along the way.
When another attendee is found murdered, hours after she told Ally she knew who the killer was, Ally is positive the murderer is close at hand. Will she be able to figure it out before they stop her snooping for good?
Another fun, fulfilling and engaging Ally McKinley Mystery book complete. Let the countdown begin for the next one. I can’t wait to see what mystery unfolds next.
As mentioned above, this has become one of my favorite Cozy Mystery series and I think a lot of that has to do with Ally. She’s a great protagonist. There’s something about her that’s just so thoughtful and comfortable. She’s like getting a nice warm hug from your Gran.
Additionally, the Scottish Highlands setting is a huge plus, as well as the quirky cast of characters and always intriguing mysteries. As soon as I finish one of these books, I want the next one in my hands.
I loved that this one revolved around this group of women writers. They were each unique and distinct, yet all of them could have had reason to get rid of Jodi, so there were plenty of red herrings swimming about.
There wasn’t as much focus in this one on the local characters, which I sort of missed, but there really wasn’t reason to be, because there were so many new characters in town for the retreat. With this being said, we still got Ally having interactions with her friends, like Hamish, her cleaner and other local business owners.
I have a feeling that perhaps the next mystery will be more village-focused. Either way, even if it’s not, I’ll be reading it, and I’m more than confident that I’ll be enjoying it.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Bookouture, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Dee MacDonald has a real gem on her hands with this series, and I hope there’s many more installments to come!
