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Janice Marshall and Christine are women of a certain age. Janice's daughter Tallie and her friend Summer are partners with the two older women in their joint venture, the Yon Bonnie Books store in Inversgail, Scotland. Christine is actually from Scotland; the other three women are not. They've known each other, in one permutation or another, for years and years. As they work on getting the store open, other problems surface. Janice's house is not quite ready for her to move into - and it may take longer than she expects. The previous owners of the store are staying on for a week or so in order to make sure that the women know how to handle the behind the counter day-to-day routines needed to run any small business. And the tea shop and B & B are still truly works in progress.
The locals are quick to come to check out the newcomers. One of them is a reporter for the town newspaper. Una Graham has a reputation for not being the nicest person around; still, why is Janice's garden shed the place where her body is found? Is there any connection to the famous mystery fiction writer who lives next door to Janice? Or to the mountains of garbage inside Janice's house? So many questions, so few answers. Janice and her crew are determined to find those answers.
Four women take over the ownership of a bookstore in a small town in Scotland. Some of them are not from Scotland. None of them has any real experience. Their long-term goals involve opening a tea shop and a bed & breakfast next to/above the bookstore. Those are the really big issues - at least in terms of suspension of disbelief. Once a reader can get past the totally improbable aspects of this set-up, one should have no problem dealing with the rest of the book. And MacRae has no trouble getting a reader to that point. She's that good a writer. This is the first book in a series; one wonders what else can possibly go wrong in a situation like this. The four main characters seem to be able to work things out amongst themselves, which is a good thing. Other than that, the possibilities are probably endless, which bodes well for the series, if not for Inversgail.
§ I have been reading and reviewing mystery fiction for over a quarter of a century and read broadly within just about all genres and sub-genres. I have been a preliminary judge for the Malice Domestic/St. Martin’s Press Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Contest for at least 25 years. I live in Northern lower Michigan with my spousal unit, one large cat, and 2 fairly small dogs.
Reviewed by PJ Coldren, December 2016
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