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A warm glow seems to suffuse the Edinburgh that Delaney calls her new home, in spite of murders both old and new. Three books ago, Delaney Nichols (from Kansas) answered an eccentric ad to work in a book store in Edinburgh, and the books in the series chronicle her resulting position at The Cracked Spine, a rare book store and sort of museum in what is portrayed as a quaint Scottish city. She now has a job cataloguing the book store owner's odd collection of museum grade artifacts, a cabdriving paternal landlord, a pub owning boyfriend who looks great in a kilt, and many, many Scottish friends. The Edinburgh that she inhabits seems designed to protect her even as she throws herself into danger while investigating various crimes with the semi-supernatural help of quotations from famous authors.
In this current third in the series, Delaney has made friends with a couple of medical students and through them has met a very unusual professor, Dr. Eban, who incorporates the story of 19th century grave robbers in his lectures. Shortly after meeting another medical student, Delaney's new acquaintance is murdered outside The Cracked Spine, and connections to the history of the grave robbers surface. Delaney's investigating leads her to a further connection between some scalpels and books at the store and a group of four professors comprised of Dr. Eban, his wife, the dead girl's father, and a convicted criminal. Complications ensue and, in the end, there is a satisfying resolution to the murder.
Shelton brings an inviting version of Edinburgh to life in this series, adding historical knowledge to a travelogue that, in this case, centers around the University of Edinburgh's medical school. This is great escape reading, transporting the reader to environs that are quite different from the US and quite appealing. The characters, while all interesting, tend toward oddly quirky rather than evil, bringing a decidedly cozy feel to the plot. One wonders how Delaney ever gets any work done with all of her running around Edinburgh in search of a killer, but her boss seems content to leave the bookstore closed while the investigation is underway. Delaney's personal relationship with her pub owner develops further by the end of the book but, like the violence, romance occurs mainly off stage. Given her love of Scotland, old books, and the pub owner, it does not appear that Delaney will be headed back to Kansas anytime soon.
§ Sharon Mensing, retired educational leader, lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors in rural Wyoming.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, March 2018
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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