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Scotia MacKinnon is an ex-policewoman and single mother and now a PI who lives off a boat in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington. In order to get away for a few days she goes on a vacation to the new Serenity and Light Yoga Retreat on the remote Santa Maria Island. Scotia was hoping for a few days forgetfulness from her life because her significant other - for ten years - has a daughter who's getting married and Scotia isn't invited to the ceremony. So to forget the wedding, at the advice of her research assistant and helper, Zelda Jones, the two go to the yoga retreat. The struggling retreat, based in the still being renovated old Dei Fiori Hotel, is run by a woman new to the area and is therefore disliked as an outsider. She wants to bring telephone lines to the island and to improve the roads, but the more belligerent of the natives will have none of it. From the minute she took over the old hotel there's been problems, and it's thought that the islanders are sabotaging things, trying ruin her business. Right away, there are hints that the getaway week won't be restful: some of the other residents are less than cooperative, the yoga classes are hit and miss, and the island is being buffeted by a storm that will not let up. Before long, one of the visitors who is an internationally-known photographer has an accident. He's unconscious and has to be airlifted to the mainland. Next, a well-known TV reporter falls to her death. Was it another mishap or attempted murder and more importantly, are there going to be more fatalities? The police rule the problems accidents and so Scotia is asked by the retreat's owner to look into it. This is the fourth in Sharon Duncan's Scotia MacKinnon Mystery Series and it was a pleasant read. Duncan writes well and manages to recreate the classic murder mystery reasons for the people in the retreat to be cut off from the rest of the world marginally well enough - if you don't think about it too deeply. The character of Scotia is a bit more problematical: although an ex-policewoman and seemingly well-versed in the hardness of life, she seems to become weak the moment any man appears in front of her. She goes through angst with hurt feelings when her partner in a ten-year relationship won't stand up for her but she doesn't push it, and by the end she drops the man to throw herself at another with nary a second thought. She managed to be a single mother to her now 20-something daughter after being abandoned by a husband when she was still an undergraduate in college 18 years before, but when the ex shows up, she doesn't say a word to defend herself when her daughter blames her for the husband leaving them. I also find it hard to believe that deaths occur in a town where no one had been killed for years, and the police department shows no interest whatsoever. A deputy only asks Scotia to keep an eye open. No investigation occurs and no other cops ask questions. Other than these rather large holes, this book is a good, fast read, and the atmosphere of the dark, dank island is very well actualized and works well. Perfect for dozing on the beach, or on a dreary rainy day, THE LAVENDER BUTTERFLY MURDERS is a painless mystery story.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, August 2004
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