Catriona McPherson: Where to Start With This Award-Winning Scottish Mystery Author

Dandy Gilver wasn’t always a detective. Once, she was a wife, a mother—even a debutante.

Before all of that though, Dandy holds on to the memories of the perfect summer she once spent with the Lipscotts of Pereford. That’s why, when they ask Dandy to find their missing sister, she can’t say no.

Finding Fleur is easy enough—she’s working as a schoolmistress at St. Columbia’s College for Young Ladies. What’s more perplexing is why schoolmistresses keep vanishing at an alarming rate.

Determined to get to the bottom of things and make sure Fleur is safe, Dandy has to transform into Miss Gilver to solve the mystery from the inside.

The coast of Banffshire doesn’t seem like an ideal place for the myriad fishing villages clinging to its cliffs. It’s rain-drenched and wind-battered with waves relentlessly pummeling the crumbly stone.

But when strange things pointing to murder start appearing in the barrels of fish, Dandy Gilver leaves gentle Northamptonshire with her trusted partner-in-crime-solving, Alec Osborne. They find themselves in the middle of wedding season and Christmas fast approaches.

Only, everything is far from jolly and bright. In order to solve this case, Dandy must face true horror as she solves this grisly case.

When Dandy Gilver receives a letter from Lollie Balfour accusing her husband of having her followed and opening her mail, the only reasonable thing to do is work as a lady’s maid in Lollie’s house.

After all, what better way to figure out why Lollie’s husband wants to get rid of her than seeing his actions for herself?

After receiving a crash course in housework, she thinks she’s ready. But snooping around can be risky business.

And as she gets closer to the truth, the question isn’t will Dandy find the answer, but can she stay disguised long enough to avoid treachery landing at her own feet?

When all the men in the Gilver family come down with a variety of illnesses, Dandy decides it’s best if they all head to Moffat. There, they can partake in sulfurous water, cold salt rubs, and galvanic wraps of the Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel.

And if that also happens to be the site of a murder Dandy would love to solve, all the better. Only, things are more difficult than Dandy imagined.

The family who owns the hotel is at war, the guests are polar opposites, and the dead might have more to say than Dandy ever imagined possible. Built on a Gallow Hill, there is more than one soul lingering in the steam of the Turkish bath.

It might be more than Dandy can handle to uncover the truth.

On a remote beach, Donna Weaver and her mother are pursuing their dream. They’ve put everything they have into their Bed and Breakfast, The Breakers.

But when their opening guests arrive, something is off. There is tension and bickering, and then the realization that they’ve all been here before.

25 years ago, something tragic happened—something they all tried to forget. But when mysterious packages arrive and cell phones go missing, it’s obvious that someone is playing a game with them.

They took a vow. Someone broke it.

Now, they may all pay for that mistake with their lives.

Moving to the small town of Simmerton is a dream come true for Finnie Doyle and Paddy Lamb.

Paddy is partner at the local law firm and Finnie found her place as the deacon. They’ve even moved into the gate house on the property of Paddy’s new boss.

Everything is perfect.

But within days of moving in, Finnie is unsettled. She hears strange noises in the house, and the trees surrounding the property suddenly feel less enchanting and more claustrophobic.

And when they discover the brutally murdered bodies of Paddy’s boss and his wife, their fairy tale dream shatters. Something in their small town isn’t right.

If they want to survive, they have to find out what.

Before Dandy Gilver can find the missing heiress she’s been hired to recover, she’s fired. Twice!

It’s a set of circumstances most unusual, especially given the case shifted from finding a missing person to solving a murder. Twice!

Things in Dunfermline are fast careening out of control, and if her partner-in-crime-solving Alec Osborne doesn’t make it there in time, they might spell trouble for Dandy, too.

Librarian Jude needs more than a fresh start—she needs a place to disappear. What better place than a town full of bookshops?

She once found solace in the oldest bookstore in that town; perhaps she can find that again.

When Lowell needs an assistant and can offer her cheap rent in the gravedigger’s cottage, Jude happily accepts. After all, graves make for quiet neighbors.

But like the dead and the books they left behind, Lowell and Jude both carry a burden of secrets and lies. All it will take is someone lighting the pages of their stories on fire to destroy everything.

And that person is near.

It only took six months for Lexy Campbell’s California dream to go up in smoke.

She left her beloved Scotland to marry her handsome American beau and open her marriage counseling practice. And now, she’s packing up and heading home.

Only, before she goes, there’s the matter of her only client.

Mrs. Bombarro is a sweet, little old lady. There’s no way she murdered her husband like the police claim.

And Lexy is going to prove it.

Broke and homeless, Lexy checks into the Last Ditch Motel where she finds the time she needs to prove Mrs. Bombarro’s innocence. She ends up meeting a whole new set of problems while she’s at it.