A treasure hunt through Edinburgh gives way to a search for a villain terrorizing the city in the sixth Scottish Bookshop Mystery.
It's a quiet, snowy morning at The Cracked Spine bookshop, when bookseller Delaney Nichols receives a mysterious visitor, a messenger. He presents her with a perplexing note: an invitation to a meeting with eccentric socialite Shelagh O'Conner, who requests Delaney's participation in an exclusive treasure hunt. Delaney is intrigued, but also cautious: Shelagh, while charming in person, has a reputation for her hijinks as a wealthy young woman in the '70s. She was even once suspected for the murder of a former boyfriend, though ultimately cleared of all charges.
But Delaney is enticed by the grand prize at the end of the treasure hunt: a highly valuable first edition copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The winner is also to receive the contents of Shelagh's vast library, and all participants will earn a large sum of cash.
The night after the first meeting of the treasure hunters, however, several homes in Edinburgh are robbed in a manner reminiscent of Shelagh's old tricks. And when a man connected to Shelagh is killed, suspicion builds. Except Shelagh herself has disappeared from her home, seemingly kidnapped by the villain.
Terror mounts throughout the city as Delaney attempts to solve the mystery, while trying to evade the killer's clutches. But it's hard to know who to trust when around every corner, a new monster could be lurking.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 6, 2021 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781250203915
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781250203915
- File size: 6574 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 1, 2021
An unusual treasure hunt has criminally unintended consequences. When American Delaney Nichols landed a job organizing a warehouse full of collector's items at the Cracked Spine bookstore, she never thought she'd marry a Scot, make Edinburgh her home, and begin solving murders. Delaney is one of a few candidates wealthy Shelagh O'Conner has selected as the possible recipient of the vast collection of books she plans to give away. Determined to send them to a good home, Shelagh sets up a treasure hunt in which the person who finds her valuable copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde gets the books and a large sum of money to boot. The other candidates are Delaney's friend Birk Blackburn, librarian Tricia Lawson, and Shelagh's kissing cousin, Jacques Underwood. Back when she was an imaginative teen, Shelagh dressed in rags and roamed the streets pretending to be Hyde until she was accused of murder. No one was ever prosecuted for the crime. Delaney and Tom Shannon, her pub-owner husband, have an unpleasant encounter with Findlay Sweet, who works for Shelagh and still holds a grudge against Tom for an incident in his past. Teaming up, Delaney and Birk find clues that lead them to several noted Edinburgh pubs. A copycat Mr. Hyde steals and kills, but it's only when Shelagh is kidnapped that Delaney and her friends begin sleuthing in earnest. The amusing treasure hunt is filled with literary references that will tickle bibliophiles.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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