Murder in the Scottish Hills by Lydia Travers

(The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency Book 2)

Having recently read and enjoyed the first book in this new series, I was looking forward to reading the second and finding out more about the wonderful Maud and Daisy, founders of their newly established detective agency.

It is 1911 and Maud is in Edinburgh at her friend Eleanor’s dinner party, when she is reunited with Lord Hamish Urquhart. She begins to write for a newspaper and soon receives a letter from a maid called Rose, who is worried about the goings on in the house where she works. This entitles a trip up to the Scottish Highlands by train. While they are travelling, they discover the body of a dead man!

As we found out in the first book, Maud McIntyre may live in the 1910s but she is a modern woman with her own views and isn’t afraid to express them. As well as being clever and eloquent, she also has a bit of a knack for solving crimes and a penchant for Sherlock Holmes.

The settings are well-evoked here with great emphasis on the wonderful rooms in the big houses they visit and all the interesting fashions worn by the characters. It is all very well-researched and I liked how real life events were mentioned, which gives the reader a good idea of where this is in time. If you’re a royalist like I am, there’s a treat for you here too.

This book is easily read as a standalone, but I would recommend reading the first one before, so you can see how the agency begins. I actually felt Murder in the Scottish Hills was better than the first book. I’ll look forward to reading Book 3!

BLURB

When Maud McIntyre and her lady’s maid Daisy travel into the Scottish Highlands, the last thing they expect to find is a body on the train… Will these keen amateur sleuths stop a murderer in his tracks?

Edinburgh, 1911: When Maud McIntyre receives a letter from a maid called Rose, sharing her suspicions that something strange is happening in the house where she works, she and her assistant Daisy immediately travel to the Highlands to investigate.

But as they are changing trains, the body of a man falls from the carriage right in front of them, a bullet in his head. Maud and Daisy can’t believe it – they’ve waited ages for a new case, and now one has literally landed in front of them! And when the local police rule the death as a tragic accident, the pair have no choice but to investigate what they believe is a murder…

Arriving in the Scottish village, Maud and Daisy go undercover to begin their hunt for the murderer, while also investigating the strange behaviour of Rose’s employer, a local art dealer. As they begin to piece together the chain of events, Maud and Daisy wonder whether the cases might be linked. Is it possible the man on the train was killed to cover up something in the village? And, if so, who would do such a thing?

When a local artist is found murdered, Maud and Daisy become convinced the two cases are connected. Searching for the link between the deaths, will Maud and Daisy solve the case before another mysterious murder takes place?

A page-turning historical whodunnit, perfect for fans of the mysteries of Helena Dixon, Verity Bright, T.E. Kinsey and Catherine Coles.

Author Bio:

Lydia Travers was born in London. She moved progressively north until settling with her husband in a village on the edge of the Scottish Highlands. She has raised children, bred dogs and kept chickens; and for as long as she can remember has written for pleasure. A former legal academic and practitioner with a PhD in criminology, she now runs self-catering holiday accommodation, sings in a local choir and is walked daily by the family dog.

Lydia also writes as Linda Tyler and her first novel under that name, Revenge of the Spanish Princess, won a 2018 Romance Writers of America competition for the beginning of an historical romance. Her second novel The Laird’s Secret was Commended in the 2021 Scottish Association of Writers’ Pitlochry Quaich competition for the beginning of a romantic novel. Mischief in Midlothian won the 2022 Scottish Association of Writers’ Constable Silver Stag trophy. She has had a number of short stories published in magazines, journals and anthologies in the UK, the USA and Australia.

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