Book Review: The Corpse Wore Tartan by Kaitlyn Dunnett

✰✰✰½ Liss MacCrimmon is back with more Scottish fun in this mystery featuring a house party murder theme. In this installment it just so happens that the Scottish Heritage Appreciation Society (SHAS) has booked The Spruces hotel for it's annual event, The Burns Night Supper. Liss' new responsibility to act as a liaison between SHAS and the hotel seems simple enough at first. However, when a pricey brooch goes missing and a major snowstorm hits the town of Mootookalook, Maine, things start to heat up. Just when it seems that things couldn't get any worse, the owner of the missing brooch meets with an unexplained death.

With everyone trapped inside the hotel, Liss and her friends must track down the killer before someone else gets hurt, or worse...killed. Author Kaitlyn Dunnett does a fine job of teasing the reader with plenty of twists and turns in this charming whodunit; there's even a little bit of romance in the air.

The Bottom Line: The Corpse Wore Tartan is the fourth installment of the Liss MacCrimmon Scottish Mysteries series. While some mystery fans like to read the books in order, one can easily pick up this book and not feel lost; Dunnett includes plenty of background information to bring the reader up-to-date. While the pacing of this story could have been improved (the beginning was a bit slow and the ending a bit fast), this installment is nonetheless a delightful, weekend read. Fans of cozy mysteries will adore Liss and all her comrades. Enthusiastically recommended for mystery lovers and those who love all things Scottish.

Details: The Corpse Wore Tartan by Kaitlyn Dunnett. Hardcover published by Kensington Books in 2010. 304 p. ISBN: 978-0-7582-3879-5 Note: I received a complimentary copy from Kensington Books in exchange for a review. This was made possible by the Early Reviewer program at LibraryThing.