SCOT & SODA

What seems like a Halloween prank is a cover for murder.

After meeting and marrying a wealthy dentist in haste, Scottish
clinical psychologist Lexy Campbell has divorced and retreated to the southern
California town of Cuento. She lives on a tiny houseboat moored in a slough
behind the Last Ditch Motel, which houses her odd but lovable friends. Owner Noleen’s
wife, Kathi, is a germaphobe who keeps the place spotless. To accommodate
married doctors Roger and Todd, she keeps the bugs down with illegal imported
pesticides, since Todd has a severe case of cleptoparasitosis. All seems well
until they pull up the beer Lexy’s been cooling in the slough for their
Halloween party and a dead body comes with it. Detective Molly “Mike” Rankinson
shows up to investigate the bloated corpse, which is wearing an orange wig
topped by a tartan tammy. Only Lexy notices the dead man’s ring, which has vanished
by the time the divers pull the anonymous victim from the water, but it turns
into the clue that will identify him. Mike brushes off Lexy when she urges her
to read Robert Burns’ poem “Tam O’Shanter,” which seems to predict other odd
occurrences, like someone cutting off a horse’s tail. Despite this
discouragement, the motley crew can’t ignore the mystery and finally ID the
body as an unpopular high school student who left town for 50 years until a
recent class reunion. Another member of the class vanished decades ago after
their graduation party, and her mother has never given up the search for her.
The missing girl’s classmates seem spooked when Lexy and her friends visit to
chat them up and fish for clues. The secret’s clearly hidden in the past,
though not too deeply for the intrepid amateur sleuths.

The second in this new series from veteran McPherson (Scot
Free, 2018, etc.) is a hilarious romp that’s dead serious when it comes to
the tricky mystery and an unexpected denouement.