MURDER AT A SCOTTISH HALLOWEEN (Scottish Shire Mystery #8) by Traci Hall will be released on June 30, 2026, by Kensington Cozies.
While taking her teenage son to find the phone that he dropped while trying to film the ghost of the Wraith at Rait Ruins, Paislee Shaw finds a body in the nearby cemetery. Ailis, the older sister of one of Brody’s friends, was at the ruins to prank Brody. Ailis died not long after Brody fled the ruins, and his abandoned phone might have filmed her murderer. Worried about her son’s mental state, Paislee does what she can to assist the police in finding Ailis’s killer. Meanwhile, the homes of the Nairn gentry are being targeted by vandals who are fighting for the freedom of the Scottish people. The police question if Ailis’s murder is connected to vandalism? Was Ailis mixed up with the revolutionaries or was she just at the wrong place at the wrong time?
MURDER AT A SCOTTISH HALLOWEEN is the first book that I’ve read in the Scottish Shire Mystery series, and I had some trouble keeping up with the different characters and their relationships. I also had a little difficulty figuring out the characters’ strong Scottish accents. Aside from that, MURDER AT A SCOTTISH HALLOWEEN was an interesting story. The characters were intriguing, and the villains were truly evil.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.