
Yet not only does she move halfway across the world where she knows no one and is unfamiliar with the culture, but she takes it upon herself to investigate the murder of her employer’s sister even though she’s never been an amateur sleuth before. Throughout the novel Delaney remarks on how she’s just a meek and mild girl from Kansas. Also, I had trouble accepting Delaney as the plucky heroine who comes to Scotland because she answered the bookshop’s ad. But writing the words with the dialect was distracting, and I found myself translating repeatedly, which caused me to lose the story’s momentum. The things that bothered me and left me rating it 2.5 stars: As the book is set in Scotland it is a given that the local characters will speak with an accent. It had all the good things – a bookshop, a mystery, a plucky heroine, and it takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland!ĭespite the good things, it felt like the author was writing from a checklist. I liked it well enough to go back and see where it all began. I just finished #8 – Fateful Words, which was my introduction to this series. This is the first in a (currently) 8 book series. Delaney decides to do some sleuthing of her own, to find out just what the real story is behind the priceless folio, and how it's connected to the tragic death, all without getting harmed herself"- … ( more) But before she can settle into her new life, a precious artifact a previously undiscovered First Folio of Shakespeare's plays goes missing, and Edwin's sister is murdered, seemingly in connection to the missing folio. An unexpected bonus is Tom the bartender from across the street, with his piercing eyes, and a rolling brogue and it doesn't hurt that he looks awfully good in a kilt. When she arrives, she meets her new Scottish family also working at the Cracked Spine are Rosie, perpetually wrapped in scarves, and who always has tiny dog Hector in tow Hamlet, a nineteen-year-old thespian with a colored past and bright future and Edwin, who is just as enigmatic and mysterious as Delaney expected. Edwin has promised that she'll be working with "a desk that has seen the likes of kings and queens, paupers and princes," and Delaney can't wait to get started. She doesn't know much about what she's gotten herself into, other than that the work sounds exciting, and that her new boss, Edwin MacAlister, has given her the opportunity of a lifetime. "In need of a good adventure, Delaney Nichols takes the leap and moves to Edinburgh, Scotland to start a job at The Cracked Spine.
