Death at a Scottish Christmas (A Scottish Isle Mystery Book # 3) by Lucy Connelly

Merriment, mistletoe, and murder await in the third installment of the Scottish Isle mystery series, perfect for fans of Sheila Connolly and Joanne Fluke.

Sea Isle, Scotland, is magical during the holiday season, and Dr. Emilia McRoy can’t wait to enjoy everything her village has to offer. But when the lead singer of a famous band is murdered in the village, just as they were about to launch a world tour, her holiday instantly comes to a halt. 

As the band’s future hangs in the balance, Emilia discovers that the victim was working on new music that has since disappeared. Were these new lyrics worth killing for? And if so, who is the culprit? It seems more than one person wanted this music star dead. Shockingly, beloved constable Ewan Campbell becomes the prime suspect in the investigation, putting a damper on the town’s festivities.

With an ever-growing list of suspects, Emilia will need all the help she can get to figure out who is framing poor Ewan. Between a secret Santa that wants her dead, stalkers, and killer holiday celebrations, Emilia must see the devil in the details and discover the truth before it’s too late. (Summary via Goodreads)

Reading Death at a Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly will definitely put you in the Christmas mood ... even though there is a murder and a murderer on the loose you cannot help but feel Christmas-y.

Death at a Scottish Christmas is the third book in Connelly's Scottish Isle Mystery series and you will fall for the little Scottish town immediately.  And with it having to do with Christmas you will fall in love even more.

Okay maybe I should talk about the murder seeing as this is a cozy mystery story ....  The little town of Sea Isle is decked out for the holidays and the residents are excited because a few of their own are coming back to town to perform with their band.  The band Bram and the Stokers are getting ready to take their band to the States and wanted to play on home turf once more and perform a few new songs to see how it went.

The night was spectacular, more that anyone would have thought.  Unfortunately the next morning when main character Dr. Emilia McRoy is on her way to breakfast, she finds Bram sitting by himself on the beach.  And when she goes to talk to him, she finds out he is dead !!  And sadly the constable, Ewan, Campbell, is on the suspect list as he and Bram have bad history.

Emilia is suppose to be on vacation until after the holidays but as one of her duties is coroner, she has to see to Bram's autopsy.  Plus she always wants to get answers and when she discovers that Bram was murdered, she jumps right into the case. 

Luckily for Emilia she has a great assistant and friends and they all help her anyway that they can and she will need it with this case.  And Ewan isn't happy when Detective Inspector Bethany Thomson shows up to also work the case .... which means she is looking at Ewan as a worthy suspect.  Now Emilia needs to work on the case because she knows he would never hurt another person, especially when the history is as ancient as his and Brams was.

Readers will love this series and if you haven't read any of the books in this series, you have time to catch up.  Once you open one of these books, you will find it almost impossible to put it down.

Gathering Mist ( Timber Creek K-9 Mystery Book # 9 ) by Margaret Mizushima

Secrets hide within the fog deep in the mossy forests of the Pacific Northwest, in this ninth thrilling installment in award-winning author Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K-9 Mystery series. 

Deputy Mattie Wray, formerly Mattie Cobb, is summoned to Washington’s Olympic peninsula for an urgent search and rescue mission to find a celebrity’s missing child. With only a week left before her wedding, Mattie is hesitant to leave Timber Creek, but her K-9 partner Robo’s tracking skills are needed.

Dense forest, chilling rain, and unfriendly locals hamper their efforts, and soon Mattie suspects something more sinister than a lost child is at play.  When one of the SAR dogs becomes ill, her fiancé Cole Walker suspects poison. Fearing for Mattie’s and Robo’s safety, Cole joins the search and rescue team as veterinary support.

Secrets that have lain hidden within the rugged terrain come to light and when it is uncovered that the missing child was kidnapped, the search becomes a full-blown crime scene investigation, forcing Mattie, Robo, and Cole into a desperate search to find the missing child before it's too late. (Summary via Goodreads)

Before I get into talking about my thoughts on the latest Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima, Gathering Mist, I really want to talk about the cover of this book.  This cover really captures the essence of the story and just by looking at the cover as you read this amazing story, you will actually FEEL the story through the cover.

In Gathering Mist main character Deputy Mattie Wray is about the marry her boyfriend, veterinarian Cole Walker, and become a family with him and his two daughters.  Unfortunately before they do that Mattie is called away to the site where a movie is fiming in the middle of the forest in Washington.  River the nine year old son of the main actress, Chrystal Winters, appears to have wondered off site and cannot be located.  They are requesting top K-9 search and rescue dogs to join in the search.  And Mattie's dog Robo is the best of the best.

But when another SAR dog becomes ill, Cole is brought in in case it was something serious.  He joins in the search and helps in anyway that he can.  Unfortunately they are up against harsh rain and cold temperatures and the searching is goinig slow with no signs of River. 

Readers will be so engrossed in the story that you will feel like you are getting wet from the rain and feel the chill in the air.  You will want to help Mattie and Robo find River safe and sound so that her and Cole can head back to Denver and get married and start their new lives together .... but you know that finding River alive is the only thing on their minds.