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tasmanian_bibliophile's review
4.0
‘The killer looked down at the body with a critical eye.’
West Uist, Scotland. Sergeant Morag Driscoll is out on her morning run, up past the World War II pillbox on Harpoon Hill, when she hears someone groaning. It’s Catriona McDonald, hysterical, unsteady on her feet, and saying that she cannot see.
‘Goodness, she reeks of booze, Morag thought.’
But Catriona says that there were three of them in the pillbox drinking. Morag finds only one other, and he is unresponsive. So, with one young person dead, another ill and a third missing, Morag needs to contact Inspector Torquil McKinnon. Her phone is dead, as is the only other phone at the scene. Once help is summoned, it seems that the injuries are inked to illegally distilled alcohol. But where is the missing girl? And where did the teenagers obtain the alcohol from?
And then, another body is found: an adult male also reeking of alcohol.
Torquil ‘Piper’ McKinnon and his team, (including a new team member) have their hands full, trying to find the missing girl and tracking down the illegal still. Some of the locals are helpful, some have secrets they’d like to keep hidden.
This is the sixth novel in the Inspector Torquil McKinnon series. I’ve read (and enjoyed) three of the novels so far and I must track down the other three. I love the setting, most of the characters, and the twists that Mr Moray inserts into the stories to keep me on my toes.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Sapere Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
West Uist, Scotland. Sergeant Morag Driscoll is out on her morning run, up past the World War II pillbox on Harpoon Hill, when she hears someone groaning. It’s Catriona McDonald, hysterical, unsteady on her feet, and saying that she cannot see.
‘Goodness, she reeks of booze, Morag thought.’
But Catriona says that there were three of them in the pillbox drinking. Morag finds only one other, and he is unresponsive. So, with one young person dead, another ill and a third missing, Morag needs to contact Inspector Torquil McKinnon. Her phone is dead, as is the only other phone at the scene. Once help is summoned, it seems that the injuries are inked to illegally distilled alcohol. But where is the missing girl? And where did the teenagers obtain the alcohol from?
And then, another body is found: an adult male also reeking of alcohol.
Torquil ‘Piper’ McKinnon and his team, (including a new team member) have their hands full, trying to find the missing girl and tracking down the illegal still. Some of the locals are helpful, some have secrets they’d like to keep hidden.
This is the sixth novel in the Inspector Torquil McKinnon series. I’ve read (and enjoyed) three of the novels so far and I must track down the other three. I love the setting, most of the characters, and the twists that Mr Moray inserts into the stories to keep me on my toes.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Sapere Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
vesper1931's review
4.0
West Uist, Scotland. On her morning run Sergeant Morag Driscoll comes across Catriona McDonald screaming that she has gone blind. In the nearby pillbox another teenager is dead but there seems to be one female missing from their overnight party.
Meanwhile a male is being murdered with the scene set as an accident. Are there connections between the two cases. Inspector McKinnon and his team investigates.
An enjoyable and well-written crime story with its cast of likeable characters.
A NetGalley Book
Meanwhile a male is being murdered with the scene set as an accident. Are there connections between the two cases. Inspector McKinnon and his team investigates.
An enjoyable and well-written crime story with its cast of likeable characters.
A NetGalley Book
canada_matt's review
4.0
In the latest piece by Keith Moray, the reader is taken back to the rural areas of Scotland, perfect for a chilling mystery. After a night of drinking, one teenage girl wakes, unable to see. One of her companions is missing and the other appears to have aspirated on his vomit, left for dead. DI Torquil McKinnon and his team are called to investigate, juggling a missing person’s case with what appears to be alcohol poisoning. Tests reveal that the teens were drinking peatreel (illicit whisky), full of methanol, which likely caused the blindness and death by aspiration. While DI McKinnon seeks to find the missing teen, he is met with another murder of a local businessman with ties to two of the teens. When a new member of the West Uist Constabulary arrives from England, McKinnon puts DC Penny Faversham to work, allowing her to show off all her skills. With a killer hiding in plain sight, they have a potential third victim awaiting her fate. The search for the deadly alcohol must have come from a still, though none of the samples match those found at the scenes of the crimes. McKinnon must work quickly and insist on the community’s help to find a killer, before others meet a bitter end. Another great addition to the Torquil McKinnon series that will have readers wishing they, too, could visit West Uist. Recommended to fans of the series, as well as those who like police procedurals outside of the norm.
I have been devouring this series ever since they were presented to me a year ago. Keith Moray does a masterful job of painting the rural Scottish countryside in such a way that its tranquility is matched only by the uniqueness of its goings-on. Torquil McKinnon remains an effective protagonist whose personal life is balanced out with some wonderful development during yet another murder investigation. His attention to detail makes him a wonderful detective, solving crimes with ease without coming off as cocky. Others in the series, both returning characters and those introduced for this piece, work to push the story forward and keep the plot intriguing. The story was fresh—something some might find hard to believe in a small community—and the plot examined some interesting situations that might be more likely in small-town Scotland than the large city. Moray delves into the world of distilleries and how they work, educating the reader throughout the process. With numerous characters building their own sub-plots, the reader will never be without something intriguing to pique their interest. I hope this return of Torquil after a hiatus is a sign of more stories to come!
Kudos, Mr. Moray, for another wonderful piece. The story is read with such ease that new fans are sure to get hooked and binge the entire series.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/248185-a-book-for-all-seasons
I have been devouring this series ever since they were presented to me a year ago. Keith Moray does a masterful job of painting the rural Scottish countryside in such a way that its tranquility is matched only by the uniqueness of its goings-on. Torquil McKinnon remains an effective protagonist whose personal life is balanced out with some wonderful development during yet another murder investigation. His attention to detail makes him a wonderful detective, solving crimes with ease without coming off as cocky. Others in the series, both returning characters and those introduced for this piece, work to push the story forward and keep the plot intriguing. The story was fresh—something some might find hard to believe in a small community—and the plot examined some interesting situations that might be more likely in small-town Scotland than the large city. Moray delves into the world of distilleries and how they work, educating the reader throughout the process. With numerous characters building their own sub-plots, the reader will never be without something intriguing to pique their interest. I hope this return of Torquil after a hiatus is a sign of more stories to come!
Kudos, Mr. Moray, for another wonderful piece. The story is read with such ease that new fans are sure to get hooked and binge the entire series.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/248185-a-book-for-all-seasons
annarella's review
4.0
A good mystery, gripping and entertaining.
I liked the solid mystery that kept me guessing, the well crafted plot, and the fleshed out cast of characters.
It's the first book I read in this series and won't surely be the last.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
I liked the solid mystery that kept me guessing, the well crafted plot, and the fleshed out cast of characters.
It's the first book I read in this series and won't surely be the last.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
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