Review: Scot & Soda by Catriona McPherson

The Last Ditch Mystery series crew is on another wacky adventure and Kerry Hammond is here to report.

Scot & Soda by Catriona McPherson was published on April 8, in Trade Paperback, by Midnight Ink. It is the second book in the Last Ditch Mystery series featuring Lexy Campbell. McPherson is the award winning author of 13 books in the historic Dandy Gilver Mystery series and nine standalone novels. I’ve read books in both of her series as well as many of her standalones and have loved each and every one of them. Her series books always make me laugh and her standalones leave me mystified; the reader is always in for a treat.

In Scot & Soda, Lexy Campbell, recent California resident by way of Scotland, has settled in and set up her business as a counselor. She’s living on a houseboat in the slough behind the Last Ditch Motel and has surrounded herself with a motley crew of good friends in her adopted new home. She is throwing a Halloween party for said friends, who have arrived in costume for the festivities. To keep the beer cold, she’s submerged it in the slough, tied to a rope for easy retrieval. When they pull on the rope, they don’t just retrieve the beer, they pull up a dead body that has gotten itself entangled on the line.

The body is wearing a Tam O’Shanter, a hat worn by Scotsmen, and because of that, Lexy worries that it might be a message to her. Therefore, much to the displeasure of local police detective Molly “Mike” Rankinson, Lexy and her friends do what they do best: investigate the murder. The friends become entangled with a group of people celebrating their 50^th high school reunion, but not all the memories were of fun times and friends—something must have led to murder.

McPherson’s humor comes through in Lexy’s character. Sarcasm and wit abound in each installment of this series and some of the things the group get up to are quite funny. The book is cleverly plotted so that it keeps the reader guessing until the very end. I didn’t guess the twists and had to wait until the characters’ big reveal before I knew what was going on. These are fun books and I recommend throwing one into your bag on your next vacation; I enjoyed this one on the last flight I took and it was a great way to pass the time with a glass of wine.

This book was provided to Mystery Playground by the publisher. The review was fair and completely independent.

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