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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780060566548
ISBN number: 006056654X
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: July 01, 2008
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 76497
Studio: Avon
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Hoping to dispel the late-winter gloom, innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn flies off for a much-needed vacation to Scotland. But soon she and prickly Cousin Renie find themselves marooned in an ancient castle perched high above the North Sea while their husbands go off on a fishing trip with the local police inspector. But when an explosion rocks Grimlock Castle, leaving a dead body in its fiery wake, an ever-curious Judith is once again up to her neck in a murder investigation. And the situation grows even murkier when the husbands and their Scotland Yard buddy go missing . . .
The hunt is on for a killer through the bonnie braes and sea-green glens of Scotland. And if Judith and Renie aren't careful, this could turn out to be their most dangerous—and last—Highland fling.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This is the very first in the series I have read. I got the impression while reading that these characters are well fleshed out in the other stories and have a long history together. That being said, this book doesn't really stand alone very well. I found the number of characters too hard to keep track of and as an introduction to cousin Renie - she was just annoying. (Truly, who draws on an oil painting in someone else's house?) I finished the book just to say I finished it. But it was a long process. If you feel compelled to read this series, get this book from the library.
Rated by buyers 
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Again, Mary Daheim has produced a book great to read.
Very enjoyable and easy to keep tract of characters and story.
Rated by buyers 
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This is the 23rd entry in Mary Daheim's Bed-and-Breakfast series, and the very first one I'd read. This time, instead of the Pacific Northwest, Judith Flynn and her cousin, Serena [known to one and all as Renie] Jones are in Scotland, where their husbands, retired cop and psychologist, respectively, are indulging in their love of fishing. Joe Flynn has arranged with a policeman friend who is to join them fishing the Scottish waters for the women to stay in a remote village near Aberdeen, where they soon find themselves "at loose ends...What else can we do with no car and our husbands off fishing? We're bored. We Yanks enjoy excitement." Excitement is soon found in the form of an explosion on the beach near the castle and a man's body found nearby. If that isn't enough, the castle is said to be haunted, and indeed a strange voice is heard from time to time, its source undiscovered. The dead man is the grandson of the caretakers to the castle and the estranged husband of a local oil heiress. There is a large cast of local residents [to the extent that I had difficulty keeping track of the various characters]. Judith has a habit, as readers of the series know, of finding dead bodies, to the extent that she says "sometimes I feel like the harbinger of death." For her part, Renie has a habit of occasional violent urges, though relatively harmless ones. They both are given to using expressions such as "gaga" and "neener-neener" and Renie at one point refers to her husband as a "nut doc," which struck me as particularly off key.
I must admit that cozies are not my favorite things, although that said, the book makes for a light summer read. I found it a bit corny, e.g., one character has the following phone conversation: "The Eagle has flown. The Jackal is trapped. The Leopard? Very well." From the Too Stupid to Live department, at one point the women accompany a stranger who had used subterfuge to get them to meet him and was a possible suspect, to his cottage, and then discuss at length the murder and their investigation, not to mention the fact that they fell for his ruse in the very first place. But the book and Renie have a charm to them, not unlike Mrs. Marple in her time.
Rated by buyers -
I'm not quite finished with the book & I'm having a hard time trying to finish it. I'm forcing myself to continue.
Murders at a castle in Scotland. Sounds interesting. Wrong!
Most of the characters who lived in or worked near castle were so unrealistic - like you were watching the SciFi channel. So unbelievable that you weren't even interested in them. Very strange.
The policeman telling Judith she's the best thing to come out of America! Right! Like he can't figure anything out & needs a woman who runs a B&B to help him.
Extremely unrealistic the way total strangers would all pour out their life stories to Judith & Renie. Not only that, they would invite them into their homes, to funerals, etc.
Too many characters to remember how they were all related.
Judith's & Renie's husbands were suppose to be taking them on a vacation together. Well, the husbands just dropped them off at the castle & left. That part was weird.
Judith starts up an official police car & drives away. Right! Renie hits people & is very rude. It's really not funny like the author wants it to be. In real life, she'd get her a-- kicked! Or arrested.
The constant mentioning of the lift (elevator) to the castle was tiring.
Very boring & the characters were just too strange to make the story believable.
I could go on & on, but this review is becoming boring now.
Rated by buyers -
Judith McMonigle Flynn is happily packing her bags. Her husband Joe, and Bill her cousin Renie's husband have planned a vacation trip for the four of them. It's a surprise, so they aren't telling the cousin's where they're going until they're on the planes.
Visions of Hawaii, or The Bahama's float through her head as she tosses in bathing suits and suntan oil.
Imagine her surprise when on the plane she finds that they're on their way to Scotland. Living in the Northwest, cold and wet are normal for the winter, and although there were probably colder and wetter places than Scotland, she couldn't think of any.
Things are even worse as the cousins realize that Joe & Bill picked the spot, because they had made friends with a local Scottish police inspector and he was going to take them on fishing trip, meanwhile Judith & Renie got to stay at an ancient castle high above the North Sea.
Things get off to a rocky start when there's an explosion at Grimloch Castle and a young man is killed. He's married to the local heiress, lives in a stately mansion and father of a new son. Who would want him dead? Or is the curse some say is on his bride? He was her second husband, her very first dying tragically and her male friends who have also died unexpectedly.
Judith and Renie decide to investigate, as there is nothing else to do, Joe and Bill are out of touch on their fishing trip.
There are a lot of suspects and this time the local police are actually asking them for their help. More deaths occur and supernatural things start to happen and then Joe & Bill seem to have disappeared.
The cousins have to solve this crime before they and their loved ones end up having the worst vacation they have ever had.
Highlights:
The last few books in this series have been less than stellar. This one, however, has picked up the series a little.
The mystery, as usual was very interesting, complicated and hard to figure out. I actually thought through most of the book that Joe & Bill may have set them up on some type of mystery weekend type of vacation.
Judith is always a great character. Very smart and does real investigations. You don't get the killer suddenly announcing they're the murderer out of the blue as you do in some series, although she will put herself in danger sometimes because she doesn't always think things out.
Cousin Renie is almost back to her likeable self. Renie has always been overly aggressive and willing to fight physically. But in recent books she has almost crossed the line into insanity, with her constant embarrassing remarks to people and the fact that she will start hitting people without provocation. In this book, she has pulled back a little in her embarrassing actions and although she does get physical with a particular character, it seemed more humorous than the insane way she had done in the past few books.
Lowlights:
Joe and Bill disappear from the book. I love Joe, he and Judith have the most romantic storyline and I love the interplay between them. But for several books, Joe has disappeared instead of being the supportive, helpful character that he started out as. The series has become an almost exclusive Judith & Renie show. I can't remember the last book where her son and grandchildren actually appeared in the story, and weren't just mentioned in passing.
No returning characters. In earlier books you would see a lot more of Judith & Renie's extensive family. Now they almost seem adrift with only themselves and occasionally their husbands to hang on to.
I love this series and although this book isn't in league with the earlier ones in the series, it's an improvement over the last several books. Get the cousins back home, with their extended families and put Renie and Gertrude on some meds.
This series can be saved.
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