A Wee Murder in My Shop

ScotShop Mystery, Book 1

By: Fran Stewart

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

While on a transatlantic hunt for some authentic wares to sell at her shop, Peggy is looking to forget her troubles by digging through the hidden treasures of the Scottish Highlands. With so many enchanting items on sale, Peggy can't resist buying a beautiful, old tartan shawl. But once she wraps it around her shoulders, she discovers that her purchase comes with a hidden fee: the specter of a 14th-century Scotsman.

Unsure if her Highland fling was real or a product of an overactive imagination, Peggy returns home to Vermont - only to find the dead body of her ex-boyfriend on the floor of her shop. When the police chief arrests Peggy's cousin based on some incriminating evidence, Peggy decides to ask her haunting Scottish companion to help figure out who really committed the crime - before anyone else gets kilt.

©2015 Fran Stewart (P)2015 Tantor

Sweet Entertaining Cozy

What made the experience of listening to A Wee Murder in My Shop the most enjoyable?

I thought this was a really sweet little story with fun and interesting characters. I loved the Scottish Ghost bit too.

What did you like best about this story?

The characters were really endearing. There's a hint of romance too, and I just loved the settings: both small town USA, and small town Scotland.

Which character – as performed by Tanya Eby – was your favorite?

Probably Macbeth. I'm a sucker for Scottish accents.

Any additional comments?

This is a feel good mystery...so even though there is a death, it's the deeper mystery and characters that pull you in. A great listen and safe enough to listen to if there are kids around. I'll come back to this series. I'd love to see what happens next.

Review of the Series Through Book 3

Quick overview: This is a fine series for those who like a cozy. The ghost theme is consistent with similar books in this sub-genre with this ghost being much less irritating a personality than is common.

Series review (first 3 books): I had hoped these would improve from book-to-book, but unfortunately, they didn't. The endings are uniformly implausible, and in book #2 the ending is confusing. The "written by an English major" feeling permeates all three of the books to date, and that is unfortunate as it makes them feel a bit self important for what they are.

There is an odd theory of character development at work in the series to date. We learn unnecessary details about characters (mild spoiler eg: the drinking problem of one of the regular characters) and there are undeveloped mild plot lines (eg: the relationship between Peggy and the woman her fiancé had the affair with in book #1). The main character is almost completely without empathy or personal insight about people or dogs (mild spoiler eg: sheesh, how did she manage not to know the dog needed water and food in book #3? My gosh.) These problems give the books a choppy, unedited quality that I found distracting.

The world these take place in feels oddly unfamiliar as well (mild spoiler eg: it's hard to imagine people falling in love and getting engaged with no one noticing at all, especially when another love subplot seems so obvious to everyone in town and is yet unconsummated in any way). Again, this is distracting and makes the author feel young, or at least early in her career.

Regarding the narration: The narrator forgets how to pronounce the word sporran halfway through book #3. How that happened I can't imagine. How a producer missed it is another story.

All that having been said, the underlying premise is amusing, the Scottish flavor is pleasant, and I found the books distracting enough to be worth my time and a credit each. I would suggest, however, to wait until at least book #1 is on sale before you commit. If you like a cozy, these are fine.

Fun, simple enjoyment

It was fun, other series have maintained my interest better but all in all a good read.

Absolute Waste of Time

I got to chapter 13 and had to call it quits. The characters are flat and the plot doesn't make sense. I skipped many times trying to fing something interesting but never did. I finally gave up and returned it.