The Poison Pen

Scottish Bookshop Mystery, Book 9

By: Paige Shelton

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Edinburgh is mourning the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II when bookseller Delaney Nichols's boss comes to her with a most unusual assignment. An old friend of his, living in an estate in the village of Roslin, has found what could be a priceless relic on her property, and Delaney is tasked with investigating. Could Jolie possibly have an item of breathtaking Scottish historical significance in her possession? But when Delaney arrives at Jolie's estate, she is greeted by a legal team with a vested interest in the property. Jolie manages to remove the interlopers, but as they're examining the priceless item, they hear a scream, and meet a much less welcome discovery: a body.

As Delaney digs deeper, she discovers Jolie's own fascinating history. Jolie's mother had long claimed that her daughter was the rightful heir to the throne, not Elizabeth II, because of an affair she claimed to have with King Edward VIII. The only evidence, however, is in the form of a purported journal that one of Edward's secretaries kept. The puzzles become more confusing when a connection is uncovered between this far-fetched story and the murdered man. Delaney will have to read between the lines to put together the pieces . . . or become history herself.

©2024 Penelope Publishing, LLC. (P)2024 Tantor

The narration was horrible

The story was great. The narration terrible. Not up to previous titles in series. However, I wonder if there was a production error? It was intolerable at normal speed but by increasing listening to speed to 1.2 it was a good listen.

Love it! Except the narrator.

I adore these books! The characters are rich and interesting. The story keeps you hooked. I could hardly wait to get back to it each day!

The issue is the narrator. This is a new narrator in the series, and I wish they hadn’t switched. Her delivery is way off. You are very aware that she is just reading the words on a page. It’s very stiff.

Wonderfully written

As always Paige hits it out of the park. Often authors of long running series get sloppy, load the book with drivel and filler, this author does not do it. She writes each Bo el as well as the first.

The narrator, however, was awful. The accents were embarrassing to listen to and the book was read stiff and stilted. More like a medical text book than a novel.

The wrong narrator

I usually love these books and Susan Boyce did a beautiful job narrating them. I also love Suzanne Erickson‘s narrations, but of the JD Robb In Death books. I so struggled trying to get through this book. I finally had to give up. The inflections and timing and pacing are no different than Erickson does in the JD Robb books and that does not work for this series. I constantly kept losing track of the story and having to go back. Extremely disappointed.

Not like the others

I have so enjoyed this series until this book. It is very different from the others. The narrator was stiff which constantly reminded me that she was reading. The text itself was not engaging. I made it through. The last hour of the book was the best, but this is not the Scottish Bookshop Mystery that I would recommend.