I really enjoy this series with mystery author Mercy McCarthy solving mysteries with her sister, her love interest police officer, and her dog! They live in Ireland in a bookshop they’ve inherited and I really like how Mercy and her sister are close but not similar. This was a good one (they’re all good!) that kept me guessing. You can read these in order or by themselves. I’ve read them in order and can’t wait for the next one!

Here’s the scoop:

The Shamrock Cove Autumn Festival is filling the town with the delicious aroma of cinnamon-stuffed pastries, the cheerful sight of jaunty jack o’lanterns and… a body at the local book club

Mercy McCarthy is delighted to see old neighbors and new friends come to the bookstore to support her sister’s autumn book club. But as Mercy closes the chapter on the evening, she stumbles across local grandmother Eva, lifelessly slumped in a squashy armchair at the back of the store.

She recognizes Eva as one of the festival’s main organizers and though she looks to be at peace, the plot thickens when Mercy notices a suspicious mark on her neck. She knows this was no accident. With so many people in the store that night, any one of them could be the killer.

Just as Mercy reads a suspicious-sounding entry for the festival’s fiction-writing contest, another body turns up on the beach. Is someone in Shamrock Cove dying for a bestseller?

It’s up to Mercy and her crime-solving canine companion Mr. Poe to sniff out the suspects before another victim is taken. Could the murderer be the garden center owner who dabbles in chemistry? Eva’s ne’er-do-well grandson-in-law? Or the local busybody who has an opinion about everybody?

Mercy has to hit the books—and the streets of Shamrock Cove—to solve the mystery before the killer has the last word.

An utterly addictive Irish cozy mystery in a small town full of quirky neighbors, charming festivals and one unstoppable amateur detective. Fans of Agatha Christie, Carlene O’Connor and Faith Martin will love meeting Mercy McCarthy!

Thank you so much for having me on the tour and for my copy!

Here’s a bit about the author…

Bestselling author Candace Havens has published more than 25 books. Her novels have received nominations for the RITA’s, Holt Medallion, Write Touch Reader Awards and National Reader’s Choice Awards. She is a Barbara Wilson Award winner. She is the author of the biography Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy and a contributor to several anthologies. She is also one of the nation’s leading entertainment journalists and has interviewed countless celebrities from George Clooney to Chris Pratt. Candace runs a free online writing workshop for more than 2000 writers and teaches comprehensive writing classes. She does film reviews with Hawkeye in the Morning on 96.3 KSCS, and is a former President of the Television Critics Association.

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I’m dishing today about the fourth book in the Ally McKinley cozy mystery series – Murder at the Highland Games. I love this series, which focuses on a middle-aged woman who runs a guest house in Scotland and solves mysteries. There’s a fun cast of local characters in these stories and they are well-plotted and well-paced. I did not figure it out before the “reveal”. Can’t wait for the next story – you can read them as stand alones or in order.

Here’s the scoop:

When a fun day out in the Scottish Highlands turns fatal, there’s only one solution: call for Ally McKinley!

It’s the annual Locharran Highland Games and Ally McKinley has never seen her little village so busy or excited. Everyone’s enjoying the Scottish dancing, the bagpipes, and cheering the competitors on. But there’s a hitch in the proceedings when champion challenger Archie Armstrong drops dead in the middle of tossing the caber. Rushing to the scene, Ally is the first to spot that Archie’s death was no accident – this was murder!

Ally flings herself into a new investigation and soon discovers that more than one person may have had a murderous motive, including some of the current residents of her cosy little guesthouse. Patti, Archie’s glamourous wife, seems intent on acting like the perfect widow, but rumours of infidelity have been flying. Is her performance too good? Could her uncle, cranky gamekeeper Angus, have finally snapped, furious at Archie’s treatment of his niece? Or was it one of the frustrated local competitors, desperate to end Archie’s winning streak?

Determined to crack the case and fuelled by more than one piece of her famous shortbread, Ally begins to narrow down her list of possible culprits, but is thrown for a loop when her chief suspect is found dead by the loch, a mysterious and threatening note clutched in their fingers. With a killer at large, can Ally finally uncover the truth? Or, as the sun sets over the highlands, will this game be her last?

For fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Clare Chase, this totally unputdownable cozy mystery set in the beautiful Scottish Highlands will have you turning the pages late into the night!

About the author:

Dee MacDonald grew up on an isolated farm in the Scottish Highlands. An only child, she’d often get fed up of reading and listening to a crackling radio, so her mother encouraged her to draw and to write ‘wee stories’, which she’d sew together into little books.

As an adult, her working life took her all over the globe as an air stewardess, into the world of TV, where she worked in Market Research and Sales, and then into hospitality, running B&Bs for over ten years.

After first finding her love of writing as a little girl, Dee became a published author of cosy crime and women’s fiction in her seventies. She lives by the sea in Cornwall with her husband, and has one son and two grandsons.

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Thank you for my copy and for having me on the tour!

Fun fact: I’m currently in a local production of Brigadoon so this read was very timely for me!

This was such an interesting and engaging novel. Beautifully written and translated, from French I believe, it is the story of an author who dies in a climbing accident and all the pieces of his life that come before and together to make up his story. It’s a mystery within a mystery. I really enjoyed it and I thank Blackstone Publishing for my copy! (publishing 3/3/26)

Here’s the scoop:

A riveting, layered exploration of memory, betrayal, and the fluid nature of truth, The Story of Marceau Miller is a masterpiece of psychological suspense.

In the beautiful and dangerous landscape of Lake Geneva, in the shadow of the Swiss Alps, renowned writer Marceau Miller is found dead. In the wake of the tragedy, his wife, Sarah, discovers a manuscript he’s left behind, entitled The Story of Marceau Miller.

With the support of close friends, Sarah struggles to hold herself together while caring for her two children and coping with the mounting questions surrounding her famous husband’s death. Was it an accident or part of some darker game?

Compelled to find the truth, Sarah unravels secrets that make her question everything—and everyone—around her. Who can she possibly trust? Her journey from grief to revelation captures the nuance of marriage to a man who remains an enigma. Who is Marceau Miller, really?

One of the year’s most addictive thrillers, The Story of Marceau Miller marks the debut of a gifted new author—Marceau Miller—who may or may not be the man at the center of the novel itself.

About The Author:

Born sometime around 1978, Marceau Miller is said to be a screenwriter. This is the first time he has written under this pseudonym, which also happens to be the name of the author at the center of this novel. The Story of Marceau Miller has been translated into twelve lagnauges and is currently being adapted for film and TV by a major international platform. The author lives in France and returns regularly to the forests and mountains surrounding Lake Geneva, a region that exerts a powerful hold on his imagination.