Shortbread and Sorrow

Julia South's gran, Dot, wins an all-inclusive spa week in Scotland, and Julia cannot bring herself to turn down a break from the cafe. She, Dot and her sister Sue drive her tiny vintage car all the way from Peridale to Seirbigh Castle, expecting massages and facemasks.

Instead, the spa's owner, the cruel Henry McLaughlin, is shot dead. Julia abandons the treatments, befriends Blair, the castle's young cook, and takes a job in the kitchen so she can watch the McLaughlin family up close. The widow and children are behaving strangely, the Detective Inspector assigned to the case is out of his depth, and the castle looks likely to claim another victim before anyone finds the truth.

The fifth Peridale Cafe cozy mystery: gentle, British, and free of gore.