Highland neighbours will do anything for each other. Or to each other.
Part of the Highland Mysteries series, which can be read in any order. Each case Joana and Brian take on stands on its own.
Travel photographer Joana Snowdon is sent to document three wee Highland villages competing for a tourism trophy. She expects hanging baskets, scenic lochs and glens, and perhaps some Highland coos. What she does not expect is to stumble across her own death notice online. That was not in the brief.
Someone wants Joana to put the camera down. And they're willing to cut the eyes out of her picture to make the point. Even DCI Fraser, who is only cheerful by mistake, is showing signs of concern. Brian, her colleague and best friend, quickly decides to act as her bodyguard. Joana, being reliably stubborn, ignores them both and heads deeper into the glens.
There she finds an illegal whisky distiller, a delicate affair nobody wants a photo of, and a Highlander who set off for the Azores and never arrived. But despite his wild idea that the garden centre owner is the head of the Highland Mafia, it is Brian who turns up what nobody was meant to find.
Beneath the bunting and the prize-winning flower beds, the locals are prepared to do whatever it takes to win. Anything at all. The closer Joana gets to the truth, the more she finds herself in the firing line.
Treacherous Thistles is as much comedy as cosy crime, with a sleuthing pair who don't take themselves too seriously. A proper murder-mystery whodunit with a fast, page-turning plot and the kind of dry British humour that can bite. And, as ever, Scotland steals the show.
Perfect for fans of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Raisin.
