Book: An American in Scotland
Author: Lucy Connelly
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Length: 295 Pages
Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars
Blog Rating: 5/5 Saltire Flags

This book is a mystery in a tiny village in Sea Isle near Edinburgh, Scotland. Dr. Emilia McRoy is an Emergency Room Doctor from the United States. She was glad the locals were welcoming her but bumped into a huge problem when she discovers a dead body. On top of this the local constable who is also the Mayor, Laird Ewan Campbell. Emilia also has discovered she is now the local coroner, except the body ends up missing before she can even attempt an autopsy!

Many twists and turns in the fast moving story Scottish Isle mystery which has all the elements mystery and suspense readers love.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from Crooked Lane Books. I voluntarily agreed to do a fair review and blog through netgalley. All thoughts, ideas and words are my own.

I just couldn't get through this book. I tried on and off for a year but I was just bored. I think I just into cozy mysteries anymore or this one just isn't for me.

As an American who has been struck into loving Scotland, I had high hopes for this book and it didn't disappoint! The plot is engaging and full of small town life Intrigue. The characters are all wonderfully written and I wish I could live in Sea Isle!

An American in Scotland is the first installment in the Scottish Isle Mystery Series by Lucy Connelly. Dr. Emilia McRoy has decided that she needs to make some changes in her life as an emergency room doctor. After discovering through a DNA test that her origins trace back to Sea Isle, Scotland, she feels that it is fate when she is offered a job in that town. Unfortunately for Emilia, within 24 hours of her arrival she discovers that her new home/office is in an old church with a cemetery in back, has a run in with a local who has a negative history with a local man who shared Emilia’s last name, comes across his dead body when she is on a walk to explore her surroundings, and finds out that her contract states that not only is she the town doctor but also the coroner.

Even though this is a first in series book, the author quickly sets the scene and establishes the background for the characters in this story and moves on to the core of the mystery. As the story unfolds, the author keeps the reader guessing as she includes numerous individuals who have potential motives for the crime leading to a very surprising reveal as to the actual culprit and motive including the revelation of additional crimes that had been previously committed but kept secret from the townspeople. Within this first installment, the author has also established the groundwork for additional installments to continue to build on the variety of relationships that Emilia has begun in this book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books and am leaving this review voluntarily.

A fun cozy mystery with an American Doctor who moves to a small Scottish town to be the town Dr. She’s put up in a church and immediately is presented with a murdered body. Which then promptly goes missing.

That’s just the beginning.

Grab your favorite warm drink and blanket to cuddle up for this fun cozy!

Overall, I enjoyed this cozy mystery about an ER doctor from Seattle who embarks on a change of course in her life after a tragedy, to take a position in the small Scottish town of Sea Isle. The mystery is intriguing, and the author does a great job of immersing the reader in the Scottish setting. The supporting characters were all well written and interesting. I did have a few quibbles with the main character Emilia, and some problems with the way a number of things were detailed in the story that prevented me from giving this book a four-star rating.

Emilia seemed to be too much of a wunderkind, able to sort out problems, organize everything, and be everywhere. One of the issues I had was that she became immediate besties with numerous people in town, mere weeks after she'd arrived. She also formed a close friend group, with everyone saying how happy they were to spend time together, when this is supposed to be a small town where everyone has already known each other all their lives.

Additionally, Emilia had to have Highland Games explained to her. This was a bit unbelievable, particularly for someone who has Scottish ancestry (as Emilia McRoy does), and especially because Highland Games are held frequently throughout the United States and Canada all summer long. A quick internet search comes up with Highland Games held annually in Seattle, where the character is from. It's unlikely that she would never have heard of them!

There were also a couple of editorial quibbles. In one part of the book, Emilia becomes Amilia. In another, she singlehandedly brings in two cords of wood from the woodpile in one trip! As someone who has spent the better part of a day helping to stack one cord of wood, I can attest to the fact that no one can carry it on one arm! These are minor things overall, but they did throw me out of the story.

Despite these issues, I will return to Sea Isle with the next book in the series, as I'd like to continue on with it's inhabitants and the mysteries that befall the town. That, and Emilia's employer, the town constable and hunky laird Ewan, being an appealing draw!

My thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing an Advance Reading Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this first volume in a new cozy mystery series, A Scottish Isle Mystery. Emilia McRoy left a stressful life in Seattle as a widowed ER doctor to become the town doctor in Sea Isle, a small Scottish village filled with charming people and beautiful buildings. Her new home and office are combined in an old, renovated church. During her first walk through the hilly, wooded area, Emilia discovers a dead body, and quickly learns that she is the coroner and must perform an autopsy to determine cause of death. She thinks it is murder, but the local constable strongly disagrees. So begins Em's introduction to Scotland. I loved the writing style and enjoyed meeting all the characters, each of which is artfully drawn and easy to tell apart. I look forward to reading the next volume in the series. Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing an ARC.

An American in Scotland is the first in a new series from Lucy Connelly. I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing this series progress. The small town of Sea Isle, Scotland, has secrets, and Dr. Emilia McRoy is going to need to reveal every one of them.

Emilia moved from Seattle to Sea Isle to start a new life. She gets more than she bargained for right from the beginning. Relationships are the key to this story. From Mara and Emilia to Abigail and Tommy to the entire population of the town. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep readers busy and a finale that will keep them guessing. I loved the setting, which had enough detail to make me want to visit, but not so much that there is nothing left to discover.

This book has everything a cozy reader could want, great suspects, plausible motives, and a killer that will have you on the edge of your seat.

An American in Scotland is the first book in the promising new Scottish Isles mystery series by Lucy Connelly. Dr. Emilia McRoy arrives in the small town of Sea Isle in Scotland after leaving a job as an emergency room doctor in Seattle. Emilia left behind a tragedy in her personal life and is hoping for a new start as the town doctor for the residents of Sea Isle.

It sounds idyllic at first, but life in Sea Isle turns out to be full of surprises. The locals are quirky, some a bit skeptical, but they are generally welcoming and pleased to have a new doctor after losing their previous one. Emilia almost immediately stumbles on a dead body who is later identified as a man named “Smithy,” who is hated by almost everyone in town and is widely suspected to be a blackmailer.

Informed by the local constable, Laird Ewan Campbell, that her work as town physician includes being the town coroner AND that the mortuary is, of all things, located in her home. Both of these pieces of information are startling news to Emilia. To be fair, her home is in a very large building which, in addition to her private living quarters, includes a radiology suite equipped for performing x-rays and MRIs; examination and treatment rooms; a lab: her private office; and the aforementioned mortuary and a room equipped for Emilia to perform autopsies.

Before Emilia can perform the autopsy on Smithy, she finds that his body has been stolen from the mortuary during the night. Not only that, but she learns that Laird Campbell, aka the town constable, is also a wealthy philanthropist is not only paying her salary but also owns her home and office as well as paying for all of the top of the line medical equipment, staff, and other necessities of the doctor’s office.

Emilia initially finds Ewan irksome but as the story progresses, she comes to respect him and even develop some warm feelings for him.

But who killed Smithy? Suspects abound and Emilia finds herself in danger as she launches her own informal investigation.

There are so many things I liked about this book. The plot is excellent and well-paced with lots of red herrings. The characters are a great assortment of the kinds of individuals one generally finds in a small town: some quirky; some gossipy; some rich; some not so rich; some are criminals but most are good and honest people. None of them are cardboard characters. All of them are people who are multidimensional and help carry the plot. Some of them, especially Emilia and the women who become her circle of friends, are people I wish I could know in real life.

I’m usually pretty good at figuring out who the villain is in mystery novels but while the clues were all there, cleverly planted by Ms. Connelly, I was stumped.

This is such a great book that I couldn’t put it down and stayed up all night reading it. A second book in the series, Death at a Scottish Wedding, is set to be released on January 9, 2024. I can’t wait to read it!

Start of a new cozy mystery series, An American in Scotland is well-crafted and engaging. Interesting characters, a charming location and the hint of romance add to a mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. Looking forward to the next title in the series.

Nice start with a slow build as to why Dr. Emilia McRoy‘s left Seattle for a small Scottish island that is as country cozy as you can get. Of course she isn’t there 24 hours before she is multitasking as the coroner as well as the town doctor. Small town folks often wear multiple hats, even Emilia’s new boss, Ewan Campbell, laird, constable, and mayor. I would love to hear this story in an audible version just to listen to the lovely accents. Great story development, friendly and varied town’s folks, a not so friendly victim, possible love interest(s), and delectable Scottish dishes provided by the Pic & Whistle. Some nice misdirects but I was able to follow along well enough to figure out the who done it, but I doubted myself about the why. Already looking forward to the next one and another.

There isn’t anything about Lucy Connelly's, An American in Scotland that I didn’t absolutely love. The author has set this novel in an idyllic Scottish place and the characters are enjoyable; the way they interacted with each other came across as extremely genuine. I immediately warmed to the main character, Dr Emilia McRoy. She is smart, determined, capable and has a grand sense of humour.

The author describes food in a delicious manner and the novel was a great combination of mystery, medicine, Scottish life and a soupcon of romance. I certainly hope there will be more of these novels from this author. So good and extremely highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

The first book in a brand new cozy mystery series and it was an enjoyable one. I had a lot of fun reading/listening to it with major credit going to the narrator, Kimberly M. Wetherell, who did great work with the different voiceovers and pacing. The male lead, Laird Ewan Campbell is as wealthy (or even wealthier) as Bruce Wayne and holds a handful of important job positions in the town of Sea Isle. Him being handsome and Scottish are added bonus points.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publishers Crooked Lane Books/ Dreamscape Media and the author for both the e-Arc and audio Arc of the book.

Too cozy. Too improbable. I don't believe that anything like this could be possible with UK immigration and cross-licensing laws as they are. The medical equipment in the lab on the island is too elaborate for one clinic set inside one old church. The cladding for the MRI would be nearly impossible, and surely an MRI is not needed if a helicopter is available to airlift serious patients out. The CRT machine would be enough. And the young widowed MD who comes to live on this island is no one I would like to have attend me.

I liked the premise of this book a bit more than the execution. The characters were likable and the reader is likely to be invested enough to read further installments in the series. The 'whodunnit' component wasn't as interesting as the dynamic between and among the characters. This was a fairly good read.

Lucy Connelly starts the Scottish Isle mysteries with An American in Scotland. Dr. Emilia McRoy comes to the small community of Sea Isle to get away from the tragedy of her losses in America and immediately falls over a dead body of the least liked man in the community. His body goes missing just as Dr. Emilia was to do an autopsy. The laird and constable Ewan tries to stop her investigating, but she keeps up and gets death threats. What could go wrong.

Dr. Emilia McRoy takes advantage of an offer to become the local doctor for a small Scottish town and leave the stressful life of an American ER doctor. Sea Isle provides housing, medical assistants and a raft of quirky townspeople to help make her new life enticing. Emilia even hopes to learn more about her own Scottish background while attending to this new community. Scotland provides a wonderfully atmospheric setting for this mystery. When Emilia finds a body in a bothy (a covered area dotting the hills for hikers to use as shelter) she meets the local laird, Ewan Campbell, who is also the local law. She soon learns her role as doctor takes on many facets, including coroner. I loved all of the characters that were introduced and how the twisty storyline didn't let me know too early who the culprit was.

The first in a new series in The Scottish Isle Mystery series. Dr. Emilia McRoy (Em) has just arrived from Seattle to start over as a small village doctor in Scotland. She had also just learned through an ancestry DNA test that she has some relatives in the area. The town of Sea Isle seems idyllic and yet she soon learns there is many hidden secrets in this small town. She learns her house and doctor practice is in an old church but everything is very modern and she heads down to the pub, she has an encounter with a man named Smithy and he tells she won’t be long but in town and that McRoy’s can’t be trusted but she also learns that Smithy was suspected of killing one of her ancestors over 50 years ago. That same night she takes a walk and it begins to rain so she rushes to the first building she smells blood and finds the dead body of Smithy. As she is getting ready to go find some help someone appears and it turns out to be her new boss the Laird Ewan Campbell who also happens to be mayor and Chief Constable. Em learns she is also supposed to be the coroner and soon she begins to butt heads with Ewan. He just assumes Smithy fell being drunk but Em knows that it is murder. She also is shocked the next morning when the Constable arrives for Smithy’s autopsy and they find the body missing. This starts Em’s investigation into the murder and soon she becomes the target of the murderer as she must be getting closer to the truth. Em soon becomes fast friends with Mara Wilson the granddaughter of the owners of the Pig and Whistle Pub as well as Abigail (her assistant, housekeeper, technician) and her brother Tommy and Angie. To me this was the best part of the story was the relationships that Em develops with the people of the town and how she grows to open herself up to everyone and really wants to do her best as a doctor. This was an enthralling mystery that kept me engaged the entire time and I really am looking forward to what will happen next in this series. Highly recommend.

This was an interesting cozy mystery. Cozy mystery fans will find all the elements they’ve come to love in this book - mystery, secrets, amateur sleuthing, small town community, friendship, and a potential romantic interest. The acceptance and friendships are standouts in this book. The mystery is well done for the most part. There were questions left unanswered during the reveal that i felt should have been dealt with to make the ending a bit more satisfying. The other issue I had was the main character, who is an intelligent professional, withholding information from law enforcement so that she could investigate it herself. I realize this is a typical plot device in many cozy mysteries, but it goes against what should be character in someone who is a doctor. And what’s with all the screaming these women do? That also seems to go against character. Don’t think I didn’t enjoy the book. I did very much. But that doesn’t mean that I loved all aspects and that there’s no need for ways to improve.

This is a nice cozy mystery, but with a lot of characters.

Dr. Emilia moves to Sea Isle in Scotland to be a small town doctor. She is looking for a fresh start, but ends up finding a body.

I liked that the Doc turns into an amateur sleuth,, which can't be any worse that Laird Ewan being on the case. Wow is it a really small town with some secrets.

I liked the overall plot and concepts, but there are so many people in town to keep track of. At least that allows for many potential suspects, whichbI was thrown off for sure. The middle seemed a bit slow, but the last several chapters redeemed the slow part by picking up the pace.

Overall a good classic style, curl up in a blanket type mystery.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.