What a perfect kind of Christmas story- murder. The combination of mystery, murder, and the spirit of the holidays. The friendships, the country, and the characters bring to you to a place where one would want to go during the Christmas season. The bonus would be to help in discovering the murder.

I really like this series. The setting, the town, the characters are great. I feel as though I’m there also. I can’t help but feel sad though about the killer. #DeathataScottishChristmas #NetGalley

Lucy Connelly has written another wonderful book in the Scottish Isle Mystery series! There are so many things I love about this series, starting with smart, tough and serious protagonist Emilia, who seems to be finding more joy in life in each book. It’s great to have a character who is smart and works with the police (for the most part) and what great constable she has to work with! I also love the community in this series. It is exactly the kind of place I enjoy escaping to when I read a book. It’s small and cozy, people really care about each other, there are interesting characters and a wonderful Scottish setting. I did not figure out the mystery until the characters did and was very surprised. I love it when an author can truly keep me guessing until the end! Lucy Connelly has quickly become an author that any new books she writes go immediately on the top of my To-Be-Read list!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this third book in the Scottish Isle Mystery. The characters are engaging and the mystery kept you doing some guessing. I have really been enjoying this series and hope that it will continue for at least a few more stories.

#DeathataScottishChristmas #NetGalley

This was a cute cozy mystery that is part of a series but I did not have any problem reading this one even though I had not read the others. A American MD who now lives in Scotland as their local MD and also the coroner is on Christmas vacation when a very popular rock star dies . This one kept me guessing until the end . I look forward to reading more by this author.

This is a fast-paced and enjoyable mystery, which keeps you interested. Dr Emilia works in an idyllic Scottish village where she is also the coroner. When a band comes to town and the lead singer is murdered, she has to investigate. There are many twists and turns along the way and Em has to find out whether the killer was a band member or a crazy fan. I thought that the mystery was a bit amateur and I found some of the relationships in the book a bit confusing because I haven’t read the first two books.

However, I really liked the Christmassy setting and the descriptions of the events and festivals in the village. This book certainly makes you want to live in Scotland!

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

From a big city ER doctor to the doctor/coroner of the small community of Sea Isle Scotland, Dr Emilia McRoy is enjoying the change of pace and the feeling of belonging in this close-knit community. Taking a month’s vacation before she starts work, the last thing she expects is to find Bram, the leader of a worldwide famous band dead on the local beach. Having given a community performance the night before, the last thing anybody expected was to find him dead!
Suspects abound but since most are either band mates, friends or locals, along with a few groupies, narrowing the field becomes a battle of wits, not to mention someone trying by harm Emilia while she tries to solve the mysterious death. Has she come too close to the killer without even knowing it? With the help of her friends and the hunky if somewhat grumpy Constable Ewan Campbell Emilia helps find the answer while still enjoying the many traditions of the community during the Christmas season.
I enjoyed this mystery from the setting to the characters and look forward to more books from this author.

This is the first book in this series I have read & I appreciated that some background information was filled in without bogging down the book with it. It felt like just the right amount for me. I liked this book overall, but it did feel a bit twee to me at times. My two biggest frustrations with the book are the confusing timeline (repeated uses of "that night" in conversation when the event being discussed seemingly just happened the night before aka last night) & the lack of follow-up on some of the supposed clues we are given. For instance, there is a character who mentions feeling foggy and weird since arriving in town, the doctor thinks, hmm, better run some blood tests, and then WE NEVER HEAR ABOUT IT AGAIN! I also felt like we lacked sufficient understanding of how & why the crime was committed at the end. I personally want to understand the how & why, even in a cozy mystery. I wasn't quite satisfied with who the murderer ended up being.

So what did I enjoy? I enjoyed the setting & the town events that took place. It felt Christmas-y without being over the top. I mostly liked what I think are the main & recurring characters, though I agree with another review I saw that the closeness of the friendships seems a bit over the top for the amount of time they have known each other. While this series probably won't be my first choice for a cozy to read, I could see myself reading another.

Thanks to NetGalley & Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Death at a Scottish Christmas, the third installment of the Scottish Isle mystery series by Lucy Connelly is a brilliantly crafted cozy mystery made all the more cozy by being set at Christmas in the small town of Sea Isle in the Scottish highlands.
Dr. Emilia McRoy is perhaps the most believable of amateur sleuths I've come across, as she actually has a right to be involved in investigations in her position as town coroner. With her fish-out-of-water portrayal as an American in a foreign land, is heartwarming, as is her relationship with the wide variety of patients and friends she has accumulated around her. The setting comes alive thanks to Connelly's skillful descriptions that not once come over as heavy, and the mystery of who killed the Scottish rock star and native son is complex and keeps you turning the pages.
The inclusion of various seasonal celebrations from different cultures is a nice touch, giving depth to this 'Christmas' mystery.
I am so glad that #NetGalley has introduced me to a new favourite #cozy author by providing me with the ARC of #DeathataScottishChristmas. I will definitely be looking to read more from this author!

Absolutely delightful cozy mystery. The holidays can be deadly when people gather together. Intrepid doctor has her hands full when the bodies start dropping and the temperature plummets. Curl up with a hot chocolate and a warm blanket for a cozy read of murder and music.

I enjoyed this fun Christmas mystery. Christmas books are one of my favorites and this one did not disappoint. It kept me guessing until the end on who did it. My one wish is that it had more Christmas in it. The Christmas portions seemed to bit just thrown in.

Like in the previous book, the Scottish décor really makes for a good piece of escapism. The Christmas atmosphere is sprinkled all over the book, it's quite subtle. I would have loved more Christmas spirit, but the investigation, a good one with much suspense, did take a lot of place. Overall, a good entertaining read. Looking forward to the next one.

theft, musicians, music-idol, cultural-differences, cultural-exploration, coroner, Scotland, local-law-enforcement, medical-doctor, medical-examiner, ex-pat, suspense, investigations, amateur-sleuth, relationships, friends, friendship, series, murder, not-TTS-enabled*****

Dr. Emilia McRoy, burned out working ER in the US but is now the MD and coroner for a small remote Scottish town which is the responsibility of Constable Ewan Campbell who is also a barrister and laird.
The murder is that of a member of a prominent band which happens immediately after their gig at the castle, but there are so many secrets and lies that the investigation gets tangled in knots. All of the characters are so clearly portrayed I could recognize them in the dark.
I requested and received a free temporary advance reader's copy uncorrected e-proof from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. THANK YOU but next time make in TTS enabled so it doesn't hurt to read!
#ScottishIsleMysteryBk3 Pub Date Oct 15, 2024

A great addition to an incredible series! Wonderful characters in an incredible setting. This book will keep you guessing until the end.

What a wonderful holiday! The insights into Doc's past are timed helpfully and quickly so as to not bog down the story or have a repeat reader skimming over them. I definitely want more of Sea Isle and hopefully, more of Ewan and Em finding their feelings for each other. A few times I forgot what Doc's name is (Em) because everyone, including, her dear friends addressed her as such.
The way the author writes dialog should be studied by other authors because I can "hear" the Scottish accent of most of the characters. The whole thing was a wonderful holiday who-done-it. I was totally engrossed in the story that I finished it in a day

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an eARC for this book!

Death at a Scottish Christmas is a murder mystery set in a small(?) Scottish village, and only the doctor cum coroner can put the pieces together to solve the whodunit. When a Scottish band comes home to Sea Isle to perform one last concert before heading off on a tour of the States, everyone seems to be excited. But when the lead singer of the band turns up dead the following morning, the whole town is on edge. Is there a killer amongst them?

I really wanted to give this book a higher rating, since I love all things Scottish, and have traveled there extensively. So there were a few things that threw me out of the story in regards to how Connelly writes the Scottish countryside. Especially with the mention of a cathedral in said "small" Scottish village. I can handle a bit of suspension of disbelief, but that was a stretch too far for me, as usually cathedrals are built in larger city centres (think Edinburgh, which has three (for Catholicism, Episopalianism, and Church of Scotland (though that's now referred to as a high kirk).

And it didn't make matters better that we had a thin mystery, with the inclusion of a brash DI who is intent on blaming the local constable of murder based on a never explained history that she has with him. I get having red herrings in mysteries, it's par for the course, but to just let that thread dangle without further explanation of what the beef was got annoying. I also think that I figured out who the killer was too early in the story, thought that it couldn't be that obvious, and then turned out to be correct. *sigh*

Also, another petty point - there are FAR more Scottish musical groups/singers than just the Proclaimers. There's Lewis Capaldi, The Eves, Barbara Dickson, and Texas, to name the few that come right to mind. If you're going to write about Scottish culture, maybe do some of that research that you claim to love and find out more about Scottish music?

3.75 stars

A strong entry in the series featuring American E.R. Dr. Emilia McRoy, who relocated to a small isolated town in Scotland to be the town physician. She was fleeing burnout, emergency room stress, a failed marriage and more.

She is a strong personality with take-charge tendencies and she clashed immediately with the local laird, Ewan Campbell. They have come to know and respect each other through the series, but they are both hard-headed and stubborn and still go toe-to-toe frequently.

Dr. McRoy supposedly has a whole month off during Christmas and is looking forward to getting involved in some local holiday events and activities. A fairly famous band with some local roots is coming to town to do a soft unveiling for their upcoming mega tour. But a band member is found dead after their concert. Was it suicide due to increasing health problems? Or was it murder?

Ewan has equipped their tiny town with state of the art medical equipment including MRIs, labs, and all kinds of diagnostic gear. so McRoy and her super competent trainee are able to sift through a lot of information. The surviving band members are less than forthcoming and matters are complicated when an investigator from Edinburgh arrives to take charge.

There is a nice ensemble cast of local friends and business owners and it's interesting to see McRoy and Campbell soften toward each other. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

First and foremost, I just want to say that this is the earliest I have ever read a Christmas story. Reading a Christmas story about a blizzard that covers a car in minutes in July when the temps are reaching the 100-degree mark is just so incredibly weird. Anyway, the gangs all back for this third installment: Dr Em and her BF’s Mara and Abigail as well as Constable Ewan and his merry band of men down at the police station.

The books summary just basically introduces the primary storyline of the death of the lead singer and songwriter, Bram, for a famous Scottish band on the cusp of going international. What the book summary doesn’t say is that Bram was harboring some pretty serious secrets from the band as well as the fans and general public. Furthermore, the reason Ewan became a suspect is because there was some bad history between Ewan and Bram; Bram slept with Ewan’s girlfriend back in college. Bram is from Sea Isle too. Also, since Ewan is a suspect, an outside Inspector, Bethany, is brought in and it certainly doesn’t help Ewan’s situation that there are also some bad feelings between Ewan and Bethany.

Most of the story revolves around the investigation of Bram’s death, especially once some of Bram’s secrets come to light. Dr Em (as well as myself) zero in on one particular person. Additionally, while I’m not going to call this a storyline, however, it’s revealed that Dr Em has a stalker, and it leads to some creepy scenes for Dr Em. As I mentioned before, there are the requisite snowstorms and blizzards and freezing temps to add to the complications of the investigation. Deep in the second half, as the dead bodies begin to stack up in Dr Em’s makeshift morgue freezer. The storylines begin to merge and it’s a twisty turn of events to the end that comes pretty quickly after that in a very scary scene for Dr Em.

The continuing character development of the MC’s was well done. The pacing for this short story was steady and the storyline was interesting and engrossing. Once again, found myself staying up way past my bedtime on a work night chanting “one more chapter” because I simply didn’t want to put the story down. The writing was entertaining and the ending was well done, especially the final scene that I’m sure was a lead-in to the next installment. Good endings are a big thing for me. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.1 that I will be rounding down to a 4star rating.

I want to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #CrookedLaneBooks #DeathataScottishChristmas

I have become a huge Lucy Connelly fan. The Scottish Isle mysteries are certainly a favorite of mine. Death at a Scottish Christmas did not disappoint. This cozy mystery is the third novel in this series, and by now I feel like Em, Ewan, Tommy and Abigail, and Mara and Jasper and Angie and Damion have become old friends. I love the characters and location, and the detailed descriptions. I can easily visualize the small shops and the pub, which remind me of every small village I have visited in Scotland. Sea Isle is lovely location and the descriptions capture small village life so well.

Connelly does a nice job with character development and with structuring her plots. The band members, who have the central guest role in Death at a Scottish Christmas, are well-defined and easy to visualize. Connelly's characters come to life so well that it is easy for readers to care about them and the lives they touch. Even the guilty character is sympathetic and so sad.

Thank you to Connelly, publisher Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC. I really enjoyed reading this novel and I am recommending.

This was a tricky puzzle as they got, Em and the constable found a lot of dead ends, but their determination didn’t waver.
No matter how tangled and impossible things looked they were determined to solve the case. Em was sharp in this, her sleuthing skills were well honed, it’s a pity she was so clueless about the constable’s feelings towards her. It was an enjoyable and engaging read.