The Corpse Wore Tartan

Liss is helping out her aunt Margaret, the new events coordinator at The Spruces hotel, by acting as liaison to the Scottish Heritage Appreciation Society for their Robbie Burns Day dinner.

The job is definitely a challenge, as the SHAS representatives that she is dealing with (Phil MacMillan, his wife Eunice and his identical twin brother Phineas) are all exceptionally unpleasant people.

The melodrama begins when Phil complains that his clan brooch was stolen from his room, and local police officer Sherri Willett arrives to investigate. Coincidentally, Sherri is accompanied by her fiancé Pete Campbell who happens to be an off-duty County Sherriff's deputy.

Before dinner, SHAS president Phineas gives his opening address, which seems more show more like a roast than a toast, as he makes several none-too-subtle digs at the other members. So it's not a big surprise when Phineas is found later that night in a basement storage room, with his throat slit.

Since the hotel has been isolated by a severe blizzard that has cut power and phone lines and closed the roads, the guests and staff are forced to remain in the building, allowing the author to concoct a locked-house mystery. Dunnett does this very well drawing believable characters and situations.

Lovers of traditional mysteries rejoice! show less

Members of a Scottish heritage society gather at The Spruces for their annual Burns Night Supper in honor of the birth of Scottish poet Robert Burns. A winter storm strands both guests and staff in the hotel without electricity, landlines, cell phones, or radio communication with the outside. Then the body of one of the guests is discovered. He had antagonized plenty of his fellow guests since their arrival at the hotel. Liss MacCrimmon and her friends are on their own. Will they be able to identify the guilty party before the weather improves enough to allow the murderer to escape?

This cozy mystery was a little better than average. While the hotel setting is frequently used by cozy authors, the occasion was unusual. Many of the clues show more are connected to the Scottish theme. Liss suffers from the frequent tendency of cozy heroines to meddle where they have no business meddling, but she isn't as annoying as many. I do wish that her friend Sherri, a police officer, had a central role in the series instead of being a supporting character. Her character has potential, and, unlike Liss, she actually has a good reason for investigating crime. Recommended, especially for cozy fans with Scottish heritage. show less

Don't you just love this cover? Oooooo! Cozy mystery in the classic sense...everyone is trapped in a big old hotel in a snowstorm that shows no sign of letting up, communication is lost with the outside world, and there's a dead body in the basement and it's....murder.
I will be looking for the rest of this series. I didn't feel like I'd missed anything by reading the fourth in the series before any of the others. It did whet my curiosity for the next in the series as well as starting at the beginning to see how everyone gets introduced. There are some interesting characters living in a place I want to visit or live. I really want to meet Liss and Dan and see this grand hotel and shop at the Scottish Emporium. That's a nifty thing when show more the author makes me want to live in the book.
Five when do we leave for Moosetookalook beans.... show less

This is the first novel I've read in the Liss MacCrimmon Mystery series although it is the author's fourth. In this installment, members of the Scottish Heritage Appreciation Society along with most of the hotel staff and a few of the townspeople are snowed into the Spruces hotel in Moosetookalook, Maine. (You've got to love the town's name.) Even a local police officer and a member of the sheriff's department are among those caught by the blizzard as they've come to investigate a theft. It's not long before a body is found. When I first began this novel, I thought it was possible that I was going to find yet another novel using the Agatha Christie plot of "And Then There Was None," but I was pleasantly surprised to find much less show more similarity than I expected considering the circumstances. This was a quite enjoyable read for a somewhat snowy day. I enjoyed the main characters enough to want to go back and read the rest of the series. This review is based on a LibraryThing Early Reviewer copy received with the expectation that a review would be written. show less

The Corpse Wore Tartan (Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries, #4) by Kaitlyn Dunnett

The Scottish Heritage Appreciation Society comes to Moosetookalook, Maine to honor a Scottish Poet. A blizzard hits just as a body is found in the Hotel. Tempers have flared, arguments and resentments among the group make for many possible suspects. Liss and Sherri are on the case before more lives are in danger.

The story moves at a steady pace with the classic who-done-it style. The characters are well developed, Liss is very likable as is Sherri. There is plenty of drama, secrets and suspects as well as a splash of romance and a wee bit of humor. Overall I found The Corpse Wore Tartan very enjoyable and feel those who love a great cozy murder mystery will enjoy show more it as well. show less

The Corpse Wore Tartan (Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries, #4) by Kaitlyn Dunnett

The Scottish Heritage Appreciation Society comes to Moosetookalook, Maine to honor a Scottish Poet. A blizzard hits just as a body is found in the Hotel. Tempers have flared, arguments and resentments among the group make for many possible suspects. Liss and Sherri are on the case before more lives are in danger.

The story moves at a steady pace with the classic who-done-it style. The characters are well developed, Liss is very likable as is Sherri. There is plenty of drama, secrets and suspects as well as a splash of romance and a wee bit of humor. Overall I found The Corpse Wore Tartan very enjoyable and feel those who love a great cozy murder mystery will enjoy show more it as well. show less

Liss MacCrimmon is back with more Scottish fun in this mystery featuring a house party murder theme. In this installment it just so happens that the Scottish Heritage Appreciation Society (SHAS) has booked The Spruces hotel for it's annual event, The Burns Night Supper. Liss' new responsibility to act as a liaison between SHAS and the hotel seems simple enough at first. However, when a pricey brooch goes missing and a major snowstorm hits the town of Mootookalook, Maine, things start to heat up. Just when it seems that things couldn't get any worse, the owner of the missing brooch meets with an unexplained death.

With everyone trapped inside the hotel, Liss and her friends must track down the killer before someone else gets hurt, or show more worse...killed. Author Kaitlyn Dunnett does a fine job of teasing the reader with plenty of twists and turns in this charming whodunit; there's even a little bit of romance in the air.

The Bottom Line: "The Corpse Wore Tartan" is the fourth installment of the Liss MacCrimmon Scottish Mysteries series. While some mystery fans like to read the books in order, one can easily pick up this book and not feel lost; Dunnett includes plenty of background information to bring the reader up-to-date. While the pacing of this story could have been improved (the beginning was a bit slow and the ending a bit fast), this installment is nonetheless a delightful, weekend read. Fans of cozy mysteries will adore Liss and all her comrades. Enthusiastically recommended for mystery lovers and those who love all things Scottish. show less