The Cracked Spine

After losing her job, Delaney takes a leap of faith and move to Scotland to work in a bookshop. She hardly has a chance to settle in before tragedy strikes the shop’s owner: his sister is murdered, and a priceless portfolio of a work by Shakespeare goes missing. Delaney takes it upon herself to try to solve this murder, even though she is not a detective. If readers can get past this illogical chain of events that led Delaney from being a reporter in America to being an amateur detective in Scotland, then you can enjoy this story. The mystery is a bit weak, or maybe it’s just simple, but the characters are interesting and the overall novel is entertaining.

Author Paige Shelton takes many a book lover's dream-- moving to the UK and working in a bookshop-- and weaves it into a first-rate beginning of a new series. Through Delaney, she does an excellent job of portraying an American's culture shock in the ancient city of Edinburgh: driving on the "wrong" side of the road, the narrow streets, the incredibly old buildings everywhere, and the accents and friendliness of the Scottish people.

But the cultural differences aren't the only reason to devour The Cracked Spine. Delaney is an intriguing blend of intelligence and naïveté, and she's surrounded by an excellent secondary cast. The scarf-wearing Rosie with her little dog Hector always in tow. Handsome and charming Tom from across the show more street. Her landlords Elias and his wife. Detective Inspector Winters. And with all the treasures he's collected in The Cracked Spine's storeroom and his disorganized, mad professorish ways, Edwin MacAlister should be the source for many a future mystery.

Speaking of mysteries, the one in The Cracked Spine is a good'un. I didn't have a clue to the killer's identity, which always gives me a thrill. There were a couple of tiny things that made me raise an eyebrow: Delaney's finding her cottage was a bit too fortuitous, and I didn't quite believe her willingness to investigate Jenny's death, but they in no way ruined my enjoyment of the book. On the contrary-- I can't wait for the next installment! show less

I thoroughly enjoyed Paige Shelton's Dangerous Type Mystery Series, so I couldn't wait to begin the Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series, and I'm happy I did.

I don't know any reader that has experienced the descriptions of Scotland as written in the novels by Rosamunde Pilcher that isn't fascinated by the prospect of more wonderful stories in this setting and now delightfully by a cozy mystery author. According to the author's website,

"Kansas born and bred laid-off museum archivist Delaney Nichols answers an ad for a position with a rare and used book and manuscript shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her new life across the ocean is full of adventure, mystery, and a touch of romance with a pub owner who looks amazing in a kilt."

My favorite aunt show more and uncle lived in Fowler, Kansas (approximately 40 minutes south and west of Dodge City) for the last years of their lives, so I visited them multiple times. My aunt loved to visit Wichita for her clothes shopping expeditions, so my aunt, uncle, and I shared several multi-day excursions. After my uncle's death, my aunt and I then decided to go to celebrate shared memories and create our own treasury of adventures. Regardless of where we were, I was constantly introduced as either the niece from the East Coast or the niece from Pennsylvania as though I was from the other side of the world. In reading this cozy mystery, the delight of having Delaney being introduced as "Delaney Nichols from Kansas in America" to everyone in her new locale in Edinburgh made me smile every time. It was fun to learn their reactions and Delaney's reactions to the Scottish accent, vehicles driven on the left side of the road, the new foods, men in kilts, and particularly a confident, handsome pub owner. I loved the individuality of new boss Edwin MacAlister, new coworkers Hamlet, Rosie, and Rosie's dog Hector which also makes Delaney feel part of "The Cracked Spine" bookshop family. To have Delaney become embroiled in helping to solve a murder investigation while just beginning her new job in a new country makes for an exciting opening of a new cozy mystery series by a favorite author.

I can't wait to read more titles in this series! show less

Normally I like cozy mysteries when I'm looking for a quick, light read, but this was a slog. The story had a lot of potential. The blurb sounded interesting and quirky. Ultimately, however, the author failed to deliver. This read a lot like a first draft. Everything was underdeveloped. It seems like Shelton had a lot of ideas, but didn't know what to do with them. What seemed like mysterious elements at the beginning-Delaney's "bookish voices," the "dark side" of the book shop, the strange auction she attends-don't actually add anything to the story. Even the murder mystery feels like an afterthought at times. Delaney decides to start investigating the murder almost as soon as she hears about it, though it's never really clear what her show more motivation is. This is one of many things Delaney does that lacks any sense of purpose, something made more noticeable by her frequently thinking "I don't know what made me do that." Most of the focus of the book is less on the mystery and more on the novelty of Scotland as seen through Delaney's eyes. She makes trips to several tourist spots as part of her sleuthing, but they don't contribute anything to her efforts and seem more like the author's attempts to wedge in as many Edinburgh landmarks as possible. And Shelton wants to make it very clear that the book is set in Scotland. In addition to Delaney commenting on every difference she sees between America and Scotland-some of them repeatedly-the author seems to have confused dialect with accent. Every single piece of dialogue with a Scottish character is filled with phonetic spellings. The "taes" and "aboots" wear thin fast, especially since Delaney describes every accent and comments on the degree to which she can understand it. Since all but two characters are Scottish, this happens a lot. With all of this to wade through, I really didn't care who the villain was by the time I got to the end. Overall, this book needed a few more revisions and a more critical editor. show less

This is the first in a (currently) 8 book series. I just finished #8 – Fateful Words, which was my introduction to this series. I liked it well enough to go back and see where it all began. It had all the good things – a bookshop, a mystery, a plucky heroine, and it takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland!

Despite the good things, it felt like the author was writing from a checklist. The things that bothered me and left me rating it 2.5 stars: As the book is set in Scotland it is a given that the local characters will speak with an accent. But writing the words with the dialect was distracting, and I found myself translating repeatedly, which caused me to lose the story’s momentum. Also, I had trouble accepting Delaney as the plucky show more heroine who comes to Scotland because she answered the bookshop’s ad. Throughout the novel Delaney remarks on how she’s just a meek and mild girl from Kansas. Yet not only does she move halfway across the world where she knows no one and is unfamiliar with the culture, but she takes it upon herself to investigate the murder of her employer’s sister even though she’s never been an amateur sleuth before. And Delaney hadn't met the sister, and barely knows her boss, who is a quirky mysterious older man who keeps secrets. And here’s the trope of a heroine who puts herself in danger even when warned repeatedly not to go there/do that.

Another irritant – her first day in Scotland she meets a hunky pub owner (who often wears a kilt) and who is known as a womanizer. But now that he’s met Delaney and she is attracted to him, he immediately becomes monogamous.

I think if I had started with this book instead of #8, I probably wouldn’t have continued to read more of this series. It’s just OK, if you can overlook the items listed above. Here's my 4-star review of Fateful Words: https://www.librarything.com/work/28701823/reviews/230382874 show less

4.5 rounded up actually.

I recently finished The Cracked Spine which is the first book in the Scottish Bookshop series by Paige Shelton and it was fantastic! I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to read more by her!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I picked it up to read from my library a couple of months ago, but other books came in that had holds on them and I got several books for blog tours and such so it sat there for a bit. Then, I got approval to review the second book in the series, Of Books & Bagpipes, which comes out April 4th, so I knew I needed to get to this one. I was not disappointed in the least!

This book came very close to getting 5 stars, but it just didn't have that extra pizzazz that I like to feel with a 5-star book. show more Even still, it was excellent and delightful!

These characters are fun, loving, and down-to-earth. They're believable and yet well-developed and complex. I'm absolutely thrilled that for at least this first book, we didn't start off with a love triangle! Sometimes that gets really old in cozy mysteries. Here, our main character, Delaney is only dating one man (yay!).

The plot line in this book moved along quite smoothly and quickly. Not so fast that I couldn't keep up, but there certainly weren't any slow parts in my opinion. I had no idea as far as who the villain was until the end when they are revealed. I was trying to put the clues together, but I just didn't have any idea, which I like!

The descriptions of the settings were wonderful. This is probably one instance when I wouldn't mind more description instead of less. Scotland's at the top of my "travel to someday" list, so I greedily soak up any and all descriptions I read about Scotland, Edinburgh, and everything Scottish! If this book was set in any other locale, I might have felt the descriptions were a little too much, but being that it's Scotland, I'll take any and all descriptions given!

The only thing I didn't really care for is that Delaney seems to be one of those heroines who just has to know it all and figure it all out, even if that means putting herself into harm's way far more often than she should. I liked that Elias was determined that she wouldn't go alone, but I kind of prefer a heroine who doesn't rush head-long into danger all the time.

Other than that, this is a fantastic book and you should read it! show less

Pretty far-fetched. Delaney, a rare books expert who hails from Kansas, had just arrived in Scotland a matter of hours when she was investigating the murder of her new boss's sister, someone she had never met. More surprising was that not one person told her to bugger off with her nosy questions. My version was an audiobook read with an excruciating Scottish accent. And someone should tell Shelton that it's Scotch whisky, never Scottish. She made a point of using the local terms for everything else except this one. Thin plot and poor characters in what appeared to be a promising cosy mystery.