Book Review: Murder at the Loch by Dee MacDonald

 Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Bookoutre Press via #Netgalley for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.

Meet Ally McKinley: dog lover, guesthouse owner and accidental detective, as she tackles her next case in the beautiful Scottish Highlands!

Synopsis:

Recent retiree Ally McKinley has stepped out with her puppy Flora for a walk by the loch in the tiny village of Locharran, taking a break from running the cosiest little guesthouse in the Highlands. But Ally’s peace and quiet is sunk when she and Flora find the body of a mysterious woman floating in the water…

Before she knows it, Ally finds herself wading into the middle of a new investigation. Who was the mystery woman and why was she killed? Her enquiries take her all over the village: from the corner shop and the nearby hotel to the turreted castle, home of local earl Hamish Sinclair where preparations are underway for his upcoming – and much gossiped about – wedding.

The body in the loch soon has the rumour mills buzzing. But then Elena, the earl’s new bride, is also found poisoned to death the morning after her marriage! With two deaths to investigate, the police appear to suspect almost everyone in Locharran, even Ally herself…

Determined to uncover the truth and clear her name, Ally finds poison at the home of one of her suspects and thinks she might be on the right path to solving both murders. But with a killer on the loose in the Scottish Highlands, can Ally unravel the clues before the next person in a watery grave is her?

REVIEW:

This is book 2 in the series, and proves that a Sophomore effort can really work if the author keeps true to the charm she gave her characters in the first book. Ally is coming more into her own, as an independent business owner and single woman. She is happy and content with her guest house and village, and new friends. But then she doubles the murder spree in the village by being the quintessential dog walker who finds a body. before she can get over that, tongues are wagging over her jealousy over the Earl's new fiancée.But when it appears that the Earl has too many suspicious things happening around him, Ally feel like she has to help, only the killer wants her out of the way. A fun page turner, this  cozy hits all the markers to keep the series bounding on!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The Runaway Wife is Dee’s first (published) novel but in fact she wrote her very first book - at around seven years of age! This was a love story which she duly illustrated before sewing all the pages together up one side. Writing was what she ‘was good at’ in school and she won several essay competitions, but then life got in the way and she didn’t pick up a pen again until after retirement.

Dee left Scotland and headed for London at the beginning of the swinging sixties. After typing her way round the West End she became an air stewardess on long haul routes with BA (then BOAC) for eight years. After that she did market research at Heathrow for both the government statistics and for BA, she became a sales rep., and was the receptionist at the Thames Television Studios in Teddington, when they had the franchise.

She then ran a small B&B for ten years in Cornwall, where she lives with her husband. Dee has one son and two grandsons who live locally.

Dee has now written eight novels, the most recent being A Body at the Tearooms (the third in the Kate Palmer crime series). The next Ally McKinley novel will be published later this year.

You can find Dee on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/dee.macdonald.18659

and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DMacDonaldAuth