Reviewed: 09 October 2023

The Poison Pen

by: Paige Shelton

A Scottish Bookshop Mystery - Book 9

Rating: (4/5)

Queen Elizabeth II, a sword and Delaney solving the mystery, what more could you want?!

Edwin’s colorful past again comes into play as he involves Delaney in a new mystery. An old friend reaches out, wanting him to come see what they’ve found at their home. Edwin sends Delaney, who not yet comfortable driving, gets a ride from her friend Elias. Upon arrival they meet a long, lost friend of his. While there, they of course, encounter a murder.

Throughout this series, Delaney has had what they call her bookish voices that help to guide her as she solves the mysteries and researches the history of the items that they come across. In this story the ninth of the series her bookish voices are replaced with Queen Elizabeth, who has just recently passed at the start of the story. During the car trips and on tv, several tributes are played that stick with Delaney.

Delaney has fully embraced her new life with her new husband, Tom, and the family that she’s created in her new home of Scotland. This leads to her being affected more deeply by the Queen’s passing than she may have been if she had been living in the States.

At several points in the story, the murder seemed to take a backseat to the mystery surrounding the find. There are a lot of familial ties and types of families explored. I wonder if that means there’s a new family on the horizon for Delaney and husband Tom (maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part).

I like that Delaney has learned a few lessons from her earlier mystery solving, and kept her family up-to-date on her movements. Due to the distance to/from the murder scene, Delaney was away from the bookshop more than she was there.

While there was a resolution to the mystery (I was surprised!) I still felt like a couple of things were left open. Though not enough, where you felt like there was a cliffhanger or anything that took you out of the enjoyment of the story. Just for my own personal satisfaction I felt like there were a couple of minor things that were left unresolved.

I love the way that the current-day relevancy to the recent passing of the Queen and the tie-in with the historical nature of what the Crooked Spine does was woven together.

I am looking forward to what comes next for Delaney and her Crooked Spine family.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the opportunity to do an early read and share my thoughts on the story.

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 23-April-2024

Cozy Mystery, Female Sleuth, NetGalley, Book Shop Mystery

Plot Summary

The ninth installment in the cozy mystery series by Paige Shelton and featuring amateur sleuth Delaney Nichols, set in a specialty bookshop in Edinburgh called The Cracked Spine.

Edinburgh is mourning recent the death of Queen Elizabeth II when Bookseller Delaney Nichols's boss comes to her with a most unusual assignment. An old friend of his, living in an estate in the village of Roslin, has found what could be a priceless relic on her property, and Delaney is tasked with investigating. Could Jolie possibly have an item of breathtaking Scottish historical significance in her possession? But when Delaney arrives at Jolie's estate, she is greeted by a legal team with a vested interest in the property. Jolie manages to remove the interlopers, but as they're examining the priceless item, they hear a scream, and meet a much less welcome discovery: a body.

As Delaney digs deeper, she discovers Jolie's own fascinating history. Jolie's mother had long claimed that her daughter was the rightful heir to the throne, not Elizabeth II, because of an affair she claimed to have with King Edward VIII. The only evidence, however, is in the form of a purported journal that one of Edward’s secretaries kept. The puzzles become more confusing when a connection is uncovered between this far-fetched story and the murdered man. Delaney will have to read between the lines to put together the pieces...or become history herself.