Author: Meg Macy
Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital Edition
ISBN #: 9781496729170
Kensington Publishing
304 Pages
$15.95; $9.99 Amazon
November 30, 2021
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
It's springtime in Silver Hollow, Michigan, and Sasha is looking forward to the village's inaugural Highland Fling weekend. Plans are underway for a Kilted 5K, athletic competitions, dancing, live music, and even a Hurl-the-Haggis contest. Meanwhile, Sasha's staff is busy crafting custom teddy bears in kilts for the Silver Bear Shop's vendor booth. But trouble's brewing behind the scenes, as the obnoxious Teddy Hartman, former owner of a rival teddy bear company, sows seeds of discord about town, targeting Sasha's family and their business.
Things go from plaid to worse when -- just a week before the festival kicks off -- the disgruntled gossip is found murdered with an ax buried in his back. Sasha's dad is arrested, since he's a champion ax-thrower. But she doesn't give a dram what it looks like -- Sasha knows that despite the old business rivalry with Hartman, her father is innocent. So with a spot of help from her friends, Sasha must bag the real killer before her first Fling also becomes her last.
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Sasha Silverman works at her family's Silver Bear Shop. but while the building is being renovated, she's concentrating more on setting up a vendor booth for their bears at the first Silver Hollow Highland Fling. But something doesn't sit right with one of the town's inhabitants. Teddy Hartman, an ex-rival bear shop owner of Sasha's father, isn't happy with them. He blames them for his business failing, and for the fact that a house he planned to turn into a B&B was sold out from under him to a Scottish family who turned it into a shop of their own. Now he's moved to town and opened a pet shop, but at a booth for the Teddy Trot, he vocalizes his complaints. Things turn nasty when he accuses the town mayor, who happens to be Sasha's mother, of corruption. Then he turns his attentions to Sasha, becoming nasty, which causes Sasha's sister to attack him, and Teddy's wife Lucy's dog to bite Sasha.
After the police arrive, things calm down temporarily. But at the park where they're holding the fling, Teddy and his wife are practicing ax throwing, while Sasha's boyfriend Jay is practicing Caber tossing (Scottish logs as thick as telephone poles) and his brother Nathan accidentally misses, with the log falling toward Teddy, who insists he was attacked intentionally. But the insults don't end there, and even though Sasha is trying to ignore Teddy, she later receives an ominous call from her father to meet him at the park.
It seems her father Alex is a champion ax-thrower, which Sasha never knew. But he, along with his friend Gil, found Teddy's body -- with an ax in his back, and a detective they've dealt with before immediately arrests her father without proof he did the crime. Now it's going to take all Sasha's wits to clear her father, while keeping herself out of the way of the true killer...
This is the fifth book in the series and I have to say that it is my favorite by far. We get to learn a little bit more about Sasha's father's background, and how well-respected he is by everyone. It makes him more human in the series. We also learn that poor Sasha is having a hard time of it behind the scenes, as well, and she's struggling just to keep up with her busy life.
Meanwhile, she's trying to find out who really killed Teddy, but the detective isn't listening to anything she says, since he's made up his mind and that's that. Fortunately, Sasha not only has help from her friends, she also has an unlikely ally in another person she wouldn't have expected to help her at all. It makes for an intriguing mystery that also brings us into the world of the Scots, which is actually a treat.
I don't want to say any more about this book so as not to give anything away, but I will say that while I enjoyed it heartily, I did have a hint about whom the killer might actually be, and there are clues throughout the book. However, none of this tempered my real pleasure at reading this book, as the characters are fun to spend time with; they are lively and believable, and the descriptions of everything around them brings you to the Highland Fling in Silver Hollow.
The resolution of the murder had me grinning at the end, as part of it was quite funny, and also gives us something to look forward to in the next book. Kick off your shoes, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and join Sasha and her family and friends as they solve a murder and enjoy a festival. Highly recommended.
More on Meg Macy's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/meg-macy/
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