Ho-Ho-Homicide

At the outset of Dunnett’s enjoyable eighth Liss MacCrimmon Scottish mystery (after 2013’s Vampires, Bones, and Treacle Stones), old high school friend Gina Snowe asks Liss to check out the Christmas tree farm that Gina recently inherited. As the owner of the Moosetookalook, Maine, Scottish Emporium, Liss feels qualified to judge whether the farm has a viable future. With husband Dan, she turns the trip into a pre-Christmas break, but the two soon realize that a pall hangs over the farm. Seven years before, a body was found in a shipment to New York, and the farm’s owner disappeared. The engaging, level-headed Liss starts asking questions and raising police hackles. Could she and Dan be involved in solving a seven-year-old murder case? While the dynamic between Liss and Dan lacks spark, Dunnett (the pseudonym of Kathy Lynn Emerson) skillfully uses misdirection to keep the reader guessing to the end. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Nov.)