The Burning Pages: A Scottish Bookshop Mystery

At the start of bestseller Shelton’s engrossing seventh Scottish Bookshop mystery (after 2021’s Deadly Editions), solicitor Clarinda Creston invites American Delaney Nichols, who works at the Cracked Spine bookshop, to the annual dinner in honor of Scottish poet Robert Burns held at Edinburgh’s House of Burns. When Delaney asks whether she can bring a friend, Clarinda somewhat grudgingly says she can. Wary that Clarinda has a hidden agenda, Delaney asks her coworker Hamlet, who resembles “a young Shakespeare,” to accompany her to the event, where their presence seems to unsettle some attendees, one of whom leaves in anger. After dinner, a fire erupts at the House of Burns that leads to the discovery of a dead body. When Hamlet falls under suspicion of arson, Delaney determines to find the truth and clear his name. Readers may have trouble following Delaney’s reasoning as she jumps from one extreme conclusion to another, but the alluring Edinburgh setting and the camaraderie Delaney and friends display as they try to solve the crime more than compensate. Cozy fans will be enchanted. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Apr.)