A Double Death on the Black Isle

In Scott's solid second suspense novel set in 1950s Scotland (after A Small Death in the Great Glen), Joanne Ross, newly promoted from typist to full-time reporter at the Highland Gazette, finds herself writing about two tragic stories connected to an old friend, Patricia Ord Mackenzie, who has alienated her upper-class family by marrying a fishing boat captain, Alexander "Sandy" Skinner. On the same day that Sandy plummets fatally over a waterfall, Fraser Munro, the rebellious adult son of Patricia's family servants, is found dead on a county road. Two teenage Travelers, a nomadic, discriminated-against group, are charged with manslaughter for Fraser's death, while Sandy's fall is quickly explained away as an accident. Readers willing to forgive slow pacing and some unresolved story points should enjoy Scott's careful attention to creating characters who convincingly belong to a past era's attitudes and values. (Sept.)