X Marks the Scot

At the outset of Dunnett’s well-paced 11th Scottish mystery (after 2016’s Kilt at the Highland Games), Liss Ruskin (née MacCrimmon), the owner of the Scottish Emporium in Moosetookalook, Maine, successfully bids for an 18th-century portrait of a bagpiper at an auction held at the Chadwick mansion. When Liss drops the painting while loading it into her car, the wooden backing breaks, revealing what appears to be a treasure map behind the canvas. Research reveals that the map has a link to the Chadwick family in Canada, where Liss and her indomitable aunt, Margaret, soon travel to hunt for Scottish items for the emporium and for possible treasure. The stakes rise when the women call on the town historian of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, at the Chadwick Historical and Genealogical Society and find him murdered. Those expecting local maritime-province color will be disappointed; on the other hand, Dunnett plays fair with the reader, dropping clues to the killer’s identity along the way to the surprising denouement. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Dec.)