Multi-award-winning author Catriona McPherson starts her new humorous series off with a bang. Literally. Her character is hiding in a closet during fireworks in Scot Free. And, those fireworks explode in Lexy’s life throughout the book.

Lexy Campbell followed her American boyfriend from Scotland to California. She married him, started a marriage counseling practice, and six months later, divorced the cheater, and is heading home. She has one last session before she leaves, with the sweet old Bombaros. But, it’s the police who dig Lexy out of the closet where she’s hiding on the Fourth of July. Mr. Bombaro is in the morgue. Mrs. Bombaro is in jail, under suspicion of blowing up her husband.

Lexy can’t let that sweet old lady rot in jail. She cosigns for the bond, and then realizes she’ll need to find the killer. Lexy’s watched enough detective shows. But, she was heading back to Scotland, and now she needs a place to stay. The Last Ditch Motel is just down the street from the police station. And, the eccentric residents and owners are just the supportive friends Lexy needs in this time of crisis. It’s just that there seems to be as many crises at the motel than in Mrs. Bombaro’s life. Whether it’s an invasion of bugs or an invasion of relatives, Lexy, with her language barrier, manages to confuse everything.

The cast of characters from the Last Ditch Motel make this mystery shine. They’re larger-than-life, exaggerated, and, just wonderful. The book takes me back to the days of early Evanovich when exploding cars and the cast of characters was funny. McPherson introduces her own charming sleuth with a quirky group of friends in this new romp, Scot Free.


Catriona McPherson’s website is www.catrionamcpherson.com

Scot Free: The Lighter Side of the Dark Underbelly of the California Dream by Catriona McPherson. Midnight Ink, 2018. ISBN 9780738753867 (paperback), 288p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book to review for a journal.