Fateful Words: A Scottish Bookshop Mystery by Paige Shelton

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Fateful Words by Paige Shelton

Edwin, the owner of the Cracked Spine bookstore in Edinburgh, leaves town quickly for some secret business. This leaves his second in command, Delaney, in charge of the bookshop just as a group arrives for Edwin's highly regarded book-related holiday tours.  Delaney is a bit out of her comfort zone as she hasn't run one of these tours before and now must scramble to figure out all the locations plus manage some unique guests.  Just as she meets with the tour group, the inn manager falls to his death from the top of the inn where the group is lodging. To complicate matters further, one of the tour guests subsequently disappears, and Delaney is also still trying to figure out where Edwin has gone.

I liked that the action picked up quickly in this book, which made it a quick read with lots of twists and turns in the plot. This is the first book in the Scottish book shop series by Paige Shelton that I have read.  Despite this being the 8th book in the series, I didn't find it difficult to jump into the story as you don't need to have a lot of background on the characters to enjoy the mystery.  I especially liked the location and how the historical and literary connections are woven into the story (i.e., the concept of the book-related tour).

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC copy of Fateful Words. It was a great weekend read.

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