Scot in a Trap

February 1, 2022
As pandemic shutdowns loom, the germophobe owner of the Last Ditch Motel in Cuento, California, announces to the motley crew of permanent residents that she is closing the motel. Scottish-born therapist Lexy Campbell, who lives on a houseboat moored on the nearby slough, convinces the owner it would be safer to fill the motel with those needing a safe place to shelter in place. The vacant rooms are quickly filled, but shortly thereafter, a threatening sign is hung on the motel fence, demanding that one of the new guests be forced to leave. Molly, a detective sergeant at the Cuento PD and one of the motel's new residents, fears trouble, and she's on the mark. When Blaine, another of the new guests, is found murdered, two investigations begin: Molly's official one and the remaining residents' gossipy, informal one. The murder is solved as each of the residents contributes a piece of the puzzle, with numerous misconceptions and side plots. The banter among the various characters will draw Janet Evanonvich fans to this engaging, not-quite-a-locked-room mystery.

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December 1, 2022
Therapist Lexy Campbell, originally from Scotland, is now living in Cuento, California, on a houseboat moored near the rundown Last Ditch Motel occupied by her close-knit group of quirky friends. After Lexy finds her former college boyfriend, Menzies Lassiter, who dumped her, dead in his motel room, she quickly becomes a suspect in his murder. Lexy is unwilling to tell her friends or police detective Molly Rankinson the truth about the breakup, but she investigates while trying to determine why a woman is asking about her around town and why Menzies came to California during the middle of a pandemic. Meanwhile, Lexy's friend Della recently had a baby and may be having marital problems, and another friend, Todd, has arranged to have the motel and Lexy's houseboat be part of a holiday tour. Combining an engaging plot, eccentric characters, plenty of humor, and details about Lexy's secret past and her Scottish culture, McPherson's latest adds up to a satisfying cozy.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 10, 2022
A touch of pathos lifts McPherson’s darkly amusing fifth mystery featuring Scottish family therapist Lexy Campbell (after Scot Mist). In November 2020, the permanent residents of the Last Ditch Motel in Cuento, Calif., who have bonded during the Covid lockdown, are sharing a Thanksgiving dinner. When a heavily pregnant guest goes into labor, Lexy, a temporary resident, agrees to help out at the motel while others attend to the birth. The next morning, she dutifully prepares a breakfast tray for a new arrival, only to find him lying dead, a bullet hole in his forehead. Lexy recognizes him as Menzies Lassiter, her first love from her school days in Dundee, whom she hasn’t seen in close to two decades. As the only person who knew the deceased, Lexy becomes the main suspect. She must not only investigate Menzies’s murder but also delve into their fraught shared past. Certainly, she had motive enough to want him dead. This time the motel residents are the ones providing Lexy emotional support. McPherson keeps the laughs and the action rolling along. With any luck, Lexy will be back soon. Agent: Lisa Moylett, Coombs Moylett Maclean.

December 1, 2022
A Scot living in California continues to get tripped up by American ways and American English. Therapist Lexy Campbell lives on a houseboat behind the Last Ditch Motel, where her floridly eccentric friends have gathered for her second Thanksgiving in the U.S. The Covid lockdown they've lived through was easy compared to the nerve-wracking wait for Della, her overdue friend, to give birth. Having offered Della and Dylan the use of the houseboat for the delivery, Lexy's moved with her boyfriend, Taylor, to the motel only to be awakened by the squalling newborn. Asked to deliver breakfast to an actual paying guest, Lexy finally realizes his silence is due to a bullet in the head. When their pal Sgt. Molly Rankinson announces that this isn't a case of suicide, Taylor reckons that they were awakened at 3 a.m. by a noise Lexy now thinks was a silenced gunshot, and only then heard the baby crying. Though Lexy and her pals have solved a number of murder cases, she realizes that she's in trouble when she recognizes the dead man as Menzies Lassiter, her boyfriend back in Scotland when she was 17. Even more disconcertingly, her mother tells her that Menzies had recently visited her to find out where Lexy was living. Lexy's been lying to herself about why they broke up, but now the truth must come out, especially when her cast-iron alibi is challenged by new information about the time of death. A wildly funny, deadly serious look at misogyny and sexual abuse.

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