Sometimes it can seem that Qwilleran rarely solves the mysteries in these books—that answers simply fall into his lap. But usually, much of the book is spent with him making connections, asking just the right questions, and sort of lining things up to work out so that he gets to the solution in the end. Not so in this book. He truly didn't solve much of anything. Speculations early in the mystery turned out to be correct with little in the way of deviation. Yes, he was kind of caught up in the climax, but it was really only because of a friendship that he'd been cultivating for a while, nothing to do with his suspicions about the case. The community surrounding the mystery wasn't as interesting as it has been in other books, maybe because it was more disjointed.

There was one interesting development. Anyone who has read many of these books knows that Qwilleran is basically devoid of all family and does tend to long for a connection. This was dangled in front of him—and us—in this book, and I'm not really sure how I feel about the way that turned out. Maybe it would have seemed to fake if it had gone a different way, but I really hope to see more in this line in the future. Overall, though, I'm hoping the next book is better. ( )

Please read previous reviews of novels in this series to read the many reasons I love this series! ( )

Before reading:
Qwill and I spent too much time together in 2018, so we've been on a break. Lately I've started to miss him so I'm giving him another chance.

Review:
Well, I'm not sure we're getting back together. This is another in the "Cat Who..." series where I am pretty sure I would never have picked up a second one if this had been my first. The new Pickax hotel has its Grand Reopening - it got blown up in an earlier book - and is immediately the site of a murder that is barely described, of a character who is hardly mentioned, by another character who barely registers but nevertheless was the prime suspect from the word go. Just really not good.

There wasn't much time to describe the murder, yet there was TONS of description of some Scottish festival that might be more fascinating if you are of that nationality. Koko performed a few of his tricks, leading to clues that are interesting in retrospect but of absolutely no value in solving the crime.

There is a bit of interesting background stuff where we find about Qwill's father, his mother, and her relationship to Aunt Fanny who left all that money to Qwill. These revelations come in the form of letters discovered .... I forget where ... Bbt in the absolute worst development in the book, Qwill decides he doesn't want to know anymore and throws the letters into the fireplace. That was seriously dumb and out of character, especially as he had been saying earlier that he had no idea about his family.

I literally just finished reading it and I can't think of anything else to say about it. ( )

Another quick escape read...and once again I enjoyed it!

Pickax has a new hotel. The old Pickax Hotel was blown up and has now been completely remodeled and rebuild. This time around the style is much classier and the name has been changed to The Mackintosh Inn.

One of its first distinguished client is a Mr. Delacamp from Chicago. He is a jewellery dealer of some reknown and a bit on the splashy side. He comes to Pickax every 5 years to buy old pieces of jewellery from some of the oldtimers and sell reworked pieces to those who are interested. He really courts the ladies to make the sale.

During this time the tri-county Scottish Gathering and Highland Games were being held. With a good size Scottish population in the area, there was heavy competition between the counties.

When Delacamp is found dead in his suite things turn topsy-turvy. There are questions about who he really is and who his young female assistant is. Both are a bit of a mystery.

Once again, Koko tries to give Qwill clues to what is going on. Licking photographs, knocking books off shelves and other various tricks. Somehow Koko seems to know... ( )

Another fun, fast read. A charmer comes to town to by and sell jewlery. and is murder. Koko of course is trying to tell Qwill what happened. ( )