This is the the third book in the series, and the first that I've read. There's some backstory, but it was pretty easy to pick up enough to enjoy this story.

Rose McQuinn is trying to decide whether to marry her new love, an Edinburgh police detective, and is relieved, finally, two years after her return from America, to get an invitation to visit her sister Emily and her family on the island of Orkney, where Emily, Rose, and Rose's first love and now (probably) deceased husband, Danny McQuinn, grew up. It's her first meeting with her brother-in-law, the first time in years that she's seen her sister Emily and the grandmother who raised them--and her first meeting with a great-grandmother whom she has never heard of before. It's fascinating, and wonderfully restful--until Rose finds herself investigating the death of her sister's husband's first wife, found dead in the bog just outside the family mansion, ten years after she was believed drowned and washed up on the shore, her corpse badly damaged.

When did she really die? How? And who is the woman who was originally buried in her grave?

It's painfully obvious who the most likely suspect is, and Rose is torn between her duty to her family and her duty to the truth.

We get a wonderful look at late 19th century Orkney, women's lives at that time, archaeological digs at that time, and a nifty little historical mystery from Orkney's deep past. Oh, and an engaging mystery with very engaging characters.

Very enjoyable.

I borrowed this book from a friend. ( )

While visiting her sister and grandmother, Rose McQuinn accidentally finds herself solving the possible murder of her brother in law's first wife. Aided by the great grandmother she never knew she had and a local archeologist who knows more than he's telling, Rose must decide if this is something she wants to pursue or something she'd rather leave buried.
As always Alanna Knight writes an excellent mystery with developed characters and a rich historical setting. ( )

An interesting historical crime novel which is set around 1895 in a fictional place on Orkney near where I recently visited, so had added interest for me. A female private investigator returns to the island of her birth to visit her younger sister she hasn't seen for many years and uncovers the mystery of a woman found buried in a peat bog. Evokes the period and Orkney well and the plot keeps you guessing. ( )