Book Review: Kilt Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Strong, likable characters

Cons: Slow moving plot

The Bottom Line:

Wanted to love it

But the plot was just too slow

I'll pass on the rest

This Debut Has a Wee Bit of Trouble Lad and Lassie

Some people buy books because of the cover.  I am more likely to buy books based on the title.  And how could any respectable pun loving mystery reader pass up a book called Kilt Dead?  I started laughing before I picked it up and found out it involved a woman living in Maine with strong ties to her Scottish roots.  I had to try it, hoping I would love it.  Unfortunately, the book didn't live up to my expectations.

After a career ending knee injury, Scottish folk dancer Liss MacCrimmon has returned home to Moosetookalook, Maine to run her aunt's store, the Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium.  It's only a temporary assignment since her aunt just needs the help while she is gone for three weeks.  But Liss hopes this will give her time to figure out where to go with her life.

Her aunt has just left for her trip when Liss finds Mrs. Norris dead in the stock room.  Mrs. Norris had been Liss' third grade teacher.  The old woman was a bit nosey, but she certainly wasn't a danger.  Or was she?  When the police focus only on Liss as the suspect, she feels she must catch the real killer or do time for a crime she didn't commit.  But why would someone want to kill Mrs. Norris?

The plot in this book was just too slow.  For example, we spend five pages getting the story on Liss' knee before she even arrives in Moosetookalook.  Then we get plenty of back story on the town.  After the first chapter, the book did pick up speed, but even then the plot was thin.  With hardly any true suspects, Liss thought about the same few people over and over again.  The last 80 pages brought us most of the plot with a couple twists.  Turns out I had missed several clues that pointed to the real killer.  But I still wish there had been more red herrings and twists scattered throughout the book.

The writing in the first chapter felt a tad over polished to me.  The author tried too hard to weave in Liss' current actions with pieces of the past.  Once we got past that, the writing settled down and wasn't a distraction at all.  I found it interesting that the book used several third person points of view to tell the story.  The shifts were always obvious.  It really did help me get to know the characters.

And here is the part that made me enjoy the book.  These characters are people I could see becoming friends.  Liss may not know about her life, but she is a strong woman when facing a bad situation.  The potential love interest, Dan, is equally strong.  And we've got the potential for several more wonderful recurring characters in the cast.  Honestly, I enjoyed spending time around them so much I didn't notice the problems with the plot as quickly as I might have other wise.

Of course, I am trying to figure out how much of this was problems with the book and how much was disappointment that my expectations in one area weren't met.  With a title like Kilt Dead, I really did expect a humorous book.  Instead, this is a straight mystery.  If I had gone in with that, I think I would have liked it better.

I enjoyed the characters in Kilt Dead enough to consider reading the next in the series.  It's not quite a strong enough book to make me want to rush out and read it soon, however.