Deadly Editions by Paige Shelton
Barbara’s rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: Scottish Bookshop Mystery #6
Publication Date: 4/6/21
Number of Pages: 304
** 3.3 Stars **

Delaney Nichols moved to Edinburg from Kansas just a bit over a year ago – and what an exciting year it has been. She’s made many new friends, including a police inspector, and she’s gotten married to a handsome-as-sin pub owner named Tom. Life just couldn’t get much better – until she’s invited to a meeting concerning a treasure hunt. The prize? The entire library owned by the very eccentric Shelagh O’Connor goes to the person who manages to find the final treasure in the hunt.

The exceedingly wealthy Shelagh has quite a colorful background and an obsession with Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The four treasure hunters must follow the obscure clues to find an original copy of the Stevenson book. Delaney’s three competitors are Birk Blackburn (a recurring character), Jacques Underwood a distant relative of Shelagh’s, and Tricia Lawson who is a librarian at a local school.

As the hunt ensues, the city is plagued by sightings of the monster (Hyde) who is committing robberies – and murder. Then Shelagh disappears from her home leaving behind a disordered library and a bloody handprint on the door. Is the monster responsible for all of it? Did the monster appear because of the treasure hunt or is it a coincidence? Will they be able to find Shelagh before she is harmed? Or, did Shelagh stage her own disappearance? Can Delaney figure it all out and solve the case? You’ll just have to read the book to find the answers.

I have enjoyed each book in this series, but I just couldn’t get into this one. There were too many people running in too many directions and no coherent plan at all. Delaney doesn’t seem to do any real investigating – she just seems to fall into things. Then there are her normal ‘bookish voices’ but she doesn’t understand what they are trying to tell her or she doesn’t have time to think about them. Those voices just seem superfluous if they serve no purpose. I just couldn’t come to care about any of the characters (those non-recurring ones), and the recurring characters just didn’t even seem to reach out and grab me. I really wanted to love it and given the book blurb, I should have loved it. At any rate, this is my least favorite of the books in this series, but I am totally looking forward to the next one.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.