The Cracked Spine (A Scottish Bookshop Mystery, #1)

by Paige Shelton

In need of a good adventure, Delaney Nichols takes the leap and moves to Edinburgh, Scotland to start a job at The Cracked Spine. She doesn't know much about what she's gotten herself into, other than that the work sounds exciting, and that her new boss, Edwin MacAlister, has given her the opportunity of a lifetime. Edwin has promised that she'll be working with "a desk that has seen the likes of kings and queens, paupers and princes," and Delaney can't wait to get started. When she arrives, she meets her new Scottish family; also working at the Cracked Spine are Rosie, perpetually wrapped in scarves, and who always has tiny dog Hector in tow, Hamlet, 3 nineteen-year-old thespian with a coloured past and bright future and Edwin, who is just as enigmatic and mysterious as Delaney expected. An unexpected bonus is Tom the bartender from across the street, with his piercing eyes, and a rolling brogue and it doesn't hurt that he looks awfully good in a kilt. But before she can settle into her new life, a precious artifact, a previously undiscovered First Folio of Shakespeare's plays goes missing, and Edwin's sister is murdered, seemingly in connection to the missing folio.
Delaney decides to do some sleuthing of her own, to find out just what the real story is behind the priceless folio, and how it's connected to the tragic death, all without getting harmed herself.

• ISBN10: 1250057485
• ISBN13: 9781250057488
• Publish Date: 29 March 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 April 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Minotaur Books,US
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

In need of a good adventure, Delaney Nichols moves to Edinburgh, Scotland to start a job at The Cracked Spine. But before she can settle into her new life, a precious artifact -- a previously undiscovered First Folio of Shakespeare's plays -- goes missing, and Edwin's sister is murdered, seemingly in connection to the missing folio. Delaney decides to do some sleuthing of her own, to find out just what the real story is behind the priceless folio, and how it's connected to the tragic death, all without getting harmed herself.   

First, the setting was the best part of this book; I've never actually been to Edinburgh (yet) but I felt like I was there.  Writing in dialect sometimes got on my nerves, but mostly I found it added to the characters and story rather than detracting from them.   

The bookshop, The Cracked Spine, sounds amazing and I would have liked to have had the story spend more time inside the shop with its wonders (especially the 'warehouse'), than outside in dodgy neighbourhoods.    

The plot was certainly a mystery; I never had any inkling who murdered Jenny, but I'm not sure anyone could have known as the author pulled a Christie and didn't set the story up to be solved.  Lots of red herrings though.   

The characters are what I struggled with here and having read Shelton's other work, I'm not surprised.  Her characters tend to be hit or miss with me and I feel like there's often just something missing that's keeping me from connecting with them and really caring about their outcomes.  She sometimes nails it, as she does with Jerome and Betts in her Country Fried Cooking school series and it's why I keep coming back.  I suspect here, part of my failure to connect with Delaney is her wide-eyed naivety;  she acts a bit like a 12 year old just orphaned rather than a well-educated woman who had a successful career in a museum before moving to The Cracked Spine.   

I'll definitely read the next one, and I hope that we'll spend more time in the bookshop with the treasures there, and that Delaney sheds the innocent farm girl schtick.

[Mystereity Reviews]

Delaney Nichols, recently let go from her museum job in Wichita, Kansas, answers a newspaper ad for a job at a bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland and is hired on the spot. Soon after she arrives, her new boss's sister is murdered and a valuable, historic manuscript goes missing.

After setting aside my intense envy of Delaney for landing a dream job in a dream town (no mean feat) I settled into this book easily. I loved the Scottish locale (including the vernacular. I read all sorts of Tartan Noir and hearing characters speak in their native accent really sets the scene.) and the characters were easy to relate to, inviting and realistic. I thought the characters and their relationships were well defined without feeling like a lot of information is dumped in your lap. I would've liked to have seen some scenes with the victim, just to give some perspective, but with so little information about her, I really didn't connect with her death. But that's okay, I was already heavily involved with the other characters.

The plot was also very well crafted, with many red herrings, twists and turns to keep me guessing. While a lot of the story was background and setting up the characters, it didn't detract (or distract) from the really great plot and I admit I didn't expect the ending.

If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. It was a really great read from start to finish. I can't wait for the next book!