HOP SCOT

A family therapist returns home to Scotland for a Christmas trip with her friends and finds a new mystery awaiting her.

Lexy Campbell lives on a houseboat behind California’s Last Ditch motel, and the motel's residents have become her friends. These include Todd Kroger, a physician sidelined by his fear of bugs, and his husband, Roger Kroger, an exhausted pediatrician, who like the motel because co-owner Kathi Muntz, a partner in Lexy and Todd’s detective agency, is a germaphobe who keeps the place spotless. Roger hires a jet to take them, along with a supporting cast—Lexy’s fiance, ornithologist Taylor Aaronovitch; Kathi’s wife, Noleen Muntz; married couple Della and Devin Muelenbelt and their two very loud children—to visit Lexy’s family for the holidays. Much to Lexy’s surprise, her parents have purchased Mistletoe Hall in the village of Yule, which they plan to run as a hotel. Lexy has warned her friends about Scottish eccentricities, but they’re delighted with the small-town charm and the absence of bugs. Taylor is so entranced with the local birds that when a tree with an owls’ nest falls through the cellar door, he goes all out to save the egg. Lexy, puzzled by a bricked-up wall in the cellar, eventually opens it up, revealing a skeleton they decide must be the gardener Billy, who worked for the parents of Crispin Garmont, the former owner. Although Crispin is certain his parents killed Billy, Lexy and her friends are unpersuaded enough to investigate.

A rollicking mystery that will leave readers wondering whether the whole gang will relocate to Scotland.