Cracked Spine

This Scottish Bookshop Mystery (hopefully the first in a series) by Paige Shelton was just a delightful read if you like cozies. Not that Edinburgh really qualifies as the small town that is usually the setting for such mysteries, but the sense of community and knowing everyone else's business is here is good measure. Budget cuts have unexpectedly ended Delaney Nichols' job as an archivist at a museum in Wichita, Kansas, when she sees an ad for "a keenly intelligent investigator to assist us in our search for things thought lost" at a rare book and manuscript shop in Scotland. After an hour-long conversation with the owner, Edwin, MacAlister, who is impressed with her experience working in preservation of historical objects, she is offered the job and never looks back.
The shop, known as The Cracked Spine, is in the heart of old Edinburgh and Delaney is delighted to find "Delaney's: The World's Smallest Pub" just a few doors away. She is taken under the wing of a friendly cab driver and his wife who just happen to have a small cottage to rent. Delaney's fellow employees at the shop are 19-year old Hamlet, a college student who also acts in local theatre, and Rosie, an older woman who is constantly accompanied by her small dog, Hector. Before Delaney even has time to figure out what her job will be, the situation is shattered by the murder of Edwin's sister, Jenny, who was also holding a valuable Shakespeare folio for him. Delaney is not content to stand by while the police solve the mystery, and her inquisitiveness might just get her killed....well of course it doesn't. There is also a love interest in the owner of the aforementioned pub, Tom, who has dreamy blue eyes and looks great in a kilt.
You don't get a hint of what's happening until the very end and it was an act of will to put the book down at night. Her use of some Scottish brogue in the language of her characters is entertaining, and her love of Edinburgh and the Scottish people shine through. For those of you who share that fondness, you will find this a wonderful diversion. Shelton has written quite a few books and other series. I really hope she continues this one. Apparently, there is an element of the supernatural in her "Farmers' Market" and "Country Cooking School" series, and there is lots of room for ghosts in Scotland!