Scot and Soda is a cozy mystery at it's best. I like the houseboat. It's a nice change from the typical home. It's a fast fun read. A fairly typical story of the genre.

This book was not as expected. The characters and mystery just did not grab me and I had a hard time reading it.. It may appeal to others.

I only recently met Catriona McPherson and am late to the game in reading her books. I enjoyed this one very much. Lexy Campbell is fantastic. Great cast of characters and a lovely read. Look forward to more books from Catriona.

Scottish immigrant, Lexy Campbell, lives in a boat behind The Last Ditch Motel (and Skweeky Kleen launderette) on a slough south of the tracks in the make-believe town of Cuento, California. Her gang of cohorts, two couples and a single mother and her son, all permanent residents of the hotel, have formed a family of their own. Plans are made for the group to celebrate Hallowe’en on Lexy’s boat.
When a dead body, dressed in Scottish costume and with a red wig stapled to his head, gets tangled in their beer line, Lexy and her pals feel duty-bound to solve the murder. Their efforts are complicated as they continue to deal with day-to-day life, their respective jobs, getting the kittens groomed, and fetching lattes.
The investigation takes a turn when someone attacks a horse, cutting off its tail, and a nightshirt (who knew that a “cutty sark” is a nightshirt?) is found on a reputed burial ground, all of which invokes the Burns’ poem “Tam O’Shanter”. Kind of creepy that the dead body is dumped and the Scottish poem is invoked all within spitting distance of the only Scottish immigrant in the vicinity. One might think she was the target of these bizarre events.
This is cozy at its coziest: zany antics, knitting needles and cats, mundane and exotic beverages and foods offered, some of which are consumed. My favorite parts of the book include the affectionate banter between Lexy and her friends centered around Lexy learning Americanisms and the Americans learning Scottish slang.
The story winds up with a satisfying ending which at the same time leads to a last-minute reveal leaving me wanting to read the next installment of this quirky series.

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, atmosphere, and characters. I would recommend the book to friends and family for their reading pleasure.

I couldn't get into the writing style. The story & characters were all over the place so.I couldn't get a cohesiveness out of it to enjoy
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for allowing me this arc in return for my honest review

Mystery, misery, and a touch of awkward is what makes this book so enchanting. The main character Lexy is fast becoming one of my favorites. She just wants to succeed and be happy, but murder just throws a wrench in her plans again. With a cast of characters that is hilarious, a well though out mystery, and great writing, this is a definite must read.

Scot & Soda features houseboat-dwelling, Scottish protagonist Lexy and her mixed bunch of quirky friends in a California town. There's a lot of fodder for comedy and for funny buddy-movie-style dialogue among the characters, who have enough bizarre phobias, diverse professions, conflicting goals, and unusual problems to keep things crazy. The book is almost all dialogue, with a lot of teasing focusing on amusing idiomatic differences between American English and English as spoken in Scotland, American customs vs Scottish customs, etc. Given how much is made of these differences, it was a little surprising that all of Lexy's American pals immediately accepted that a victim named Thomas would be nicknamed Tam (apparently a common Scottish nickname for Thomas) in a California high school in the 60's.
Imagine watching a funny ensemble cast like the characters of Friends try to solve a crime, and you get the idea of this entertaining book. Lexy and the gang figure things out, but not without a lot of amusing squabbling among themselves along the way.

Thank you NetGalley and Midnight Ink for this arc.

Scot & Soda follows the gang of goofballs from Scot Free into their next "adventure" as they discover a dead body tied up to the beer they'd stored in the slough off Lexi's houseboat for their Halloween party.... and their meddling into the police "investigation" of a 50 year old town secret. Fluffy fluff book.

Here in Alabama, it's been cold (in the 40's) and has rained nearly non-stop for the last 3 days. My dog thinks I'm the most awfullest person in the world (the rain).. I needed some fluff. The gang of goofballs was familiar and comforting although Lexi seems to have lost some of her "snark" and Todd's quirks seemed to have faded / dimmed from Scot Free. The plot was convoluted to the near the point of nonsensical. But the read was easy.