I loved this latest - and 17th - installment in Tasha Alexander’s series featuring feisty, whip smart Lady Emily. Set in the Scottish Highlands this time ‘round, the novel focuses primarily on the efforts of Lady Emily and her hunky, liberated hubby to solve a murder mystery while revealing women’s plights and championing women’s rights in word and in deed in 1905. Their twin sons, ward Tom and Duke Jeremy all make frequent appearances in this book, as (hilariously) does the boys’ pet crocodile, Cedric. Jeremy’s great aunts, who reside in the medieval wing of the family Highlands castle, are utterly delightful characters and deserve special mention. With crisp and intelligent prose and propulsive plotting, Alexander has created a strong sense of place and time and expertly woven in many a history lesson as well as witty and entertaining dialogue, a large cast of interesting secondary characters, and a good amount of tartan plaid.

A second storyline is set in the same village in 1676, the era of Scottish witch hunts, and additionally touches on themes of slavery and freedom in including a Moorish woman heinously kidnapped from Tunisia, enslaved and then gifted to a Scottish laird’s wife. While not as well developed as the main storyline, it compliments and provides important historical context for the Lady Emily thread.

Highly recommended to all Lady Emily “regulars” and other fans of intelligent, well researched historical mysteries featuring strong women protagonists. I’ve read every book in this series and look forward to Lady Emily’s latest adventures each year. Many thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the privilege of a complimentary ARC. Opinions are my own.

1905, Cairnfarn, Scotland.

Lady Emily Hargreaves and her husband Colin, with their three precocious sons (and one crocodile) in tow, descend upon the Highland estate of Emily’s childhood friend Jeremy, the Duke of Bainbridge. Expecting a relaxed family holiday to introduce the boys to Jeremy’s menagerie, the Hargreaves are instead thrown headlong into a murder investigation after their sons stumble upon the body of Cairnfarn Castle’s gamekeeper.

Emily and Colin soon learn the gamekeeper had secrets of his own to hide, and they set out to piece together the puzzle surrounding his death. Was it an affair of the heart motivating his killer, as more than one village girl was in love with him? Or was it driven by the past he fled in Edinburgh? The vicar and his young wife, the newly installed female doctor, Cairnfarn residents, and village herbalist — all paint different portraits of the victim, further muddying the waters.

Entwined in the modern narrative is a parallel story of Cairnfarn in the late 1600s, when the fervor of the witch hunt was rampant throughout Europe and the British Isles. Tasnim, dubbed Tansy, is a young Moorish woman kidnapped from her family and forced into a life of slavery and then servitude as a ‘free’ woman far from home in Scotland. Unable to leave her mistress Rossalyn after her complete reversal of fortune, Tasnim finds herself living in a tiny cottage in the village, learning to survive in yet another role in which she’s been cast. When the suspicion of witchcraft hits close to home, Tasnim worries she’ll be an easy target as a foreigner, yet things play out in an unexpected way.

I love this series. This entry was no exception. I did guess major aspects of the plot resolution, but that did not detract much from my enjoyment of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.