Previously in Loch Down Abbey: The Inverkillen family was in debt and so Mrs MacBain and other staff from Loch Down Abbey bought the abbey from them and converted it into a hotel. They hired Fergus Inverkillen to be manager and provided Lady Georgina with a place to live. All others were left to their own devices. Most importantly, there was Fergus’s brother Angus who was in a love affair with their sister’s husband Hugh. And then of course there is their sister Bella. Well, what was to become of Bella?

Loch Down Abbey is full of guests for the Highland Ball. Including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen clan, the Abbey’s former residents. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour.

Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.

Who would have had motive to want them dead? And how did they manage to commit their crime and escape while keeping the door locked from the inside?

With an Abbey full of suspects and secrets, it is down to Mrs MacBain to catch the killer before they strike again…

A brilliantly twisty and deliciously witty Golden Age murder mystery to transport you to 1930s Scotland. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Janice Hallett and Richard Osman.

Beth Cowan-Erskine is originally from a small town in Wyoming. She moved to the UK in 2010 and started an Interior Architecture firm. She lives on a farm in the Cotswolds with her Scottish husband but longs for the Highlands.