The Beasts of the Black Loch by Gay Marris

The Beasts of the Black Loch

 by Gay Marris

The Beasts of the Black Loch is  by Gay Marris

and published by Bedford Square Publishers.

My thanks to Gay and the publishers for sending me a copy to review and to

Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the tour.

Synopsis

In 50,000 acres of remote Scottish mountains and moor sits Dorcha Hall: a former hunting lodge nestling amongst ancient forests, on the shores of the enigmatic ‘Black Loch’. At night, lights glow from within, smoke curls from its chimneys, and in the forgiving murk of the gloaming, it looks magical. In daylight, its mouldering plasterwork and failing plumbing present a less romantic reality. Dr Ava Dickens has come to Dorcha to visit her godson, Alastair – a young man whose parents’ sudden death has taken him from a quiet life in academia to owning Loch Dorcha. He and his very new wife are convinced the only way to make the estate work is to run the Hall as a hotel. But Ava is a rigorous scientist, her specialty animal behaviour, and she is by no means certain that the evidence is indicative of a successful outcome. When one of the hotel guests is found dead in his bed, having gulped down poisonous insect repellant rather than the whisky sitting next to it, Ava’s knowledge of the female Culicoides impunctatus – aka the Highland midge leads her to doubt that it was an accident. And worse is to come…

My Thoughts 

It took me a while to get into the story line , mainly because it was quiet sometime until the murder took place. However, once I was in , I was well and truly in and trying to carry out my own detective work as to what was happening. The wide variety of characters is intriguing  covering all walks of life and Gay’s planning board must have been captivating.

Dr Ava Dickens is a character to be reckoned with and comes across as Scotland’s answer to Miss Jane Marple though without the pearls and the twin set ! The fascinating insights into natural information from her travels was both intriguing and enlightening and I finished the book feeling that I had learnt a lot from an educational perspective.

Due to Marris moving around quickly between her different characters you are kept on your toes when trying to work out for yourself whodunnit. There were some interesting curve balls thrown into the mix which you don’t see coming as well as putting you off the scent.

I will now be looking out for further murder mysteries from Gay Marris in the, hopefully not too distant future .

About Gay

Dr. Gay Marris is a retired research scientist. Her career focused on insect ecology, parasites and honey bee health. Her first novel, The Curtain Twitcher’s Book of Murder, set in the suburbs of the deceptively dangerous suburbs of 1960s London, where she grew up and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey First Novel Prize. Her second novel, The Beasts of the Black Loch, is the first in the Natural History of Murder series. Gay now lives in York with her husband, a cat and a tortoise.