A group of thirty-something Oxford friends celebrate New Year's Eve in the Scottish Highlands as a historic blizzard hits, trapping and isolating them, only to discover one of them is a murderer.

Tiberius Flynn, sent by his father, an English lord, to bring his niece back from Scotland so she can be raised as an English lady, encounters Hester Daniel, a maternal aunt who is determined that the girl remain in Scotland, and Tiberius, unprepared for the strong attraction he feels for Hester, faces a dilemma.

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth--Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman--is back and may have finally met the woman of his dreams in this new mystery in M.C. Beaton's beloved, New York Times bestselling series. Hamish's new constable, Dorothy McIver, may be the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Completely bewitched by her sparkling blue eyes, Hamish spends the summer traveling with her up and down Sutherland until finally, he can take it...

Constable Hamish MacBeth heads for the village of Stoyre to investigate why its citizens are leaving in droves and encounters a series of baffling events, dangers, and mysteries.

"There's been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead--under bizarre circumstances--in the castle tower's book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour.Now it seems, the castle has done him in--or possibly,...

"The first in a daring new Scottish historical series about a woman determined to return Scottish treasures to the Highlands and the only man who can help her--the lover she once abandoned."--Page 4 of cover.