Off Kilter by Hannah Reed (Audiobook – Tantor Audio)

🐑🐑🐑🐑.5 – 4.5 bleating sheep

Eden Elliott, 38, is off to the Scottish Highlands to get the proper atmosphere for her first novel, compliments of her best friend and established romance author, Ami Pederson. While traveling to Glenkillen, Eden meets a young woman named Vicki MacBride on the plane who is on her way to Scotland to bury her father. The women quickly bond and Eden learns of Vicki’s harrowing situation regarding her father’s inheritance. Her siblings’ bitter rivalry stems from their resentment of Vicki’s inheriting the entire sheep farming operation when they’ve been the ones overseeing it while Vicki, their half-sister, was living in London. Eden is sympathetic to Vicki’s plight and provides a listening ear and shoulder to cry on. But when the two women stumble across the body of Vicki’s supposed friend, Gavin Mitchell, a sheep shearer, Eden is left with doubts regarding her newfound friend.

Scottish heather

What an engrossing, atmospheric, cozy mystery! The setting, with its highland cattle, country lanes, lush mountains, low stone walls, rolling green farmland and purple heather was captivating. The kilt-wearing handsome Scot, Leith Cameron, and his dog, Kelly, were prominently featured characters and I adored them. The Scottish idioms and lilt made me chuckle. (The audiobook narrator for Off Kilter, Angela Dawe, gave an outstanding performance. The accents sounded authentic and realistic, which enhanced my enjoyment of the story.) Vicki’s west highland terriers, Cocoa and Pepper, that were constant companions to Eden in parts of the book were always a welcome addition to the storyline.

Off Kilter was an enjoyable cozy mystery with a setting that’s described so distinctly that you will feel as though you’ve been transported to Scotland in your mind’s eye. Definitely recommended.

Thank you, Tantor Audio, for a free download of Off Kilter.

Highland cattle