Crooked Lane
Published August 11, 2026
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier
In Death at a Scottish Halloween, the fifth book in Lucy Connelly’s Scottish Isle Mystery series, Dr. Emilia McRoy and her friends have gone all-in for the week-long celebrations around All Hallow’s Eve, but when Dr. Em discovers a murder victim in the haunted house, suddenly, it’s not all fun and games. When a second body turns up on Dr. Em’s doorstep, Dr. Em and her “Scooby” crew decide it’s time to start asking more questions and finding more answers, all while navigating a corn maze, judging a costume contest, treating a strep-throat outbreak—and trying to avoid becoming the next victim.
A plot-driven novel, Death at a Scottish Halloween is a quick read, but Connelly does a nice job of keeping the mystery complicated enough to be interesting. As the story progresses, the suspect list grows as Em and Constable Ewan try to find connections between the two victims and unravel the motives. For the most part, everything they uncover is plausible enough to be satisfying, although a few coincidences and parts of the solution stretch belief a bit, and the threats to Dr. Em’s safety don’t come off as entirely threatening. That doesn’t detract from the overall lighthearted (in spite of the murders!) fun of the read, though. This is not a dark, psychological thriller: it’s a cozy mystery (although both deaths occur on stage) where much of the pleasure is derived from the characters’ personalities and relationships. That’s not to say, though, that the mystery itself gets short shrift. Two deaths do occur, and they are neatly explained by the end of the novel. Fans of the series will enjoy watching Em and Ewan’s relationship grow, but those new to the series won’t have any trouble catching up with the ins and outs of the charms of Em and her friends.