The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency book review

As a reader of historical mysteries, I was eager to dive into Lydia Travers’s The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency, even though it’s a general market historical cozy mystery. The setting promised something a bit different than many of the other historical cozy mysteries that I’ve stumbled across. And who doesn’t love a Scottish accent? I especially enjoyed listening to this story.

Lydia Travers sets up the beginning of this detective series with Maud McIntyre and her former lady’s maid Daisy opening their detective agency and being snubbed by their first potential client. Yes, this is because they’re female detectives. Since this story is set in 1911 Edinburgh, Scotland, few women owned and operated a business, and among the many reasons for people to hire a private investigator some were considered inappropriate to discuss in front of a woman. I appreciated that the author didn’t make the potential client rude when he turned down the ladies’ services.

Immediately after this event, their first actual client enters, a duchess who wants to throw a house party but fears her guests will be victims of theft. Several recent house party guests around the area lost valuable jewelry to an unknown thief. Maud and Daisy set out—undercover—to guard against and hopefully expose the thief. They get far more than they bargained for. Murder.

Now, they must solve a murder and locate stolen jewelry, and it seems that they do by the halfway point of the novel. Of course, knowing these stories as we do, there’s clearly going to be more to it by the end. However, at this point, the novel teeters a bit. It’s almost like two different novels that are trying to be stitched together.

After believing they’ve solved their first case, Maud and Daisy return to Edinburgh only to have three more cases drop on their desk. Now they’re engaged to recover stolen love letters, find a missing bride-to-be, and track down a missing dog. All of the cases—including the murder and jewel theft from the first half of the novel—connect throughout this tale, which does seem a bit contrived. Still, for a cozy mystery, it works well enough. However, when new information leads to a revision of the murder verdict, the reveal tries to pull from other mystery patterns, such as Agatha Christie’s design. All the suspects return to the scene of the crime to face the detectives, but a last minute attack provides the final touch to this face-off. The culprit admits everything, even holding the rest of members of this event at gunpoint. Considering the flimsy evidence that the ladies had, the culprit probably wouldn’t have been apprehended without these actions. There wouldn’t have been enough to hold up in court.

Despite these shortcomings, The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency was still an enjoyable read, and fans of historical cozy mysteries will probably like it. The detectives seem to learn from their failures, and only future novels will reveal if they really grow. There are currently four novels in this series. Perhaps the next one will have an even stronger story as Lydia Travers continues to develop her Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency.

What genre is The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency?

The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency is a general market historical cozy mystery. It doesn’t have any Christian themes, but it also doesn’t promote anything against Christianity. Instead, the story is just about solving mysteries.

Was there inappropriate content in The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency?

With its mainstream genre, the author also included some mild language—such as might be heard in a 1980s TV series like Murder, She Wrote. If you’re like me and prefer zero language, you’ll wish even the few words were left out. Thankfully, they aren’t the worst of words, but they don’t enhance the story a bit. The usage remained mild enough that I was able to enjoy the story.