A Small Death in the Great Glen by A.D.Scott Review

A Small Death in the Great Glen:

A Novel by A.D.Scott

Paperback: 416 pages

Publisher: Atria;

Original edition (August 3, 2010)  

ISBN-10: 1439154937

from Amazon.com

This splendid debut mystery has everything going for it—and a bit more, if you count sly Scottish charm. Scott’s writing is engaging, and her plotting Macbethian. The setting is a village in the Great Glen (roughly encompassing what the author describes as the “fierce and stunning landscape” between Fort William and Inverness) in the Highlands of Scotland. The time, 1956, is fairly calm but close enough to WWII to have residents still recovering from its devastating effects. The main characters cluster in the tiny newspaper offices of the Highland Gazette, a local weekly that is supposed to concentrate on livestock prices, auctions, and obits. Scott brings back the sounds of a precomputerized newsroom, the smells of ink and acid, and the feel of banging out stories (with copy paper!) on an old Underwood. When a little boy is found murdered in the canal just outside the village, the newspaper’s new editor in chief recruits the part-time typist, whose daughters know the murdered child, to help him investigate the case. They uncover a host of secrets and a number of people with a vested interest in keeping the mystery of the boy’s death unsolved. The characters of the crusading small-town newspaperman and the part-time typist (a battered wife at home) are skillfully drawn and will have readers rooting for them unequivocally. This is the first entry in a projected series, and it is captivating on every level.
My Thoughts 
The plot of this story is the murder of a little boy in this small Scottish community and who may have done it. There is a lot of speculation but not real clues. The main character of the story is Joanne Ross who is a wife and mother and works at the local newspaper, Highland Gazette. Her two daughters were playing with the murdered boy one afternoon. They would run up to a house and ring the doorbell and run. They were at a particular house and the little boy did this but didn't run in time as someone all dressed in black with a hood, they call him a "hoodie crow", snatched him up. That was the last the little boy was seen alive and the two girls were afraid to tell what they saw. Among the people that were suspected was a Polish sailor, and eventually a priest. Other characters involved are Chiara, her father Gino, who owns a cafe, Rob who is a young reporter at the paper.
In a subplot, Joanne is a battered wife. 1956 was not a time when an abused woman had any alternative but to continue to live this way or be completly cut off from family and even financial means if she left. Joanne's way of handling this abuse was to work at the newspaper which she enjoyed. She is a part time typist and her boss, John McAllister, at the newspaper wants to create a better paper and try to uncover the clues and try to solve this terrible crime, so that this news would help the newspaper increase readers. Joanne finds herself getting closer to her boss while assisting him. At the same time she endures her mean spirited mother-in-law who does not believe that her son would be a wife beater. Eventually Joanne has to make a decision on how she wants her and her children to live if she decides to leave her husband.
Intertwined in the story is the death of McAllister's brother which occured many years ago and was considered a suicide. As McAllister delves deeper into the story of the murdered boy, he finds clues as to what had actually happened to his brother. There are a lot of little subplots and the author weaves these together to create a very readable and suspensfull story. I liked that Joanne finally had the courage to do what was right for her and her children. I look forward to the next book to come out in 2011. 
About the Author:
A. D. Scott was born in the Highlands of Scotland.
After various adventures too numerous to mention, the author currently lives in the Northern Highlands of Vietnam. But other mountains may beckon.
You can visit her website here:
http://adscott.org/author.html
I received this book from Atria Books for review and was not monetarily compensated for my review.