The Scottish Ladies' Detective Agency

By: Lydia Travers

Narrated by: Helen McAlpine

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

When Maud McIntyre sets up her own private detective agency, she never imagines her first case will involve murder.... A mystery in the Highlands? The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency is on the case!

Edinburgh, 1911: When Maud McIntyre and her lady’s maid, Daisy, form a detective agency, they never dream their first case will take place at a glamorous house in the Scottish Highlands. But when the duchess of Duddingston, concerned that a notorious jewelry thief will target her lavish weekend party, employs Maud to go undercover as a guest to find the culprit, the agency has its first case to solve....

Undercover with Daisy as her maid, Maud follows a trail of clues across the Duddingston House estate. And as she meets the weekend guests, she hopes one of them will reveal themselves as the jewelry thief. But when one of the house guests is discovered dead, Maud and Daisy realize they’re not only hunting precious gems, but a murderer....

As Maud and Daisy investigate, they realize that a connection in Edinburgh might hold a vital clue that will help them solve the case. Travelling back to the city, Maud hopes that what she and Daisy uncover will help them piece together the murder mystery at Duddingston House....

But when Maud receives a telephone call from the Duchess requesting urgent assistance, she realizes that the murderer didn’t have just one victim in mind. Speeding down the drive to Duddingston House, Maud and Daisy hear gunshots ring out across the estate. Will they reach the Duchess in time to save her? And will they catch the murderer in the act?

A warm historical whodunnit, perfect for fans of the mysteries of Helena Dixon, Verity Bright, T.E. Kinsey, and Catherine Coles.

©2023 Lydia Travers (P)2023 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Solid beginning, will definitely consider more!

I see why the comparison was made to the Lady Hardcastle mysteries. This series lacks some of their charm, but it is definitely setting up to have its own charms. Good pacing, good character building, solid reader. Concur with some other comments about finding it awkward to hear the reader act out the laugh before the laugh dialogue tag, but this wasn’t distracting enough to harm my enjoyment. When this is the only negative note I can think to give, that says the rest was better than a lot I have heard from bigger name series and productions in recent months.

Good

Decent mystery and excellent narration. My only complaint is that I prefer narrators not act out the laughing. It’s redundant with the tag, “She laughed.” And it also sounds unnatural, like it’s just been fit in.

A Cozy mystery

I enjoyed this book. It was well written and had multiple mysteries interwoven in the plot . It was entertaining and I will be reading more book from the series . Oh and I enjoyed the voices. I read along with the book and the audio helped me immerse myself myself in the story and with the characters .

Great read !

I couldn’t stop listening to the story.
The relationship of Maud and Daisy is full of growth, emotions and great trust between them to make their detective agency get off and running.

Good accents and acting. Fun story and flow of plot.

Some times the plot seemed skittish but overall an enjoyable story. Really interesting characters mostly.

I liked the narrator’s accent

The story started out strong but after a while I felt it went off track and added things in to try to make it more interesting, but to me it wasn’t and like 5 chapters could have been edited out and the crime solved more quickly than what it was.
I’m sorry, I was bored and will not listen to the next book.

Many mysteries in one!

My husband & I listened to this book on Audible while road tripping and enjoyed it immensely! Ms. McAlpine does a wonderful job at narrating. Is it just me or does Daisy sound an awful lot like Daisy from Downton Abbey? Really helped in picturing her character. Thank you to Ms. Travers for an engaging story. On to Book 2!

Simply Marvelous!

I loved everything about this book - the Scottish locale, period setting, characters and story. The narration was especially spot on. I’m looking forward to additional books in this series with Maud and Daisy!

Quirky but entertaining in its way.

The story is full of improbable occurrences and stereotypical characters. The best character by far is Daisy, the assistant, who unusually outshines the main character, Maud, both in pluck, common sense and intelligence. The narration is quite good and the story so simple that it is a very relaxing read. Perhaps things will improve in the next book in the series as the author gains confidence and experience. This is not great literature, but as a relaxing cozy with a feminist bent, it is fine.

Perfect fun

Finally a story that is captivating and with cussing and sex. The accent is very charming too.