Murder At The Highland Practice

by Jo Bartlett

Shortly after her return to the Scottish Highlands, DI Blair Hannah's small team of detectives is called upon to investigate a suspicious death in the rural town of Balloch Pass. The elderly woman had altered her will before she died, leaving everything to two unlikely the local priest, and the town's new GP, Dr Noah Bradshaw. As Blair races against time to catch a potential killer, can she beat the ghosts of her past and grab the chance of her own happy ever after?

312 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2020

Reviews

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

DI Blair Hannah has just returned to the Highlands to head a small team of detectives.
In no time at all she is called on to investigate a suspicious, local death.
The elderly lady had left money to the new doctor, Noah Bradshaw and the priest, Father Douglas.
She finds herself affected to Noah but she has to put work first,. especially as he could be a suspect.
But the deaths keep coming and it's a race against time to find the murderer...
An exciting village mystery.

[Bianca Andreea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll be honest here. I’d expected something else from this book. When I’ve read the synopsis, I’d expected a real mystery crime book, filled with good action and interesting plot. Although I mostly liked the way Jo Bartlett shaped her characters, the hole action was a bit too static for my taste. The first 60 pages were plain boring, and I was just about to put this book on my DNFs, when something happened (I’m not gonna tell you what (: ) and my attention was finally caught.

If you can get past the super long book introduction, the other half of the book is quite good. I was able to spot the murderer straight away, which was a bit of a turn off for me, since I’m all about mind blowing plot twists (especially in mystery crime books!), but unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Everything was way too obvious, and one thing I actually hated was the rushed ending. The stereotype “bad character which has a sudden arc redemption at the end of the book” applied here, and I didn’t like that at all. This and the fact that ID Hannah didn’t actually do much on this case, let alone catching of the murderer, yet of course she got all the credits.

Noah’s guilty perspective about his wife was a bit annoying, mainly because I strongly disagreed with his point of view, but this could be interpreted just as a personal thing, not necessarily a writing flaw. Hannah’s relationship with her father was super rubbish, especially towards the end, and the murderer’s reaction when he got caught was a bit extreme. I felt like it was out of character. I enjoyed Noah’s and Blair’s relationship though, it was nice and cute to read, and Evie’s family was nicely written too.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad book. It could’ve used some improvements here and there when it comes to characters and plot’s details, but it was a nice and relaxing read. If you’re not looking for something complex or mind blowing, yet still entertaining to read, this book is perfect for you.