First published 2013
Dandy Gilver faces a household struck by illness in 1929 Perthshire. Her husband and sons suffer from influenza, bronchitis, pneumonia, and pleurisy. As a devoted wife and mother, she knows they need a change of scene. As a detective, she spots an opportunity to investigate an unsolved murder that has captured her interest. The family travels to Moffat in the Borders, seeking healing at the Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel. Guests come to drink sulfur water from the well and endure galvanic wraps and cold salt treatments. But the hotel harbors its own sickness. The Laidlaw family wages internal war. Long-time guests clash with flashy newcomers. A woman checked in but never checked out, and her disappearance grows harder to conceal. Strange forms move through the Turkish bath. Steam, most likely. Yet the hotel sits beneath Gallow Hill, where executions once took place. In Moffat, the deceased prove as troublesome as the living. Dandy must cure her family while uncovering what happened to the missing guest.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-detective, family-secrets, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Moffat, Perthshire, The Borders
Period: 1929
234 pages · Hardcover · Hodder & Stoughton Ltd