Customer Reviews

Highland Laddie Gone

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Sharyn McCrumb is the author of three mystery series, each very different from the others. This is the third book featuring forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson. They are fairly lightwight and humorous. Some of her later volumes ('MacPherson's Lament' and If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him...') combine current and historic mysteries which I found particulary intriguing.

This mix of contemporary and historical mysteries is also a key element of her second series. Based in the mountains of eastern Tennessee with titles gleaned from old Appalachian folk songs it is a more serious collection that is rich in the beauty and folklore of the region. My personal favorite is 'She Walks These Hills'.

On the off chance that there is someone out there looking for something a little more irreverent than 'Highland Laddie Gone,' McCrumb has an answer for that, too. The title says it all:

'Bimbos of the Death Sun'

Don't laugh. It won an Edgar.

This is the 3rd in the series of Elizabeth MacPherson mysteries, and definitely one of the funniest. There is a delightful portrayal of a Scottish festival and the many participants there. We also get a view of this festival through the eyes of real Scot, Cameron Dawson, Elizabeth's new found enamorata.

The story kicks into high gear when the head of Clan Campbell is found dead. It also reaches hilarious heights when Elizabeth's cousin Geoffrey finds himself mixed up in the screwball Scottish Republican Army, and Cameron is mistaken for a British spy.

If you enjoy fast paced and humorous mysteries, pick up a copy of this book. You'll probably want to read the rest of the series once you get started.

I've read 4 or 5 of the Elizabeth MacPherson mysteries and this one is my favorite. All are humorous, light mysteries great for the beach or in-flight entertainment. As a fan of all things Scottish, I especially enjoyed the author's version of the scottish games and her presentation of an actual Scot being the most un-Scottish person there. Very amusing!

Unlike some of my fellow reviewers, I love funny mysteries. They have to be well-written, too, mind you - something that has funny lines but is otherwise incoherent wouldn't get five stars from me. However, Sharyn McCrumb is anything but incoherent. Her characters have lots of witty dialogue, but also are fleshed out to be real people. (Some more thinly fleshed out than others, but still...)

Elizabeth is attending the Highland Games with her cousin Geoffrey because she happens to be the Maid of the Cat for Clan Chattan. The cat is an old, toothless mountain lion. There are funny moments with other animals too- keep an eye out for poultry. At the games, she meets a genuine Scot- who has a rather jaundiced view of the American version of things, but who also has an accent that Elizabeth compares to pancake syrup; she falls in love with it almost immediately, and then with the rest of the guy.

The person who is murdered certainly deserves it, as is often the case in McCrumb's stories. She writes really good nasty people.

For me, perhaps the funniest part of the book is near the end. The officer who has been working on the case also happens to be part of a Civil War recreation group- costumes, battles, etc. Elizabeth is talking to him about the next event that's going to use the grounds after the Games are finished. It's the SCA, who dress up in medieval costumes and hold jousting tournaments. About this group, "those people are weird" says Clan Chattan Maid of the Cat to Confederal Colonel Lightfoot MacDonald!!

I enjoyed She Walks These Hills and was shocked to discover that this book was written by the same author. The plot was silly, the mystery was uninteresting, and the characters were one-dimensional. It read like a draft for a course "Learning to Write Mystery Stories". Ms. McCrum should have kept this one in her botton drawer.

McCrumb writes incredibly well. I read part of this aloud in the car to my wife on a long car trip, and it was written so conversationally and so cleverly that it was a joy for us both. I think I would have liked to see the murder happen a little sooner in the book - there's quite a lot of set up and very little detecting that actually goes on - but she's created a great cast of characters that it's fun to follow without a murder investigation. Then again, we know pretty much from the start who's going to get it (the guy nobody likes) and half the fun is trying to see who hates him most - or perhaps just enough to stick him with a traditional Scottish dagger.

There's also a subtext of Shakespeare throughout this book, particularly as lines from the Scottish play are key to one part of the mystery. But McCrumb shows an easy felicity with the Bard in other ways, too, belying the super-regional Appalachian setting and tone.

Perhaps my favorite thing about McCrumb is her ability to immerse the reader in quirky sub-cultures, honoring their earnestness while at the same time poking good-natured fun at them. (See Bimbos of the Death Sun for a great send-up of sci-fi/fantasy conventioning.) She walks a fine line here, showing us both the fun and the foolishness of American Highland festivals, but her amateur detective, Elizabeth MacPherson, is just naive enough and just self-conscious enough to not only pull off that balance, but also epitomize it.

Highland Laddie Gone by Sharyn Mc Crumb. This is the second Elizabeth MacPherson novel that I have read and once again I love the setting; North Carolina and Virginia. Elizabeth is persuaded to be the Maid of the Cat for the Highland Western Virginia Scottish Festival being held at Glencoe Mountain. There is a lot of anger at the Campbell clan and soon the leader of the Campbells is found dead. It is up to Elizabeth to find the killer before someone else dies.

This hilarious book kept me going until I finished it. I gobbled it up in about 2 days of sporadic reading. The duck story though "sad" made me believe it might have really happened, I had to laugh and share it with others. I have a border collie so I enjoyed hearing about the one in her book. I met old characters as well as new that I "wanted" to read more about.

Sharyn McCrumb's "Highland Laddie Gone" was given to me for Christmas. Since we are active participants in "Highland Games", and have also visited Scotland (twice, lucky us!) I had difficulty imagining her scenes. The story line was good, and I finished the book in one sitting. I love Scottish stories, but I'm afraid this ran more to personalities than good Scottish background. The rich and violent History of Scotland should lend itself to many more mysteries like this one. But Scots who attend Highland Games are not pretending to be anyone but whom they are. Each is trying to trace their ancestry back to Scotland through the Clans and families. The story was believable, and the tale flowed smoothly filled with a love story, the rich and colorful background of Scotland, and a cast of characters who might be people you know. I did enjoy the book, and would read more by this author. Thanks for the opportunity! Alice Montgomery

Well, it's humorous, it puts various staples through the pages of a somewhat atypical (but not REALLY atypical) highland gathering in the USA. There were some perhaps nits, but they could have been jokes in disguise (It, for instance, is not "johnson", it's "Johnstone", harrumph, but that COULD have been a joke...)

Not up to Bimbos but a wonderful airplane read anyhow. And amusing enough to keep one going.