‘Murder at the Loch’ by Dee MacDonald

Published by Bookouture,
26 February 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83525508-7 (PB)

Ally McKinley now age sixty-eight is taking a break from running her little guest house, The Auld Malthouse and sitting gazing at Loch Soular’s, calm water surrounded by mountains and heather clad foothills reflecting on her good fortune in moving from Edinburgh to one of the most beautiful spots in the Western Highlands of Scotland.  Looking across the water, she spotted something yellow floating in the water. A sack or something and wondered what kind of person would dump something in such a beautiful spot. 

She was just beginning to relax when the Earl of Locharran’s muddy Land Rover drew up a few yards away. Ally watched him approach, still a handsome man always with a twinkle in his eye. He plonked himself down on a nearby boulder and said, ‘I need to have a wee chat with you’. As he issues her an invitation for drinks to meet his new fiancé, Elena, Ally draws his attention to the yellow shape in the water. Could be a sheep or a young deer said Hamish dismissively. As it drifted closer, Hamish pulled out his binoculars and looked steadily for a couple of minutes, then said, ‘call the police, we are looking at a body’.

Detective Inspector Bob Rigby hails from Birmingham, but his Scottish wife has persuaded him to move to the Western Highlands as nothing much happens there except an occasional brawl at closing time. Oops! 

When Ally finally retunes home, she sits down beside the log burner, but all she can see is the pale lifeless woman with her starring eyes and white-blonde hair. Realising she is shaking Ally pours herself a small whisky. Although a walk to Ross’s house, Ally sets of to see him.  Ross is a calm patient man, and they have grown very fond of each other. 

Although it was quickly established that the dead woman was not from Locharran, Ivan the barman from the Craigmonie Hotel Bar had been expecting his fiancée Kristina from Inverness the previous day, when he couldn’t pick her up, she told him a nice lady was giving her a lift!  But she hadn’t arrived. When he learned of her death, Ivan wept. According to Murdo McConnachie, the post man, a font of all knowledge, Ivan was a heavy drinker who commenced a two-day drinking binge to assuage his grief and was later found unconscious in his room. 

Before she knows it, Ally finds herself wading into the middle of an investigation. Who was the mystery woman and why was she killed? Her enquiries take her all over the village: from the corner shop, run by Queenie and Bessie McDougall, who were well into their seventies, to Mrs Fraser and Mrs Jamieson from the castle, home of local earl Hamish Sinclair where preparations are underway for his upcoming – and much gossiped about – wedding.

Then matters take a really bad turn the morning after the wedding, when Elena is found poisoned.  Is there a killer on the loose in the Scottish Highlands?   

A tantalising mystery, that keeps you guessing. Recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Dee MacDonald left Scotland and headed for London at the beginning of the swinging sixties. After typing her way round the West End, she became an air stewardess on long haul routes with BA (then BOAC) for eight years. After that she did market research at Heathrow for both the government statistics and for BA, she became a sales rep. and was the receptionist at the Thames Television Studios in Teddington when they had the franchise. She then ran a small B&B for ten years in Cornwall, where she lives with her husband. Dee has one son and two grandsons who live locally. She has now written twelve novels. Here first series featured Kate Palmer. Her most recent series features Ally McKinleye.