‘Murder at the Highland Games’ by Dee MacDonald

Published by Bookouture, 
13 April 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83618254-6 (PB)

Jimmy McCrae’s flat four-acre field where he normally grazed his sheep is today the setting for the Locharran Highland Games, which was packed with hundreds of onlookers laughing and shouting in anticipation. The mood was jolly mainly owing to the time spent in the hospitality tent where the whiskey flowed. 

Ally McKinley has never seen her little village so busy or excited. Everyone enjoying the Scottish dancing, the bagpipes, and cheering the competitors on. Now seventy-one she was beginning to feel a tad weary. She was still running The Auld Malthouse B&B and had been pleased to welcome a family visiting all the way from Canada, not only for the games but to gape at the spectacular castle, the home of the Earl of Locharran. 

Soon Ally along with her friend and lover Ross, whom she met when she took her labrador puppy to the vet’s found themselves standing next to her cleaner Morag, and Morag’s husband Murdo, the postman. Ach! Said Murdo there’s that Canadian, Archie Armstrong, known as the ‘Atlantic Warrior. That man’s going to be winning everything! 

There was further cheering as the elderly Earl Hamish Sinclair stepped jauntily up onto the podium. Still with a roguish twinkle in his eye, although he had settled down after years of womanising and married a young lady who had provided him with two heirs’.  Later Hamish made his way to where Ally and Ross were standing remarking, ‘that Canadian is as strong as an ox’. His wife is Angus’s niece Patti. Angus is my senior ghillie and has been with me for many years. Unfortunately, we had a break-in the castle yesterday and a rifle was stolen. Angus is most cut up about it. 

Finally, it was time for the caber tossing, and last up was Archie Armstrong, the Atlantic Warrier. There was an ear-splitting shot, and the Atlantic Warrior fell to the ground. There was no doubt that it was murder. 

Ally soon discovers that more than one person may have had a murderous motive, including some of the current residents of her cosy little guesthouse. Patti, Archie’s glamourous wife, seems intent on acting like the perfect widow, but rumours of infidelity have been flying around the village. Or was it one of the frustrated local competitors, desperate to end Archie’s winning streak?

Amir Kandahar, a South Asian man had replaced Detective Bob Rigby who retired owing to heart problems. Ally has a good relationship with him, but the victim’s family are staying at her guest house. So, Ally begins to narrow down her list of possible suspects. But she is completely thrown when her chief suspect is found dead. 

Can Ally find the killer before the killer finds her?
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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.