Review: An American in Scotland by Lucy Connelly

An American in Scotland (Scottish Isle Mystery, #1)

by Lucy Connelly

Release Date: April 4, 2023

2023 Crooked Lane Books

Ebook Edition; 304 Pages

ISBN: 978-1639103508

ASIN: B0B5Z1TDP2

Audiobook: B0BX4LSW45

Genre: Ficton / Cozy / Murder

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Sea Isle was supposed to be the fresh start Dr. Emilia McRoy dreamed of. Far from the busy emergency room across the Atlantic in Seattle, she hoped to settle down and begin this new chapter as a small-town doctor to the quirky residents who immediately welcomed her. When she stumbles across a dead body, she starts to think that she may not be as Scot free of the drama and intrigue as she initially thought.

Emilia soon learns she has bigger issues at hand.  Her luck continues when she discovers that part of her new responsibilities includes being the coroner for the very body she found. Finally, when the body goes missing before she can even begin the autopsy, Emilia must convince the townspeople that a crime did, in fact, occur. The deeper she digs into the picturesque town, the more suspicious she becomes.

 

My Thoughts

An American in Scotland is the first book in the Scottish Isle Mystery series, and I was sent all four books in the series by the publisher.  I was intrigued by the setting because it's set in Scotland, but I was concerned because of the title as I was prepared for lot of stereotyping, and this is exactly what we got in this book.

 

So, let's talk about the things that I really liked about this book. First of all, I loved that the medical office and the house were in a church. One of the things I adored about the Rachel Morgan books (Kim Harrison) was that she lived in a church as I always thought that would be so cool.  Instead of tearing them down, the fact they are sold and used as homes or businesses combines the history of the building and the modern use.  I also really enjoyed the fact that this book was set in Scotland as I have visited the country a couple of times and it's beautiful.  

 

Emilia is one of those main characters that is rather annoying however, but the secondary characters kind of even out the fact that she is so annoying. For a doctor who worked in ER, she makes some rather rash decisions, and I got tired of her condescending attitude. And since when do you do research about a place by watching British television shows, and since when do you not read the fine print on a document you sign for a job offer? Holy hell. She shows up to Scotland surprised by the weather conditions and has to pretty much purchase a new wardrobe. I shouldn't be so surprised by this however, as I live in a snowbelt and have seen people rush to buy boots and parks when the first snowfall hits where I live as well, but when you are going to live there permanently? 

 

The mystery was actually interesting, but I did think Emilia was the weakest link in the whole thing.  For a doctor who has learned to keep one's counsel over the years and keep one's mouth shut due to privacy issues, she certainly has not demonstrated she has learned either of these and I would be concerned if she was my doctor.  She blabs information to the wrong people and keeps pertinent information from the people who really needed to know said information.  And I'm not even going to get started on the issues I had with the medical stuff in this book as that was just lack of research on the author's part and too many liberties were made (as if people who read the book don't have any medical training and won't know the difference).  I think Medical Imaging Technologists would have a field day with the errors in this book.  Let's just say an untrained person would not be able to run an MRI, x-rays, etc... by doing some online courses.  The pace however, moved along quite quickly, and I really enjoyed the secondary characters in the story.

 

Verdict

An American in Scotland had a pretty interesting mystery, but I honestly just couldn't connect with the main character as she made so many silly decisions and the author relied too much on the reader having to just go with the flow of things. The lack of research about the medical stuff bothered me as I felt it was just assumed people would not realize that it was just not possible for a young, untrained woman to have that much knowledge through the internet considering some of these programs take 2-4 years at college to complete, each. I did love the descriptions about the Scottish countryside and the weather as I could definitely relate to the cold and the snow, and I was not really surprised the main character was not prepared for the weather as she was not prepared for anything else either, but it would have been nice if some of the things were actually in the dialect of the area and not Americanized, as I am sure they don't use dollars there (LOL).   While I will read the next book in the series, I won't be rushing to do so soon.