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A Trick of the Light

A Highland Mystery featuring Susie Mahl

By Ali Carter

Pet portraitist Susie Mahl has to use all her artistic know-how to get to the bottom of a fiendish Scottish mystery

Praise for the Highland Mysteries:

‘A delicious new voice in crime writing... Excellent on the English aristocracy and written in a fine wry style.’ Daily Mail

‘This is a well paced and exciting read. More please!’ Alexander McCall Smith

‘Absorbing, charming and funny.’ Antonia Fraser

Struggling with long-buried family secrets and her own recent heartbreak, artist and pet portraitist Susie Mahl hopes her brief sojourn as an art tutor at a Scottish country house will prove a distraction.

But Susie soon realises she has bigger problems than teaching her eclectic mix of students to draw a Highland cow. Beneath the beautiful landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and the grandeur of the Auchen Laggan Tosh estate lie hidden secrets. Can Susie work out what exactly is going on before it’s too late? And can anyone be trusted?

'Carter has created a character Agatha Christie would be proud of.'

– Crime Review

'Susie Mahl is a welcome new detective: witty, warm and very inquisitive.'

– Antonia Fraser

‘The writer’s depiction of the various techniques used in painting cleverly deflects the reader’s attention from the puzzle of the mysterious Landseer paintings while at the same time showing how a forgery may be detected… And the absence of violence, let alone bloodshed, will reassure those who are looking for stories written in the recently revived ‘cosy’ form especially one with occasional comic touches like this one.’

– Promoting Crime Fiction

‘It’s usually easier and more productive not to be fettered by too much reality… The notable exception, as Ali Carter’s third outing for her amateur sleuth Susie Mahl neatly shows, is the detective story… Of course, its appeal is that of the log fire and the Labrador in the basket.’

– Catholic Herald

A Trick of the Light

A Highland Mystery featuring Susie Mahl

By Ali Carter

More books from this author: Ali Carter