#BlogTour: MURDER ON A SCOTTISH ISLAND by Lydia Travers @LindaTyler100 @bookouture

Publication: 8th September 2025 – Bookouture

A dead body and a missing sapphire pendant? Lady Poppy Proudfoot is on the case!

Scotland, 1924: When Lady Poppy Proudfoot is invited to her friend’s hotel on the Isle of Skye, she is looking forward to a holiday. But all thoughts of relaxing vanish when she discovers the body of a strangled woman in a church.

The police believe the widow’s death was a robbery gone wrong, as a pendant was stolen from the scene. But Poppy is sure it’s murder. Ignoring the police’s warnings to keep her nose out, she enlists her friend Inspector MacKenzie, and her loyal Labrador, Major, to unpick the case.

Poppy suspects one of the hotel’s guests knows more about the murder than they are willing to admit. Could it be Miss Buccleugh, the avid button collector? Or the travelling guru, who conveniently disappeared just after the murder? Or was it Mr Henderson, so desperate for money he was driven to murder?

When Poppy sees the victim’s sapphire pendant on the neck of another guest, she is convinced the killer is targeting widows in the hotel, and luring them in with jewellery. But to prove her theory, she will have to offer herself up as bait. It’s risky, but her only way of catching the killer… Can Poppy con a con-man, and make it out alive? Or will she be the next wealthy widow on the killer’s list?

An addictive and gripping whodunnit, this historical cozy crime novel is perfect for fans of the mysteries of Verity Bright, T.E. Kinsey, Helena Dixon and Catherine Coles.

AMAZON

I am thrilled to take part in the blog tour for Murder on a Scottish Island, the engaging new novel by Lydia Travers.

The reason I love this series is that it feeds on my Scottish obsession and it has a strong and independent heroine. I really loved the first book in the series, Death at the Highland Loch, and I have been looking forward to reading more adventures set in 1920s Scotland and featuring Lady Poppy Proudfoot and her loyal Labrador Major.

In Murder on a Scottish Island, Poppy and Major are going on holiday on the Isle of Skye and, despite her assurances to Inspector MacKenzie to stay away from murder investigations, she is yet again involved in one. Because, in spite of what the police believes, Poppy is convinced that the widow found strangled is not a simple case of a robbery gone wrong and that there is more to the story and, armed with her notebook, curiosity, and attention to detail, she has every intention to find out what it is.

Murder on a Scottish Island is another fantastic cozy mystery featuring a tenacious and clever heroine determined to discover the truth and a dog stealing the scene any chance he gets. The mystery is intriguing and well-paced, with a good number of suspects and suspense, and there are a few quirky characters that add humor to the novel. Add the beginning of a slow-burn romance between Poppy and Inspector MacKenzie and the atmospheric and beautiful Scottish setting with a charming hotel and a cast of unconventional guests full of secrets and you have an enthralling and entertaining cozy historical mystery. I can wait for the next adventure!

A huge thank you to Sarah Hardy and Bookouture for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a proof of this fantastic novel.

Lydia Travers was born in London. She moved progressively north until settling with her husband in a village on the edge of the Scottish Highlands. She has raised children, bred dogs and kept chickens; and for as long as she can remember has written for pleasure. A former legal academic and practitioner with a PhD in criminology, she now runs self-catering holiday accommodation, sings in a local choir and is walked daily by the family dog.

Lydia also writes as Linda Tyler and her first novel under that name, Revenge of the Spanish Princess, won a 2018 Romance Writers of America competition for the beginning of an historical romance. Her second novel The Laird’s Secret was Commended in the 2021 Scottish Association of Writers’ Pitlochry Quaich competition for the beginning of a romantic novel. Mischief in Midlothian won the 2022 Scottish Association of Writers’ Constable Silver Stag trophy. She has had a number of short stories published in magazines, journals and anthologies in the UK, the USA and Australia.