I hated the first chapter of the book and I almost put the book down... but I'm glad I didn't.

From the inside flap:
"1493. When the peat-cutters came to report the dead man, Gil Cunningham was up in the roof-space of his mother's house teaching his new young wife, Alys, swordplay.

The finders believe the corpse in the peat to be that of Thomas Murray, missing from the coalmine on the estate of Sir James Douglas, Gil's godfather. Murray's wife and the autocratic widow who run the coalmine are sure it is someone else, but Sir James's steward, the officious (idiotic zealot) David Fleming, accuses them of having killed Murray by witchcraft. And if the corpse is not the missing man, who is it?

Gil, trying to establish the truth of the matter is helped by an old acquaintance from Glasgow, hindered by the steward, and finds himself dealing with the peat-cutters and salt-boilers, colliers and priests, and five verra different women of the missing man's family."

Another problem I have w/ the author is that she switches back and forth, often in the same paragraph, of her characters speaking in a thick Scots accent and regular English, which ye ken, makes for difficult reading.

I learned a bit about salt and yew... and I figured out Murray & who done it. What was never revealed was, who the body in the peat was...

But after the first chapter I was able to settle in & finish the book. ( )

This series is strongly recommended to people who like historical fiction or Scottish history. As much a historical novel as a mystery, the series takes place in the lowlands of Scotland in the late 15th century, and brings it vividly to life. A lot of Scottish words are used in the writing, but it is so well done that the meaning is almost always clear from the context.. McIntosh is extremely skillful as showing rather than telling. The characters are well-drawn, and the main ones very likeable. There is a large cast of continuing characters and subplots continue from one book to the next, both of which I like as they make the world more real to me. As soon as I read the first one, I was so caught up in Gil's life that I rushed to the UK Amazon website to see if there was a sequel. I thought that the mystery in this one left a little to be desired, both the motive and the means of concealing information. It was still well worth reading as another installment in the lives of Gil and Alys and their friends and family. ( )