Janet Marsh first appeared in Plaid and Plagiarism and one of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions, so let’s get to know Janet.

What is your name?
Janet Marsh

How old are you?
63

What is your profession?
I’m a retired librarian (a profession I loved), and now, along with my three business partners, I own a bookshop in Inversgail, Scotland (Yon Bonnie Books), with an attached tea room (Cakes and Tales), and a B&B on the floor above (Bedtime Stories). So far, so good – after all, this new profession still involves books, and I love everything about books.

Do you have a significant other?
I was married until a few years ago, and I thought I would be for many years to come. But my husband had other plans. He left me for one of his graduate students. That’s gotten easier to say, as time goes by, but not much easier to feel. He has a new wife, though, and I have a new life. Maybe we both win.

What is his name and profession?
Are you asking for his real name or the one I call him? Take your pick—Curtis Marsh or Curtis the Rat. Either way he’s a professor of economics at the University of Illinois.

Any children?
A daughter and a son. Tallie, my daughter, is one of my business partners. She’s a lawyer and former law professor, but she was ready for a change. Buying a bookshop and moving to Scotland is a pretty big change, but she’s enjoying it as much as I am. My son, Allen, is married to the lovely Nicola. They’re both software engineers, live in Edinburgh, and have two adorable, rascally little boys.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
Larry and Chuck, twin brothers five years older than I am. They’re two of the nicest guys you’ll meet. They followed Dad into farming and also operate the grain elevator in Lincoln, Illinois.

Do your parents live near you?
My parents passed within two months of each other ten years ago. They loved farming, their children, and each other. I hated losing them, but it was a blessing they didn’t have to be apart for too long.

Who is your best friend?
Christine Robertson. She’s also one of my business partners. I met Christine back in Champaign, Illinois, when Tallie and Allen were in elementary school. She and her late husband, Tony, were Scottish transplants to our cornfields. They invited us to visit them in Inversgail one summer and we fell in love with the place. For Christine, this move to Inversgail is a homecoming.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
Two cats, both lads, both rescues. Smirr is large and the color of a rainy day. Butter is a kitten the size and color of a butter pat.

What town do you live in?
Inversgail is on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. It’s a thriving tourist town and as beautiful as you might imagine.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent
A house built of granite blocks. Curtis and I were lucky enough to buy it when the children were small and we came as a family for part of each summer. I got the house in the divorce settlement. That helped make the move here possible.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
The family room. Despite the marriage falling apart, it’s a room full of good memories.

Favorite meal and dessert?
I like almost anything with toasted cheese and almost anything with chocolate, so let’s go with a couple of standards – an open-faced, toasted cheese sandwich and a piece of warm chocolate pudding cake (you know the kind I mean – with warm dark chocolate pudding oozing out onto the plate).

Favorite hobby?
Reading. No contest. I read anytime, anywhere. But I’ve started bicycling, too. You might question my sanity, there. In the Highlands? Really? Yep, and it’s absolutely breathtaking (in more ways than one). My goal is to ride in the next Haggis Half-hundred, make it the full fifty miles, and enjoy the congratulatory plate of haggis they hand me at the finish.

Favorite color?
The blue of a Highland summer sky.

Favorite author?
How about favorites instead of a favorite? The whole list would be too long, but here’s a short version. For page-turning middle-grade mysteries: Sheila Turnage, Nancy Springer, Octavia Spencer, and Geoffrey McSkimming. For classics, mystery and otherwise: Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, James Thurber, Mark Twain, Josephine Tey, Dr. Seuss, and E.B. White. For writers who seem to be able to do it all: Janice N. Harrington, Alexander McCall Smith, Jane Yolen, Caroline Wickham-Jones, Lori Rader-Day, and Catriona McPherson. And please know that I already feel bad for leaving so many out. So many!

Favorite vacation spot?
When I lived in Illinois, it was Inversgail. Now I live in Inversgail. How cool is that?

Favorite sports team?
My grandmother loved the Chicago Cubs, so I’ll go with them. Maybe in a few years I’ll replace them with a local curling team.

Movies or Broadway?
I love live theater, but let’s be real. In my pajamas with popcorn and a movie.

Are you a morning or a night person?
Morning, I guess. See “pajamas” above.

Amateur sleuth or professional and whom do you work with?
Amateur. I work with my business partners—Christine Robertson, Summer Jacobs, and Tallie. We’re all amateurs at sleuthing, but very good ones. We have skills and we know how to use them. We also have an understanding with Constable Norman Hobbs. We turn information over to him and he tells us what he can about a case. There are a couple of reasons he’s probably willing to work with us this way. One is that we let him take the credit for solving crimes. The other is that we’ve never told his higher ups about what we call the Nana Bethia Incident. You might think that sounds like blackmail. We think of it as being kind and doing Norman a favor.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
Breakfast and out the door for five or ten miles on my bike. Home for a shower and then off to Yon Bonnie Books. On Mondays, after a day of bookselling and pouring tea, the four of us stop in Nev’s for a half pint and supper. The rest of the week it’s home again to the cats and a good book.

Thistles and Thieves is the third book in the “Highland Bookshop” cozy mystery series, released January 7, 2020.

The latest entry in the charming Highland Bookshop mystery series finds the women of Yon Bonnie Books embroiled in the death of a local doctor, which sets off a chain of other curious—and deadly—events.

Out for a bicycle ride in the hills beyond Inversgail, Janet Marsh discovers the body of Dr. Malcolm Murray. The elderly Murray and his own bicycle went off the road and down a steep slope—he’s sprawled in the burn at the bottom, his damaged bike in a patch of thistles on the bank. Janet calls the Police Scotland emergency number. Tire tracks at the side of the narrow road suggest a vehicle might have been involved. But if it was an accident, the driver hasn’t come forward. And if it wasn’t an accident. . .But who would want the well-loved, retired doctor dead?

A few days after the death, a box of vintage first editions is left on the doorstep of Yon Bonnie Books with a note: “Please look after these books. Thank you.” Janet and her crew at the shop are at first delighted, and then mystified—what exactly does “look after” mean? Are they free to sell them? And what are the odd notes penciled in the margins? With a little digging, the women decide the books might belong to Malcolm Murray or his reclusive brother, Gerald. When Janet and Christine call at Malcolm’s house, they find his confused, angry sister and evidence of a burglary. When they go to Gerald’s modest croft house, they find the door ajar and Gerald dead inside, stabbed with a regimental dagger.

While the police try to determine if the Murray brothers’ deaths are connected and who’s responsible, Janet and the bookshop owners try to find out how and why the box of books ended up on their doorstep. The police are interested in those questions, too, and they’re more than a little suspicious. Are the Yon Bonnie women as good with burglar tools as they are with books—and at finding bodies?

Purchase Link
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About the author
The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the best-selling, award-winning author of the Highland Bookshop Mysteries and the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Molly lives in Champaign, Illinois.

To learn more about Molly, visit her website at mollymacrae.com.

All comments are welcomed.