Murder Takes the High Road by Josh Lanyon

Narrated by Gary Furlong

I’m a relative newcomer to Josh Lanyon’s work, although I’ve enjoyed the few books of hers I’ve read or listened to and am definitely planning on reading and listening to more. Murder Takes the High Road is a new standalone romantic mystery set in Scotland, wherein our hero, California-based librarian Carter Matheson, is spending his holiday on a To Die For tour of the locations associated with the work of his favourite author. If you enjoy stories in which the author throws a subtle wink or three in your direction, then this is likely to appeal; Ms. Lanyon references many of the conventions and tropes found in genre fiction, name-dropping everything from classic mystery writers to Midsomer Murders and skilfully creates a Christie-like scenario culminating in a shocking murder at a remote Scottish castle. It’s low-angst, light-hearted fare, and the focus is definitely on the mystery – so anyone expecting something akin to the author’s normal brand of romantic suspense might be a bit disappointed. Murder Takes the High Road is more of a “cozy” mystery; it’s enjoyable, but lacks the steamy, fast-paced thrills I associate with the kind of m/m romantic suspense novels I’ve been listening to lately.

Carter Matheson definitely fits the definition of a superfan when it comes to British crime author Dame Vanessa Rayburn. There is only one To Die For tour each year and the highlight is the four nights spent on a remote Scottish island owned by the lady herself, where her superfans get to stay in her castle, spend time with her and talk to her about her work.

The thing about there being only one tour per year is that they fill up and sell out very quickly and there’s a waiting list – so Carter booked his tour two years earlier, planning to make the trip with his boyfriend, Trevor, also a fan of Dame Vanessa’s. Unfortunately, Carter and Trevor spilt up some ten months prior to the holiday – but Carter isn’t going to be cheated out of his one opportunity to meet his favourite writer, and decides to proceed with his plans, even though Trevor is still going on the tour. Which is how Carter ends up boarding the bus from the airport in company with a disparate group consisting mostly of older ladies, husbands, companions… and his permanently scowling ex and his equally disapproving new boyfriend.

Carter is the only one of the group travelling solo and had looked forward to having a room to himself for the duration, so he can’t help feeling a bit disappointed when their tour guide tells him that there’s a late addition to the party due to arrive that night, and that he’ll have a roommate after all. Insurance salesman John Knight arrives in time to witness Carter in the middle of a spat with an angry Trevor, who insists that Carter has only gone on the trip to spite him and spy on him and Vance.

Needless to say, ten months post-breakup, Carter has realised Trevor is a wanker and is wondering what he ever saw in him. He drifts off to sleep wondering if he should just cut his losses and fly home… and is awakened in the early hours by the sound of John moving around the bedroom. John explains he can’t sleep and is going for a walk, but when the same thing happens the next night, and the next, Carter realises his roommate is prone to late-night wandering and starts to suspect that not all is as it seems. Added to the middle-of-the-night walkabouts is the fact that John doesn’t appear to have read a single one of Vanessa Rayburn’s books, making Carter question his presence on the tour. After a suspicious near-accident which sees Carter almost mown down by a passing car, and the unexpected death of one tour member and the shady disappearance of another, Carter is persuaded by his fellow mystery fans to do a little bit of sneaky investigating to see if he can find out what’s going on.

I’ll let listeners experience the unfolding of the story for themselves, and will just say that the mystery is deftly plotted and there’s a rather nice tongue-in-cheek twist thrown in part of the way through which provides another of those nods to the genre and its fans I mentioned earlier. But the skilled plotting can’t disguise the uneven pacing, especially in the early part of the novel, in which I began to wonder if the author had taken a research trip to Scotland and loved it so much she just had to cram in every little detail about the scenery and the food! I won’t deny that the menus sound enticing, but that level of detail really slows things down, and whereas one can skim such things in print, that’s not so easy to do in audio. And as I said earlier, the romance is very much secondary to mystery, and it’s rather underdeveloped; Carter and John are good together, but their relationship moves very quickly, and I’d have liked a little more time spent on it and with them as a couple. Because the story is told entirely from Carter’s PoV, John remains an enigmatic figure throughout, and it’s difficult to get a handle on him; and because I couldn’t really connect with him, it was hard to completely buy into his connection with Carter.

Gary Furlong is a favourite narrator of mine, and given that I’ve only previously listened to him in books featuring British characters, I was interested to hear how he’d tackle one featuring (mostly) Americans. I’ve had some horrible experiences recently with British narrators adopting really fake-sounding American accents, but Mr. Furlong hasn’t let me down yet, and within a very short space of time he proved I’d been right not to worry. To my British ears, his American accent sounded accurate and consistent, and he does a terrific job of switching seamlessly between American, Scottish, posh-Brit and West-Country when called for. His narration is well-paced and subtly differentiated; he performs John’s dialogue at a slightly lower pitch than he employs for Carter and the narrative, and although there were times I had to rely on dialogue tags to work out who was speaking, this was more down to the fact that there’s a large cast of characters and I couldn’t always remember who was who than to any failing on Mr. Furlong’s part. He imbues the exchanges between the two principals with warmth and a believable sense of affection that helped me to buy into their romance a little more than I might have done had I read the book rather than listened to it, and his interpretation of Dame Vanessa is very good, the naturally husky note present in his voice combining with a softening of tone to create the impression of a coolly composed, self-possessed “grande dame”.

Murder Takes the High Road is entertaining, if somewhat uneven, but it’s well-written and Gary Furlong’s expert narration is an added incentive to listen rather than read this story. My content grade reflects my concerns about the pacing in the first half and the lack of romantic development, but if you’re someone who likes the focus to be on the mystery or you’re a fan of “cozies” in general, you should consider checking this one out.

Caz