Written in Stone

A Scottish Bookshop Mystery, Book 10

By: Paige Shelton

Narrated by: Eleanor Caudill

When Delaney wins a special Hidden Door Festival invitation to artist Ryory Bennigan's studio, she isn't sure quite what to expect. What she finds is an elusive fellow obsessed with the Picts—complete with his own versions of their blue tattoos and vibrant red hair—recreating the stones they left behind. She also meets a visiting paleontologist, Dr. Adam Pace, from the University of Kansas attempting to sell an artifact that might just explain what the Picts' language really sounded like.

Or at least that's what he claimed the artifact was for. Before the deal can close and Ryory can get a closer look at it, Dr. Pace is found dead.

With the police dragging their feet in the investigation, Delaney takes it upon herself to dig into Dr. Pace's past. Her research goes murky as she quickly discovers Pace's shady background—selling fake dinosaur bones and running into some 3D-printing trouble back in Kansas. Could his past have come back to bite him in Edinburgh? And what does his questionable background mean for the mysterious Pictish artifact he was trying to sell to Ryory? Delaney will have to dust off her magnifying glass to uncover the truth behind this case . . . or risk becoming a pile of bones herself.

©2025 Paige Shelton-Ferrell (P)2025 Tantor Media

Great continuation of the Cracked Spine mysteries.

I liked the previous narrators better. This one was ok, but couldn’t really separate the other Scots characters as well as previous narrators.

Not the best in the series….

I’m a huge fan of the series, but the story fell flat. I’m very disappointed that Aggie and Elias didn’t make an appearance. Overall, I did like this narrator much better than other books. However, her constant mispronunciation of Edinburgh is pretty cringy.

Not as exciting

Not as exciting as her previous Cracked Spine novels. Perhaps paleontology is just not interesting to me.

The Edinburgh businesses and museums, etc.

I liked the story as much as all the previous ones. I did miss Elias and Aggie being in the story, they were barely mentioned but didn’t make an appearance. Please include them next time.

Wonderful writing.

I greatly disliked the last two narrators. The third person made the men sound Russian. Awful!