A Matter of Murder — Ann Crew

Portia Considers... In this spin off from the Elspeth Duff Mystery series, Portia MacRoberts, a young lawyer who has taken over the Duff, MacBean and MacRoberts firm of solicitors in Pitlochry, Perthshire, is faced with a blustering client, Sir Gerald Cruikshank. He claims his wife is soon to be arrested for the murder of her long-lost son, Bradon, who is found murdered in her studio. But why and how has Bradon suddenly appeared in Scotland? Could his death bring economic relief to the Cruikshanks, who have experienced a downturn in their finances? Portia normally does not take murder cases but this one draws her in. She recruits a new member of her firm, Angus Elliot, and Paige MacDonald, an experienced criminal lawyer in Perth, and relies on 'conversations' with her dead husband, Tim, to help her in this complex and puzzling case because she senses the danger to her firm and herself. Portia plunges fearlessly into the case which is filled with intriguing and complex characters and the vagaries of the Scottish weather.