Knapdale is a remote town on the west coast of Scotland and has been plagued with… well, malicious mischief, although given that it includes (thankfully non-fatal) cat poisoning, that might be understating the problem. But when Ellen McIver, the local busybody, is found dead, things seem to have escalated. Especially, when she was killed by a tractor first hitting her and then reversing over her just to make sure…

When DI Anna Vaughan arrives from Glasgow, there seems no shortage of suspects. Assisted by local DC Jo McLean, it soon becomes very clear that there are plenty of secrets to be uncovered – indeed, Ellen may well have uncovered some of them before her death. And one of them was dangerous enough for someone to commit Death By Tractor.

Quick review today – I’m off for a week in Wales tomorrow. Not Scotland, but that actually is the reason I read this one, because the second book in the series is The Isle Of Mull Murders and at the end of the month, I’m off for a second break and that will include a trip to Mull. So I thought I’d better get up to speed with the first in the series.

It evokes the beauty of the area exceptionally well and a well-constructed cast of characters. Anna is a decent lead – she may well be an escapee from Seller’s Lola Harris series, as she contacts Lola, her ex-boss, a couple of times – with a pleasantly happy marriage. In fact, that’s the one bit I didn’t get was the plot concerning Anna’s mother-in-law, which wasn’t desperately gripping and didn’t really tie into the ongoing story.

All in all, this is a pretty decent modern mystery. It’s more a “that make sense” rather than “sort out the clues” plot – there is a logic to why the killer chooses a tractor as a murder weapon, for example, but a lot of crucial material in the motive comes very late in the day.

Still, not perfect, but a decent read, and I look forward to visiting Mull next week in more ways that one.