A Trick of the Light

Pet portraitist Susie Mahl has to use all her artistic know-how to get to the bottom of a fiendish Scottish mystery

Praise for the Highland Mysteries:

‘A delicious new voice in crime writing... Excellent on the English aristocracy and written in a fine wry style.’ Daily Mail

‘This is a well paced and exciting read. More please!’ Alexander McCall Smith

‘Absorbing, charming and funny.’ Antonia Fraser

Struggling with long-buried family secrets and her own recent heartbreak, artist and pet portraitist Susie Mahl hopes her brief sojourn as an art tutor at a Scottish country house will prove a distraction.

But Susie soon realises she has bigger problems than teaching her eclectic mix of students to draw a Highland cow. Beneath the beautiful landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and the grandeur of the Auchen Laggan Tosh estate lie hidden secrets. Can Susie work out what exactly is going on before it’s too late? And can anyone be trusted?

Ali Carter was born in Scotland and read art history at St Andrews. In 2011, she had a catastrophic cycling accident, and after a long recovery decided to follow her passion and become an artist. This experience serves as the basis for her novels, A Brush with Death (2018) and The Colours of Murder (2019).