This reads to me more like a police procedural than a cozy mystery. It’s not for me, but I’m sure the target audience will enjoy it. It’s well-paced with strong and sympathetic characters.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

This was the first book in this series that I read, and while it is the third one written, I had no trouble following along. The characters were well developed and interesting, the plot moved along quickly and had some nice twists and turns. The story reads as an elevated cozy mystery. Overall, a really great read.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love a good mystery and this was a good mystery. This is the 3rd book in the Grace McKenna series, but can be read as a stand-alone. The characters were great; you could easily relate to the ones you needed to relate to and didn't like the characters you shouldn't like. The world-building and scene settings were very well done and I had no problem picturing the scenes in my head. The story is fast-paced with enough twists and turns to keep on flipping the pages. I read this book in one sitting and enjoyed every second of it. I think the only thing that was a little downer was the plot. I figured that one out pretty quickly, but it didn't take away my curiosity if I was right. This book gives you the ‘cosy’ mystery vibe, but with the tension and suspense, it becomes a lot more. I like Jackie her writing style and she has no problem dragging you into the story from the very first page. If you are a fan of mystery, private detectives and you like to stay up just so you can finish a book, try this one out. In all fairness, the whole series is really nice, so if you are bored you can definitely binge-read these ones.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you, NetGalley, and Storm Publishing for this ARC.

This book had me guessing until the end. I thought I had it figured out a few times, but I was wrong. Great mystery and characters!

This book held me in suspense and made me wonder what was going to happen next. I liked the bravery of the investigators and the girl whose sister is missing. I didn't see the findings or the ending coming.

Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and Jackie Baldwin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Murder at Whiteadder House
by Jackie Baldwin
Pub Date: May 29 2024

Murder at Whiteadder House is the 3rd book in the Detective Grace McKenna Scottish Murder Mystery. Although it is the 3rd book in a series it can be read as a standalone.

The book has great writing, the plot has a lot of unexpected twists and turns and the story ends in a dramatic climax! My favorite book in the series!

Synopsis: When 28-year-old Eliza Anderson walks through Grace McKenna’s door begging for help finding her missing sister, it sparks the Portobello Detective Agency’s most dangerous investigation to date.

Many thanks to #MurderatWhiteadderHouse #NetGalley and #StormPublishing for providing me with an E-ARC of this book.

This was a strong third entry in the Grace McKenna Mystery series, it had that cozy mystery element that I was looking for. It had a strong story and thought the overall feel worked well together with the characters. I enjoyed the way Jackie Baldwin wrote this and left me wanting to read more in this series and from Jackie Baldwin.

Set in Scotland near Edinburgh, Grace McKenna runs a private investigation agency, with team members Hannah and Jean, and of course, her golden retriever Harvey. Her ex-husband Brodie is a police officer, and the two had almost gotten back together when Brodie’s girlfriend Julie announced that she was pregnant, drawing Brodie to her.

Grace’s client Eliza is desperate to locate her missing twin sister Beth, who had been a patient at the mysterious Whiteadder House rehab center to recover from her addictions. Grace’s investigation starts to reveal that there are some horrible things going on behind the scenes at the seemingly ideal rehab center. As Grace, Jean, and Hannah discover more about what the doctors are doing at Whiteadder, they are increasingly getting into very dangerous territory. Two mysterious bodies wash up on the beach. Are they associated with Whiteadder? Grace finds it difficult to get help from the police or even to know whom she can trust. Can she even trust Brodie? The characters are very well-written, and the story was so absorbing I read it in one day, taking only short breaks. Great suspense! I recommend it highly.

4.5 good pace, story, and characters Listened br audio and enjoyed Short chapters made reading fast and consistent
Will read more from this author

This is the third Grace McKenna mystery but can be read as a standalone. Grace runs a small detective agency in Edinburgh, at the beginning of the story a client, Eliza Anderson walks through the door asking for help to track down her twin sister Beth. Beth had been an alcoholic and drug addict but apparently had been restored to health by a luxurious rehab clinic at Whiteadder. The clinic seems too good to be true, the last meeting Eliza had with her sister, she seemed to have relapsed to her old ways and sounded paranoid “She kept on about how they were sending the snake to get her.”
Digging deeper into Whiteadder House, Grace and Hannah, her colleague, go undercover into the clinic in an attempt to find out what is going on behind the façade. What they find is unsettling, the clinic is run by an American pharmaceutical company, which has no qualms about their research methods, they also have local clout with the police; this will prove to be a very dangerous investigation.
The thriller has elements of a Robin Cook medical thriller mixed with a private detective investigation like a Sara Paretsky novel. The writing is engaging and the plot takes a number of dramatic twists and turns. We are invested in the characters as they delve deeper into the mystery. The story races along to a thrilling climax.

An Exciting and Gripping Novel
I really enjoyed the previous book, so I was really looking forward to reading this book Murder at Whiteadder Lane by Jackie Baldwin. This is an action-packed thriller that grabbed my attention from the start. Grace McKenna was a high-flying detective in the Edinburgh police force, until her son Connor's suicide. Grace runs a detective agency and is assisted by her friend Jean and Connor's girlfriend Hannah and her dog called Harvey.
The case begins when a lady called Eliza comes in saying her twin sister is missing. Eliza had been to the police, but they think that her sister has disappeared because she is an alcoholic and fell of the wagon and was also taking drugs.
Eliza sister had been a patient at a private clinic, called Whiteadder House which is in the beautiful highlands of Scotland This starts ringing alarm bells for the three investigators as it seems too good to be true, a private clinic offering miracle cures and luxury comfort for one year at no cost plus taking homeless people of the streets and then giving them somewhere to live and helping them to get a job after their release.
Grace and Hanna are determined to find the underlying cause of their missing person as they get drawn into more than just a missing person as They are informed a body washed up on the shores is linked back to the clinic. Grace must trust her instincts to find a way in to save her client’s twin sister. Grace is spurned into action so both Grace and Hannah go undercover and decide to infiltrate the clinic to prevent more deaths and to find Elizas twin sister whom they believe is being kept against her will inside. With the facility locked down tight and a web of corruption allowing Whiteadder to operate unchecked they are going to have to be very careful and get out alive with their client.
I really enjoyed this book, it is an excellent fast pacing book, has intriguing characters, with an action-packed plot line and an exciting and gripping novel which will hold you until the end of the story. Murder at Whiteadder House by Jackie Baldwin is a professionally written book with plenty of twists and turns. A thrilling adventure that I highly recommend. Do not miss this book. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers of this book for giving me a free advance copy of the book to preview and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

ex-cop, local-law-enforcement, missing-persons, Scottish-noir, undercover, thriller, suspense, threats, manipulation, secrets, lies, twins, sisters, private-investigators, rural, corruption, murder, investigation, relationships, relationship-issues, riveting, greed, police-corruption, political-corruption, pharmaceuticals, guinea-pigs, experiments*****

Former DI Grace McKenna left The Job after personal tragedy and came to start the Portobello Detective Agency with a cohesive group of other women and the occasional assist by her DCI ex-husband. This client is in search of her twin sister who has disappeared for good this time, but it doesn't feel voluntary. Their investigations lead to involvement in undercover work at the Whiteadder House, a rehabilitation facility deep in a major wooded area. The story compelled me to finish it in one day!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Storm Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!

The Portobello Detective Agency takes on its most dangerous investigation to date when Eliza Anderson seeks Detective Grace McKenna’s help in finding her missing twin sister. Grace and her team member Hannah begin their search at the Whiteadder House, a rehabilitation facility located deep in the woods of Scotland’s wilderness. They find that the claims for treatment at the facility are almost too good to be true. It is more like a luxury spa for the wealthy than a treatment facility for recovering drug addicts.
Hannah and Grace believe Eliza’s sister is a patient in the facility, and her life may be in danger. When a young woman who was believed to be a patient at the clinic was found dead at a nearby beach, other lives may also be in danger. The police were notified about the suspicious activities going on inside the clinic, but they failed to do anything about it.
Grace and Hannah are determined to find out the truth. In a heart-stopping move, they risk their own lives by infiltrating the clinic to uncover its corrupt activities and prevent more lives from being lost.
A gripping novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

This was an amazing book. I highly recommend it to everyone. Great characters and a great plot. I will be looking for more books by this author. The book is superbly written. Lots of twists, turns and shocking turns of events. Quickly becoming a go to author for me!!!! If you love to read a book and be shocked by the ending then check out this author for sure. You will love this book and this author. Very enjoyable and I highly recommend this book

When Grace is asked to track down her client's missing twin sister, she finds that the clinic supposedly helping addicts rebuild their lives actually has a very different agenda...

Fast-paced and very tense; the main characters at the detective agency are all strong (and there's a wonderful dog!; and although it's the third in the series Jackie catches you up very quickly with what's gone on before. The descriptions of the city are wonderful, too.

Thoroughly good read.

I have to say this is one of my favourite series, the characters are wholesome and not horrible, well, of course there’s one exception, Julie, she’s a bitch, and Brodie is spineless. Coupled with the fact that Julie’s father is Brodies boss.

This time their work involves trying to find missing girls who through the hand of fate have been living rough and possibly recovering from alcohol and other substance abuse. One of them is Eliza’s twin Beth who just disappeared from the face of the earth. When Grace asks Brodie to help it looks like our police are being silenced by Big Pharma (wouldn’t be surprised) !! What follows is a brilliant, fast paced story of avarice and deceit. No-one is who they seem to be.

I read this in a day, and absolutely loved it. My thanks to Jackie, the author and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a lovely blend of cosy mystery without things being too cosy! The storyline is dark and was the perfect compliment to the daily lives of our trio.

For me the star of the show was the characters. I really loved our three women and I would definitely tune into another book in this series purely because they were genuinely likeable and felt really fleshed out. I also think it’s worth a special mention that I feel the author juggled the multiple storylines here perfectly - the interjections of the women’s personal life was really well managed to compliment the pacing of the darker mystery at play. In fact I think I cared more about the side plots than the actual mystery itself at times - probably because there was no mystery and i felt the main plot was very predictable so the personal lives of our trio captured my interest much more.

And, here comes my only real complaint - the plot just felt a bit unbelievable for me. I like my mysteries to be tales I can really buy into and I just didn’t buy it. It was also all fairly predictable, I think I saw the outcome from the get go.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I didn’t know this was a series going in but it didn’t matter as while I’m sure reading the earlier books would have been rewarding this definitely can stand up on it’s own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC

This was fantastic! Grace is asked to track down a client's missing twin sister who was in a rehab clinic but disappeared after being released. Slowly but surely Grace, Jean and Hannah discover a very dark underbelly to the practices at the clinic. A very fast paced, action filled mystery. Grace and her team are wonderful, strong characters and its great getting to know them better with each book. Hopefully there'll be many more cases for them to solve.
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Jackie Baldwin for a free copy in sxchange for an honest review.

whodunit story line, excellent plot and writing.... need i say more??? this is my first book from jackie baldwin, and i am intrigued to read more now!!!! 5/5 stars

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Eliza comes to Grace's office for help. Grace does a little digging and the investigation takes her to some remote area. This book kept me guessing.