Paying the Piper

Elizabeth MacPherson #4

by Sharyn McCrumb

"She's Agatha Christie with an attitude; outrageous and engrossing at the same time."
Steven Womack,
NASHVILLE BANNER
Book four in Sharyn McCrumb's Elizabeth MacPherson murder mystery series.
A motley crew of American and British professionals and amateurs gathers for an archaeological dig into prehistoric burial rites on a small Scottish island. Things already aren't going so well, when one of the strongest in the crew dies suddenly. Afraid for her life, fellow digger and forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson probes the rocky topsoil for a reason behind the evil aura of death that seems to hover over them. Is the excavation cursed by the ancient dead...or is there a more modern explanation behind the group's strangely rising mortality rate...?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Scotland, Archaeology, Cozy, Crime

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 13, 1988

About the author

​
    Sharyn McCrumb, an award-winning Southern writer, is best known for her Appalachian “Ballad” novels, including the New York Times best sellers The Ballad of Tom Dooley, The Ballad of Frankie Silver, and The Songcatcher. Ghost Riders, which won the Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature from the East Tennessee Historical Society and the national Audie Award for Best Recorded Books. The Unquiet Grave, a well-researched novel about West Virginia's Greenbrier Ghost, will be published in September by Atria, a division of Simon &Schuster.        
       Sharyn McCrumb, named a Virginia Woman of History by the Library of Virginia and a Woman of the Arts by the national Daughters of the American Revolution,  was awarded the Mary Hobson Prize for Arts & Letters in 2014. Her books have been named New York Times and Los Angeles Times Notable Books. In addition to presenting programs at universities, libraries, and other organizations throughout the US, Sharyn McCrumb has taught a writers workshop in Paris, and served as writer-in-residence at King University in Tennessee, and at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York.

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharyn McCrumb is one of the greatest cozy writers of all time, and this series is the reason why. In book 4, series heroine and grad student Elizabeth McPherson is off to Scotland with her boyfriend, Cameron, who is tracking seals off the coast. She's joining an archeological site looking at a similar to Stonehenge, but smaller, ancient rock circle. Cameron is Scottish and is bemused by Anglophile Elizabeth's enthusiasm as they arrive. She drags him on a ghost tour of Edinburgh and someone is murdered, though it doesn't seem to relate to the following events (or does it?) on the secluded, And Then there Were None type island where Elizabeth will be working and where her colleagues start to drop off one by one. The writing sparkles, the setting is perfection, and the characters, down to a bagpipe loving true crime nerd, are all fantastic. The pace is snappy, the murders and the resolution insanely clever. There's really nothing NOT to love in these books.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

So so, I got the impression the author got bored and finished writing the book quickly

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like I have read this book many years ago but since I did not remember very much about the story it might have just been something I wished I had read. I know for a fact that once upon a time i read quite a few books written by Sharon McCrumb. She caught my eye when I realized that she lived in the same part of Virginia as I did.. I kept reading her books because I liked them. This book is the 4th one in the Elizabeth MacPherson series.

Elizabeth is in love with with a Scotsman, Cameron. He wonders at times if she loves him as a person or more so as an idea of a modern day Bonnie Prince Charles. She knows more of Scotlannds history than he ever remembered from school. When she finds out that he will be spending his summer studying the migration of seals around the islands off the coast of Scotland, Elizabeth finds an archaeological dig near by that is willing to take her on as part of the team so she can be close to Cameron. First though, Elizabeth is determined to cram as much of Scotland and it ancient history in her memories before they both start working for the summer. Last night before they leave, they meet up with some of the other members of her archaeological team and take a murder tour--visiting sites of famous murders. Something one of her team members is obsessed with murder. In fact, the majority of the team seems to all be a little strange. The doctor on the team only wants to be social if he can display his superior knowledge. His girlfriend is annoying and acts like a den mother. Elizabeth is a bit stranded among people she has nothing in common with and a boyfriend who can only visit once a week from his near by island. The island has an old war tin shack that serves as a sleeping, living and working space. The weather is cold and rainy from the moment they start to work. Which makes it hard to work at times. Within the week, the doctor has fallen from a cliff and hit his head. Off he is sent to the mainland, along with his girlfriend, to the hospital. The murder obsessed guy goes to a smaller island to do some preliminary work pertaining to the site they are currently working. Problem is that within a few days, the rain is so bad that one of the other guys on the team goes to retrieve him and finds him in his tent dead. From there, the team all seems to be sick and another dies. Everyone except Elizabeth who is perfectly healthy. Is one of the team members killing off the others and why? The radio has been destroyed and Cameron is not due to visit for a few more days. Everyone could be dead by then if Elizabeth does not figure out exactly what is happening and how to stop it.

This book is full of history in a fun, entertaining way. The characters are over-the-top but in a believable way. I loved the way the author works in the modern era in with the past. The reality of how people lived in the past and how in the retelling of history can sometimes not quite convey the harshness of that time was a part of this book I enjoyed. I also liked Elizabeth with her optimistic view of history but her no-nonsense approach to dealing with the problems at hand. I forgot how much I had enjoyed reading Sharon McCrumb and will definitely find some of her other books to read/re-read.

[Tom Hooker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally like Sharyn McCrumb's work, but this novel gained no traction until the last few pages. The book was published in 1988, and her work has improved since. This is the story of Elizabeth McPherson, and of her trip to Scotland to be part of an archaeology dig on an offshore island. While in her beloved Edinburgh, she witnesses a murder, then she whisks off with her team-mates to the dig site, where they spend several days enduring the cold and not getting along. Only in the last thirty or so pages (of the 180 page book) does the story come alive. The crisis and resolution is satisfactory, it just should have been set up earlier and in more depth.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mediocre Scottish Highlands mystery. It was funny but far too contrived for a frequent mystery reader. I have enjoyed other titles by McCrumb much more.

[Jennie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read and enjoyed other McCrumb books but this wasn't even worth reading.

[Katherine Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be my least favorite book in the series. Second (or third) time reading this series, and I am doing it out of order which is, sorry for the rep., against the natural order of things. But it is interesting what I'm gleaning. For one thing, I am not sure if our protagonist, Elizabeth, should be marrying Cameron. Shocker.

Anyway, back to this mystery. Not much of a mystery, and not much of a villain, though sort of. Still, I love the characters (sort of), and the setting is wonderful.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remembered this series from quite a few years ago, but only the feeling of the people, not specifics. Elizabeth McPherson is somewhat egotistical, southern girl who marries a Scotsman, and she proceeds to educate him in his own history. There's always a murder, of course, but what I've found so far in re-reading this series, is that Elizabeth doesn't always solve the mystery, which is a twist to most series. Some books in the series are better than others, this one is one of the latter.

[Jenny Staller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I continue to not enjoy McCrumb’s novels, yet I keep reading them. This is my least favorite of the three I’ve read so far—the mystery doesn’t really begin until the last 40 pages of the novel, and the murderer was obvious (although the method used was interesting). Elizabeth is vapid and doesn’t really do much of anything other than moon over her drip of a boyfriend, and the other characters are equally uncharismatic.

[Lynn Hoefle · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me, nothing noteworthy till the last 20 pages. I would not compare this title to any Agatha Christie mystery I've read. This was not outrageous, engrossing nor did I find it having an attitude. Not my cup of British tea...

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the four first books so far, this was not my favorite. A remote island near Outer Hebrides, archaeological dig.

I'm still committed to this series, so will order next book from library.

[Kathei]

paperback

I think there are 9 books in this series.

[Dennis P Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

5.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute, satisfying, non-traditional mystery story. The only thing I disliked was the spoilery back cover.

[Tommie Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite...seems a lot like Lovely in her bones, except it is in Scotland and not Virginia. Wicked twist at the end makes up for most of the sameness

[Michael Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book 4, #3 was not in exchange area at library. Again the story is weak. New boyfriend is at least more attentive. But do not plan to read anymore of this character.

[Pamela Aikman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another easy read. Mystery novel. Secondary characters get a bit more page time which was rather enjoyable.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell?

The first book in the Elizabeth MacPherson series was terribly written, but it clearly was a cozy satire using the mystery conventions of the 1930's for a platform to entertain the reader with comedic silliness. The second and third novels were truly funny, with extremely hilarious insult repartee, and once again the books were satiric cozy mysteries. Elizabeth was distinctly a bubble-headed dimwit, stumbling her way into murders and accidentally learning who done it.

Number four in the series is a nondescript ordinary cozy featuring a normalized Elizabeth on a dig in Scotland. She has followed her boyfriend, Cameron Dawson, back to his home country where he is conducting research on his favorite subject, seals. She wants to be with him so she's volunteered to dig in dirt for a group of scientists and students interested in scientifically studying an ancient Celt circle of stones in place on an island, near where Dawson is studying his seals.

At first, things proceed normally with the usual minor tensions of camping domesticity on a primitive deserted island where academics who were strangers to each other before must function together in the common cause of archeology and scientific measuring. Then, one member of their party falls off of a cliff, sustaining what seems to be a serious injury, and shortly after he is removed by boat to hospital, a storm settles over the island with a constant drenching rain. Soon after, first one of their party, then another, begin to cough. The group struggles with the boredom of forced inactivity - but one morning, the one with the worst cough doesn't wake up. In fact, he isn't even breathing. Then, the discovery is made that the radio has been sabotaged. They are stranded.

Elizabeth isn't certain, but she wonders if they've been intentionally poisoned. She rejects the idea. Perhaps they were exposed to a toxin from the soil. If she can't think of a way to contact Cameron, on a nearby island, it will be too late for most of them. They are all coughing except her. She was taking penicillin for a cut on her finger, but while she appears to be safe, she doesn't want her new friends to die. Time is running out.

Sigh. Not much comedy this time. The characters are soothingly conventional, and the writing meets the needs of cozy mystery readers looking for an expected adventure which won't tax either the libido or intelligence.

Frankly, I thought this was a terribly lame plot. I don't think it was written intentionally comedic, but it certainly ended up being hilarious, I believe unintentionally so. It seemed to me to be written with serious intent, even with the light cozy detailing.

I could not believe that Alistair would kill them all with anthrax because he apparently felt like it, mostly, but he also feared that murders he committed as a juvenile might be exposed since Owen was a fan of true crime history. He had been treated and imprisoned for the murders already; not only was it in his past, but it was not a secret. He'd been forgiven and given a second chance by supporters. He had nothing to hide because he'd already paid his debt to society and it was publicly known. Psychologically and interpretatively, the murderer's motive made absolutely no sense. Killing the tour actor made little sense, either. Plus, why was Alistair on a dig? Why'd he volunteer for this trip? He wanted to be a famous doctor for a wonderful discovery and to be admired intellectually. Then why go off the deep end and kill all of the scientists who knew nothing about his identity?

But while I thought the murderer made no sense on any level, even worse was the ridiculous ending. Really? Somehow Elizabeth hung onto a seal radio collar and sends Morse code numbers to Cameron, which he figures out by the clicks and dashes it must mean Elizabeth is in trouble because of plague since the numbers must be the year of the real Black Plague?

*snort* O _ o Really? : /

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A motley crew of American and British professionals and amateurs gather for an archaeological dig into prehistoric burial rites on a small Scottish island. The quarters are cramped, cold, and Scottish-summer soggy. Tempers are already simmering when a bagpipe-playing, crime-enthusiast American is found dead in his tent. Then one of the strongest in the crew dies mysteriously.

Afraid for her life, fellow digger and forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson, in love with myth and Celtic folklore, probes the rocky topsoil for a reason behind the evil aura of death that seems to hang over them. Is the excavation cursed by the ancient dead ... or is there a more modern and sinister explanation behind the group's strangely rising mortality rate?"
~~back cover

Elizabeth has gotten wetter and wetter. Now she's poor Cameron into getting her on a dig in Scotland, so she can be near him during the summer. She's gone completely potty about her Scottish ancestry, and all things Scottish. All things Scottish, as long as they're coeval with the '45, or thereabouts. She's changed from an ascerbic, witty, sensible young woman into a complete ninny: gazing wistfully out to sea, manipulating Cameron into doing what she wants, whether or no it's sensible. Etc.

Good plot though -- and I didn't see the end coming. Elizabeth did manage to climb out of her romance-induced fog to handle the situation, figure out how to send for help, etc. I would have given the book one less star if she hadn't pulled herself together like that at the end.

As always, a good read -- not too demanding but well written and entertaining.

[Suzanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. Not as funny as McCrumb's books in this series usually are, not as suspensful as I might have hoped, either. Not a whole lot of the usual "Southern charm" and trivia. Just reasonably entertaining.

I will say she worked in some interesting trivia on anthropology and even more, Scotland. McCrumb herself has some Scottish roots; one side of her family hails from traditional South, the other from Appalachia. Apparently in researching her Appalachian side, she has enjoyed learning about the Scottish piece of that background and has woven it into this series. Elizabeth is obviously Sharyn in many ways.

There is some foreshadowing of what will happen later in this series (I'm not reading it in order), which was an interesting choice. Usually the authors I read foreshadow within a book, but not a series; if you like picking things like that up and are the sort to go back and reread books, or if you don't read in order (like myself), that may be a bonus for you.

Character development-wise, I'm not crazy about Elizabeth's boyfriend (later in the series, husband); he seems flat to me and less thought out than most of her characters. I'm guessing she normally bases characters on folks she knows, but based him more on imagination. Also, I find Elizabeth less likable in this book when she interacts with him. She's a bit of a twit - the kind of girl who makes herself cry so the man she is with will do things for her.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve really loved this series up to now, and I will continue reading it. This was just a speedbump for me that slowed me down. I’m glad it was as short as it is.

Forensic archaeologist Elizabeth MacPherson finds her Scottish heritage fascinating. Her current boyfriend, Cameron, who is a native of Scotland, isn’t all that interested in his country’s history. He gets a summer gig studying seals on a remote Scottish island, and she gets a gig digging on an even more abandoned Scottish island in a miniature Stonehenge-like place.

The two agree to communicate via radio when they can, and he will come to her every weekend, weather permitting. For substantial portions of time while she’s there, the weather doesn’t permit. The dig includes obnoxious people who don’t get along well, and when they start dying, Elizabeth realizes there’s a murderer among them. It’s up to her to employ her amateur sleuth ability to figure out who the killer is before the entire group dies.

This is a short read, but it’s a slow read. My mind wandered a lot, and yet I finished it because the final pages are more engrossing and faster to get through.

[Roni · Rating 3 out of 5]

It takes place on a small Scottish island, full of foreboding atmosphere, naturally, where Elizabeth MacPherson, a forensic anthropologist, and a crew of archaeologists are looking into prehistoric burial rites. Even though it is not related to her field of study, she desires to re-trace of her ancestors from Appalachia in western part of North Carolina to the Scotland Highlands by taking up a site dig for a brief summer. And then, of course, a crew member dies. I tried to play detective along as I read, but Paying the Piper totally faked me out -- the author, Sharyn McCrumb used one of the most brilliant murder methods I've ever come across in my reading in mystery books. I enjoy learning something new about Scotland's and England's culture and history.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Elizabeth McPherson mystery where the ending came really fast, and in this case, the mystery pretty much resolved itself. I was wondering when were going to come back around to Keenan's murder. I guess I should have figured out the killer sooner, since the predicament of everyone being stranded on an island and incommunicado bears a strong resemblance to Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." I would really like to see Elizabeth trying to catch a wild seal and get its collar off without getting bitten. Also, the constant shifts in point of view were annoying. You have to get your bearings at the beginning of each section and figure out if it's Elizabeth's travel journal, or Cameron (just talking to himself, I guess), or the semi-omniscient narrator.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this book until after chapter 10. It was boring and annoying. Elizabeth's character was disappointing...again. It's like she gets more stupid with each book. She's studied sociology, plants and herbs, forensic anthropology, history, and lore and she's still a ditz. Here's this educated, southern woman and half of what she says is wrong as pointed out by her boyfriend. It's embarrassing. And yet she always "knows" what's going on. I don't know how and it isn't explained. She just magically figures it out and bam The End. I will continue to read the rest of the series because it's good enough to read when you have nothing else to read or want/need something light and familiar. I hope Elizabeth "gets smart" in the following books.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this story on vacation and gobbled it right up. It's a murder mystery that takes place on a remote, isolated island off the coast of Scotland with a small band of archeologists researching a stone henge type dig. I myself participated on a dig of a henge monument in Scotland back when I was in college. I did not encounter any sinister happenings, but I really could experience the site in the story and what the characters were doing. I loved it. It was my first trip abroad and I was on my own in a foreign country. It was just as I remembered, although my dig was inland and we all lived in a very derelict old estate nearby.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharyn McCrumb writes insightful little fluffy mystery novels, and this one is a little more macabre than most. The central character, Elizabeth MacPherson, is a forensic anthropologist, and is participating in an dig on a northern Scottish island while her boyfriend, Cameron, is on a nearby biology research station. Her strange "dig-mates", each with his or her own unique personality, don't make for an enjoyable time, and then death starts to creep in. This is one in a series.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the book was short and there seemed to be very little character development, probably because the book was short. The whole concept seemed far-fetched, but I did like the American/Scottish /English comparing and contrasting that pointed out the romantic visions we have about England, Scotland, etc. and the idea that Europeans seem to have that we all live in California.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never read a book with so many characters that I didn't give a damn if they lived to the end or not. Not even the so-called heroine was very heroic, just stupidly lucky.

I had forgotten that McCrumb mysteries are not really mysteries, people die and soloutions are solved, but it's all by accident or happenstance.

[Mikkee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Paying the Piper, and I am going to read more of Sharyn McCrumb's books. I give her a 3 instead of 4 stars because it took me about 1/3 of the way into the book to really be excited about the characters and plot. However, once McCrumb had me in, I couldn't set it down.

[Shaunesay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast, interesting mystery! I will have to look for the rest of the series, I believe this was #4, but I didn't really feel like I was missing anything as their was plenty of current explanation about the relationship of the main character and her boyfriend.