Killrannoch Before the Storm

KILLRANNOCH BEFORE THE STORM A Killrannoch Keep Cozy Mystery — Book 0 Some inheritances come with a deed. This one came with secrets. When antiques appraiser Moira Sinclair receives a letter sealed in burgundy wax, she expects a bureaucratic oddity. What she gets instead is a castle. Killrannoch Keep. Inverness-shire. Scottish Highlands. Forty acres. And a great-great-aunt she knew only as a name spoken in reverence at her grandmother's Sunday table — Lady Aileen Sinclair, a woman who, according to Gran, decided things. And the things she decided had a way of standing. Moira is a practical woman. She has a clipboard, a color-coded itinerary, and a genealogy spreadsheet with six columns. She books her flight, packs her patience, and tells herself this is simply a property assessment in an unusual location. Killrannoch has other ideas. The keep is not the quiet ruin she expected. It's a living place — tended, watchful, and steeped in a history that no one seems particularly eager to explain. The archivist gives a flawless tour that somehow never reaches the east corridor. The villagers are warm in the careful way of people who have already decided what not to say. An object vanishes from a display case overnight, and when Moira asks about it, she receives a perfectly pleasant answer that contains no information whatsoever. And buried in the solicitor's letter — on a fourth, slower reading — is a line she almost missed: someone contested this inheritance. The matter is considered closed. No name given. Moira Sinclair has spent nine years reading the provenance of objects. She knows the difference between honest wear and a careful fabrication. She knows that the most important detail is usually the one someone didn't want found. Killrannoch has been edited. And Moira is beginning to understand that Lady Aileen left it to her for a reason. Killrannoch Before the Storm is the prequel novella to the Killrannoch Keep Cozy Mystery series — a warm, witty, and quietly gripping introduction to a castle full of guarded history, gossipy locals, and the slow revelation of a family legacy hiding in plain sight. Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries with castle settings, strong-voiced female protagonists, Scottish atmosphere, and mysteries that build from the inside out.