Rusty Gold by Christine Campbell

Rusty Gold is Book 3 of the stories of Mirabelle, the Reluctant Detective.  In Book 1 we had seen, Mirabelle’s daughter, Summer, choose to leave home without warning.  We followed the search for her all over Edinburgh and Mirabelle’s determination to find her daughter despite her sorrow and fears.  In the second book, Mirabelle has become the person, people in the area seek out, when they are searching for missing family members but in Rusty Gold, after four and a half years have passed, she has lost the confidence and wish to go on investigating for others.  She sacks her volunteer assistant, Kay, and wallows in her loneliness.

 

But other people don’t give up on Mirabelle.  Her larger than life determination and personality need to be revived and the turning point is when she hears that the dying mother of her long lost friend, Esme, needs her help.  Esme and her young friend, are in great danger, travelling around the island of Skye in an old campervan, unaware that dangerous criminals are after them.  Encouraged by the return of Detective Inspector Sam Burns into her life, Mirabelle asks Kay to accompany her and the two unlikely heroines try to save the day.

 

This book draws many threads from the earlier books together and we finally learn the full story of Summer’s conception and birth and how much Mirabelle loved her, despite her inability to be a good mother.  But the last few chapters are a thrilling adventure among the beautiful countryside of Skye, where all the women in this character driven series come into their own.  There is definitely a conclusion but there are also hints of further investigations for Mirabelle.  It is difficult to think of any other books quite like these and they could ideally be turned into a TV series.