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Liss MacCrimmon Books in Order

Part ofKaitlyn Dunnett Books in Order

See the Liss MacCrimmon books by Kaitlyn Dunnett in order, with short summaries, series background, and a quick guide to the best place to start.

Last updated: July 1, 2026

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Publication Order

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13 books

1

Kilt Dead

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2007

After a knee injury ends her dancing career, Liss MacCrimmon returns to Moosetookalook, Maine, to help at her aunt's Scottish shop. When she finds a neighbor's body hidden under tartan fabric, she has to clear her own name by untangling the town's secrets.

2

Scone Cold Dead

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2008

Liss welcomes her old Scottish dance company to town and expects nostalgia, not poison. When the troupe's miserable manager dies after eating one of her scones, she and her friends land squarely in the spotlight.

3

A Wee Christmas Homicide

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2009

A snowless Christmas has business dragging in Moosetookalook, so Liss helps launch a toy-fueled holiday promotion. Then a greedy shopkeeper is murdered, and the town's festive countdown turns into a race to catch a killer.

4

The Corpse Wore Tartan

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2010

A Burns Night celebration at a reopened hotel should be good for business, until a blizzard traps Liss with a quarrelsome Scottish society and a corpse. Cut off from help, she has to sort through grudges before the killer strikes again.

5

Scotched

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2011

Moosetookalook's first mystery conference promises full inns and easy sales for the Scottish Emporium. When an unpopular reviewer dies at a scenic overlook, Liss must investigate a crowd of authors, agents, and other suspects with sharp motives.

6

Bagpipes, Brides and Homicides

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2012

Liss's wedding weekend collides with the Western Maine Highland Games, picketers, and a murder involving a broadsword. With guests arriving and tensions rising, she has to solve the case before her walk down the aisle turns disastrous.

7

Vampires, Bones and Treacle Scones

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2013

While turning the abandoned Chadwick mansion into a haunted house fundraiser, Liss expects cobwebs and fake scares. Then a prop skeleton is replaced by a real corpse, and Halloween fun gives way to a very real investigation.

8

Ho-Ho-Homicide

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2014

Liss and Dan head to a Maine Christmas tree farm to judge its business potential, hoping for a quiet holiday week. Instead they find a missing person, an unidentified body, and a tangle of accidents that look anything but accidental.

9

The Scottie Barked At Midnight

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2015

When Liss rescues a lost Scottish terrier on an icy road, she gets pulled into the bizarre world of a reality competition show. After the dog's owner is murdered, Liss must sniff out a killer among the show's cutthroat contestants.

10

Kilt at the Highland Games

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2017

As Moosetookalook prepares for the annual Highland Games, a bookstore fire, missing people, and vandalism rattle the town. Then a local selectman is shot, and Liss has to find out whether the crimes are linked before the festival falls apart.

11

X Marks the Scot

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2017

At an estate sale in the old Chadwick mansion, Liss finds a treasure map and follows it straight into trouble. Hidden clues, family secrets, and a dead body turn a small-town curiosity into a dangerous hunt.

12

Overkilt

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2018

As Thanksgiving nears, a controversial hotel promotion sets Moosetookalook buzzing and turns social outrage into something uglier. When the campaign's loudest critic ends up dead, Liss has to protect her family without accusing the wrong people.

13

A View to a Kilt

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

2020

Put in charge of Moosetookalook's muddy spring sales event, Liss already has enough on her plate. Then a body turns up on her property, and the victim may be an uncle her family thought had died decades ago.

Series background & context

The Liss MacCrimmon books are cozy mysteries with a strong Scottish-American flavor and a very Maine sense of place. The series opens with Kilt Dead, when Liss returns to her hometown of Moosetookalook after a knee injury ends her career as a professional Scottish dancer. What starts as a temporary stop, helping her aunt at the Scottish Emporium, quickly becomes a new life built around small-town routines, old friends, and a steady supply of trouble.

That setup matters. Liss is not an outsider drifting through town for a single case. She knows the place, remembers the people, and has history with them, which gives the mysteries a personal feel from the start. Her shop sells all things Scottish, so the books naturally fold in tartan, bagpipes, Highland dancing, Burns suppers, and the annual Highland Games without making any of it feel pasted on.

Moosetookalook does a lot of the heavy lifting.

It is a fictional western Maine village, but it has the rhythms of a real small community, muddy spring roads, tourist seasons, gossip, volunteer projects, and businesses that depend on one another. Because Liss is tied to the town's main events, the murders usually grow out of things that should bring people together, holiday promotions in A Wee Christmas Homicide, a hotel celebration in The Corpse Wore Tartan, a mystery conference in Scotched, a haunted house fundraiser in Vampires, Bones and Treacle Scones, and the Highland Games in Kilt at the Highland Games.

At the center of it all is Liss herself, practical, stubborn, and a little too curious for her own good. One of the pleasures of the series is watching her build an adult life after the loss of the career she expected to keep. Her relationship with Dan Ruskin, a former classmate who becomes a steady partner in more ways than one, gives the series an ongoing emotional thread, while family members, neighbors, and local business owners keep the supporting cast busy and lively.

These are gentle mysteries, but the stakes are real.

Dunnett likes bad weather, family secrets, public festivals, and old grudges that boil over at exactly the wrong time. Later books such as X Marks the Scot and A View to a Kilt show how well the series handles both town-wide chaos and cases that hit close to home. Even when the premise sounds playful, a treasure map, a reality TV dog act, or a holiday stunt gone wrong, the crimes are grounded in jealousy, money, resentment, and long memory.

If you like cozies that mix humor, community, and a clear sense of place, this series is easy to settle into. The Scottish touches give the books personality, but the real draw is Liss, a smart amateur sleuth trying to protect the life she did not expect to have, and slowly realizing it may suit her better than the old one ever did.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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