Hue and Cry by Shirley McKay is the first book in the author’s Hew Cullan series. It’s a murder mystery with a 16th century Scottish setting.

It begins in St Andrews in 1579. The town’s cathedral has long been wrecked by the religious reformers and many of the town’s newer buildings have been built using the robbed stone from it.

Hew Cullan has just returned home after studying law in Paris, he’s keen to catch up with some of his old friends before travelling on to his father’s house. But he gets caught up in a search for a young boy who has disappeared from his father’s shop. It’s thought that his father has probably beaten the young lad for some mistake he had made, but things take an ominous turn when his body is found.

Hew’s old friend Nicholas had been tutoring the victim as the father was hoping to get his son into the university, and suspicion falls on Nicholas. There’s been gossip about Nicholas and as we know, mud sticks, especially in the atmosphere of strict Scottish Presbyterianism. Hew has been shocked by the corruption at the university and also within the law courts, with nobody seeming to care if the actual culprit has been found, or just a handy fall-guy.

This makes it all sound quite grim but there’s a lot more to it of course. Hew is a great character, as is his sister Meg and there’s even some humour with Hew buying a ‘characterful’ horse. The very young King James VI makes an appearance and given the date and location witches are mentioned.

I was however perplexed by mention of ‘a bishop’ on page 257 as the religious upheaval of the Scottish Reformation was to get rid of bishops – which they did.

Otherwise this was a very enjoyable read, enhanced for me because all of the locations are very familiar to me. I think that it would have been a good idea to have a map of St Andrews and environs, as Hew does a lot of stravaiging around the streets and it would have been useful for people who don’t know the area I’m sure.

I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the series, it’s called Fate & Fortune.