Scottish Crime Fiction

Enjoying a rare break in his remote lochside cabin, DCI Bone suddenly finds himself cut off when the mother of all snowstorms hits the Campsie Fells. Intrigued by the flickering lights from one of the loch’s uninhabited islands, Bone commandeers a local boat and heads out across stormy waters to investigate.

When fire crews are called to a blaze at the home of a Kilwinnoch GP they make a grisly discovery: the charred remains of the doctor and his entire family. But is this a tragic accident or an horrific, calculated murder? DCI Duncan Bone's worst fears are confirmed when a cryptic message is found at the scene hinting at a grudge against the medical profession.

When a body turns up in a golf course bunker, covered in blood and sand, DS Vicky Dodds must switch from her usual Dundee patch to search for a murderer in her home town of Carnoustie. But when a second, connected body is found, Vicky must confront the one who got away from someone close to her—the serial killer her ex-cop father lost his mind hunting down back in the 90s.

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. DCI David Garrick faces his most difficult task yet with a serial killer hunting people on dating apps… and a brutal arsonist punishing their victims in the most horrific ways imaginable. As the two cases begin to overlap, Garrick and his team find themselves on a twisting path where nothing is as it seems, and nobody is to be trusted. Recovering from a delicate operation, Garrick begins to ...

Heading back to work the day after she returns from her European honeymoon, Delaney Nichols is excited to get back to the Cracked Spine. But as she disembarks the bus and hurries toward the shop, she and another woman collide, sending a stack of books the woman is carrying to the ground. Delaney's hapless victim's name is Mary, and she and Delaney can't help but notice that they bear an uncanny resemblance to one another. According to Mary, they both also look like the long-beheaded Mary Queen of Scots.

The disappearance of a three-year-old girl from her isolated Highland home one summer shook the nation. A massive police search involving divers in the loch and dogs combing the moorland and mountains had failed to find Lily Masterton. Three years later, the world may have forgotten the blond-haired girl with the big blue eyes, but her grief-stricken parents hire Private Investigator Teàrlach Paterson—an expert in finding missing children—to bring their precious Lily home. But this is no ordinary family struck by tragedy.

When a sadistic killer begins picking off victims on the streets of Inverness, Jack’s boss decides to bring in some outside help. But the new team member is an old flame from Jack’s past who isn’t quite ready to let him go. And as the dead bodies rack up, the happily ever after that Jack has been building for himself might just be the next victim to fall....

A mythical man known as Nightmare haunted young children for years. Until he became real. DCI Harry McNeil knows the legend all too well. Growing up in the Highlands, Nightmare was on his and every other child's mind as they went to sleep. Then, Nightmare claimed his first victim. A young girl, found dead in an abandoned cemetery with the words, I am Nightmare, carved into her chest. Two more victims, the same words carved into them. Then Nightmare disappears. Now, years later, there have been reports of graffiti being sprayed around Inverness and on graves in old cemeteries.

DI Rob Marshall is stuck in Gartcosh, leading the new Behavioural Sciences Unit – a staff of one and a third – where he’s executing a fruitless hunt, profiling every single murder in Scotland just in case they’re serial cases. But when a young Peebles woman’s body is discovered in Neidpath Tunnel, disused since the sixties, Marshall is called in to consult on a case on his old home turf. Paired up with his replacement, a cop who’s disinterested in the work, Marshall must tread a line between helping and not jumping to conclusions.

“Sean Miller - a rogue of the first water; a former Army sniper, he seems unable to stay out of a fight.” Sean Miller’s fighting a guerrilla war in Spain when he’s called back to Britain. His task? To seek out an assassin as dangerous as himself. A sniper whose deadly aim could plunge the world into war. As the shadow of the Nazis falls across Europe, a sinister conspiracy plots a secret war closer to home. Miller’s pursuit leads from the menacing alleys of London’s East End to the lonely mountains of Scotland. A duel to the death where there can be only one victor in the ...

When a nurse is murdered on her way home from nightshift, Jack and his team go on the hunt for her killer. As more victims are uncovered, Jack finds himself tracking a murderer afflicted by a unique psychosis - one that leaves him free to maim and kill without a shred of remorse. Facing a new type of killer in an unfamiliar city, DCI Jack Logan is about to be pushed to his limits, before being forced to realize just how little he truly knows.

When a morning jogger discovers a dead body on the outskirts of Cullenbrae, a remote hamlet deep in the heart of the Campsie Fells, DCI Bone and his team are called out to what appears to be a straightforward hit and run incident. But the victim’s horrific injuries and a murder weapon found at the scene suggest a far more sinister motive.

Met cop DI Rob Marshall is hot on the trail of the serial killer known as the Chameleon, who has abducted, tortured and killed a series of young women in Northwest London. As they close in, the Chameleon—who switches identity to get close to his victims—shoots Marshall’s partner and escapes.

When a badly burned body is found near the remote Ardnamurchan Lighthouse on the west coast of Scotland, it feels like just another day on the job for DCI Jack Logan and his team. But the victim’s list of enemies, including a diminutive loan shark and a powerful local politician, is far longer than Jack was prepared for. And don’t even get him started on the magic psychic sex cult.

The disappearance of a Dundee-based dog breeder sets DS Vicky Dodds and her team on a desperate hunt through the city and the surrounding Tayside. But soon other crimes are committed, with clear signs of escalation, and as the perpetrators' message becomes clearer, Vicky begins to question where her own sympathies lie.

Just when he thought he was out.... Burdened by guilt over the trauma recently inflicted on his friends and colleagues, former-Detective Chief Inspector Jack Logan has spent the past nine months living in self-imposed exile. When a mother and her young daughter are the victims of a double murder staged to look like suicide, Logan is dragged back to help hunt down and catch a brutal, calculating killer. But the world has moved on without him.

Who will be next? When the body of a local talent show winner is discovered on the eve of headlining Kilwinnoch’s annual Civic Week celebrations, it throws the festivities into chaos, and threatens to tear the close-knit community apart.

DCI Jack Logan should’ve known things were going too well. Genuinely happy for the first time in years, Jack has almost fooled himself into believing that the world is a decent place. But when the discovery of a mutilated body kicks off a series of grisly murders, Jack’s dream of a peaceful life rapidly begins to crumble around him. With friends in danger and enemies begging for his help, Jack must risk everything to protect the final would-be victim and stop the most monstrous killer he’s ever faced.

Case One: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case Two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. Case Three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

When a young man is found frozen to death on a Highland street in mid-December, DCI Jack Logan initially puts it down to a Christmas night out gone tragically wrong. But, when a postmortem reveals something more sinister, Jack discovers he is dealing with a cold, calculating killer with a long line of victims, a talent for torture, and a perverse sense of justice.