Scottish Crime Fiction

How long would you wait to take revenge? 'Now,’ Granny said quietly. ‘We shall hold hands in the dark. Then we will know we aren’t on our own.’ When Sergeant Sam Sharpe of the Virginia P.D. contacts Dani Bevan about the murder of one of his officers, the Glasgow DCI doesn’t see how she can help. But as Sam explains further, Dani finds herself entangled in a case which transports her team back to the murky world of the industrial conflicts of the 1970s. Hold Hands in the Dark is the seventh novel in the DCI Dani Bevan series of police procedurals.

Following a convention in the Scottish Highlands, eight social media influencers vanish without a trace, leaving their followers–and families–in a state of shock, and the police clueless as to their whereabouts. And then, the livestreams begin. Broadcast live from their squalid underground cells, the young influencers are forced into a sadistic battle for survival. With each livestream, their captor pits them against each other in a twisted competition for likes. The influencer with the fewest positive reactions faces a gruesome end–live on camera.

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.

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.

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.

After a violent home invasion in the remote wilds of Glen Coe leaves a family of four dead, DCI Jack Logan and his team are brought in to lead the manhunt. But, when one of the victims is revealed to be one half of legendary 1980s Glasgow-based comedy double act, Neeps & Tatties, Logan is forced to leave the Highlands and head back to his old stomping ground.

When a small bone at the centre of a famous sculpture is revealed to be human, three people become intimately connected by the secrets and lies that put it there. Set on a Scottish tidal island connected to the mainland for just a few hours each day, and home to only one inhabitant, The Blue Hour asks questions of ambition, power, art and perception.

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.

When the remains of a brutally murdered young woman are left hanging from the Glenfinnan Monument in the Highlands of Scotland, DCI Jack Logan and his Major Investigations team are dispatched to investigate. At first, the case appears to be fairly open and shut. But, as evidence mounts, Jack uncovers some shocking truths about the victim that risk turning the investigation into a potentially explosive international incident.

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.

Tormented by the recent loss of a colleague, DCI Jack Logan is on the warpath, determined to bring down all those he holds responsible for the officer's death. His quest for revenge is cut short when a woman's body turns up on the remote island of Canna, and Jack is summoned to investigate. As a storm closes in, Jack finds himself cut-off from the rest of the world, with no car, no phone signal, and only DC Neish for company,

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 is discovered at a popular Highland landmark, it seems like just another day on the job for DCI Jack Logan and his team. Except this body is missing a very vital component, and given its location - The Well of Seven Heads - it seems like someone is trying to send a message. But why? And to whom?

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.

Delaney Nichols has settled so comfortably into her new life in Edinburgh that she truly feels it's become more home than her once beloved Kansas. Her job at the Cracked Spine, a bookshop that specializes in rare manuscripts as well as other sundry valuable historical objects, is everything she had dreamed. Her latest task includes a trip to Castle Doune to retrieve a hard-to-find edition of an old Scottish comic, an "Oor Wullie", in a cloak-and-dagger transaction that Edwin has orchestrated.

When a teenage boy is abducted from a Dundee street in broad daylight, DS Vicky Dodds and her team are put on the case. The drowned body is found with just one clue—an inscrutable code scratched onto his arm. Vicky must hunt across Dundee for the brutal killers, drawing on old friends and family to probe the deep corners of the dark web and Scottish gangs. As Vicky learns to doubt who she can trust, she connects with a new friend, someone who can maybe help her resolve her own murky past.

'A fantastic writer.' Donald Ray Pollock 'Nigel Bird is fast becoming one of the top writers in his genre.' Luca Veste DIRTY OLD TOWN is the debut collection from the prize-winning writer Nigel Bird. His brilliantly observed slices of life allow us to visit places we may not normally choose to enter and to walk a few miles in the shoes of others. Though his tales have darkness at their core, they are also full of a heart and spirit that one rarely finds in the world or ‘noir’ or ‘crime-writing’. There are 9 stories here: Drinking Wine (Spo-Dee-Oh-Dee); Dirty Old Town; Sea Minor; ...

Edinburgh is mourning the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II when bookseller Delaney Nichols's boss comes to her with a most unusual assignment. An old friend of his, living in an estate in the village of Roslin, has found what could be a priceless relic on her property, and Delaney is tasked with investigating. Could Jolie possibly have an item of breathtaking Scottish historical significance in her possession? But when Delaney arrives at Jolie's estate, she is greeted by a legal team with a vested interest in the property.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Edgy and exciting. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Brilliant book. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fabulous from the off. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Way more than your typical police procedural... What secrets lie behind a young woman's tragic death? High above Chamonix, on the Mer de Glace, two Scottish climbers discover the body of Freya Ruthe, a young Swedish woman, in a crevasse. In a move promoted by Freya's family connections, D.S. John Anderson and D.I. Harry Freeman are sent from Edinburgh to assist the local police with their inquiry. However, their arrival isn’t welcomed by everyone. In a dark corner of ...

DS Rakesh Siyal is an idealist. Frustrated as an Edinburgh human rights lawyer, he joins the police, determined to solve the problems he sees with the criminal justice system from the inside, rather than out. His first day as a cop sees him sent down to Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, where he’s given a simple task – return a suspect to Glasgow to face justice.