Scottish Crime

‘A masterpiece. It’s like Jim Thompson and Irvine Welsh got together to write a Tony Black story’ BARRY GRAHAM When young Scots carpenter Joe is visited by the Wing Wizard Davie Cooper one Christmas Eve he gets the shock of his life—his partner is to give birth to a king that very night. Setting off through their scheme—guided only by an unusual, yet familiar, constellation—Joe and Mary-doll soon discover their shared passion for the opposing ends of the Scottish football terraces unites them in ways they could never have imagined. The Holy Father is a novelette delving into the...

Scotland has a dead body problem. Another one. And in the wake of a similar spate of tribute killings, Special Agents Luke Kendrick and Carly MacDonald know they have their work cut out for them. Working alongside a new team of agents, the partners have more questions than answers when the crime scenes yield little evidence. In the style of infamous killers Burke and Hare, it appears victims are being moved to a secondary location, where they’re dissected and sold for spare parts.

When a deadly virus ravages the seafood population off the coast of Scotland, the townsfolk of Portree, Isle of Skye, are devastated. Charter boat captain Robin Murphy and café owner Becca Ronan stumble upon evidence that ties the contamination to a pharmaceutical company, thrusting them into a tangled net of mystery. Robin fears—Becca hopes—the Selkies, if they’re real, hold the key. Robin says his priority is finding a cure, but the seal folk he’s befriended on his getaway isle have stolen his heart. Becca's long-lost father and free-spirited mother may save the day…or bring ...

In the heart of Scotland's whisky country, a killer lurks amongst the casks. When renowned distillery guide Hamish Durie drops down dead during a whisky tasting, seemingly poisoned by his family's own liquid gold, DCI Bone is thrust into a world where tradition and treachery collide. Peeling back the layers of deception, Bone uncovers a toxic blend of deep rooted family feuds, corporate back-stabbings, and a sinister connection to Glasgow's underworld kingpin, Frankie Feelan.

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 the body of a teenager is discovered near Eilean Donan Castle several months after she disappeared, DCI Jack Logan and his team journey across the Highlands to investigate. As they start to unpick the young woman’s life, the secrets and lies they expose soon threaten to tear the small rural community apart. But when a second girl goes missing in similar circumstances, it isn’t just a murder investigation that Jack finds himself running. It’s a race against time.

His Majesty’s Prison BlackRock is where Evil is sent to die. None of the killers imprisoned on the island prison, 30 miles off the coast of Scotland, will ever leave. When Scottish billionaire, social philanthropist, and prison reformer, Ethan Mackay, is murdered during a VIP visit to the island, it becomes dangerously clear that not all the murderers are behind bars. Cut off from the mainland during a ferocious winter storm, the rest of the VIP tour take refuge in the Governor’s residence and patiently wait for the storm to pass. But what secrets lurk beneath the surface? What ...

Two Edinburgh PhD students head to the Phoenix Festival to sell legal highs. When a friend discovers that their Horn-E pills are poison, he faces a race against the clock to make sure that nobody comes to any harm. To complicate matters, the drugs were paid for with a loan from Edinburgh’s infamous Tony Fish. If they don’t have the cash to straighten their debt, there’ll be nowhere for them to hide. Jesse Garon’s obsession with Elvis Presley may be as strong ever, but as his hormones kick in he’s finding he has more in common with Jake Bugg. Jesse’s hoping that a weekend at the ...

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is worried about how the folks will react to his new assistant officer; the enigmatic American James Bland, whose true mission is to track down the members of a Russian spy network. In the meantime, he and Bland deal with it the usual crop of traffic incidents, lost wallets, lost dogs, and lost people, but a spate of burglaries committed by a man dubbed “Spiderman” give Hamish cause for serious concern.

Eilean Eadar is a barren, windswept rock best known for the unsolved mystery of the three lighthouse keepers who vanished back in 1919. But when a young man is found dead at the base of that same lighthouse, two detective inspectors are sent from Glasgow to investigate.

It's a quiet, snowy morning at The Cracked Spine bookshop when book seller Delaney Nichols receives a mysterious visitor, a messenger. He presents her with a perplexing note: an invitation to a meeting with eccentric socialite Shelagh O'Conner, who requests Delaney's participation in an exclusive treasure hunt.

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.

'This book was incredible- my fingernails are bitten to the quick!' : Amazon reviewer Oct 2022 When murder victim Sally Ferguson turns up very much not dead two years after her husband had been convicted of her killing, Police Scotland launches a shameless cover-up exercise to obfuscate the facts behind the monumental foul-up. Tasked with getting to the truth is dissolute cold-case specialist DI Frank Stewart of the Metropolitan Police. Meanwhile forty-something private investigator Maggie Bainbridge and her handsome sidekick Jimmy Stewart are commissioned to investigate the disappearance ...

When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland’s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim’s mouth. Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.

Lady Antonia discovers a body at the opening of the Great Exhibition, in the presence of Queen Victoria, no less. The newly married Lord and Lady Danvers put all such unpleasantness behind them, though, as they sail off in his aerostat for a secluded honeymoon in Scotland. Until the shades of grave robbers a generation earlier come back to haunt them.

*Newly edited version November 2014, now in the past tense, third person, still great* Can you really trust The Only Survivor ? When a helicopter crashed off the western coast of Garansay, there was only one survivor; a nineteen year old boy called Cameron Fleming. He was quickly befriended by one of his rescuers, Michael Nichols. But when Michael's sister and her family came to Garansay for the summer, Imogen Croft soon discovered that the boy was not quite as innocent as he seemed... 'The Only Survivor' is the gripping second novel in the Imogen and Hugh Croft Mysteries series. Imogen and...

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.

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.

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.

It's early September in Glenkillen, Scotland, when American expat (and romance novelist) Eden Elliott is recruited by the local inspector to act as a special constable. Fortunately it's in name only, since not much happens in Glenkillen. For now Eden has her hands full with other things: preparing for the sheepdog trial on the MacBride farm, a fundraiser for the hospice, and helping her friend Vicki with her first yarn club skein-of-the-month deliveries. Everything seems to be going well until the head of the welcoming committee is found strangled to death with a club member's yarn.