Scottish Mysteries Thrillers

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.

*Introducing DCI Dani Bevan* Can an ordinary man really return from the dead...? On a stormy night in February 1943, the S.S Minerva was sunk by an enemy torpedo. Two men from the Scottish village of Dallanaich were travelling on the liner en-route to New York City. The Reverend Mackenzie Cowan and local schoolteacher Sandy Thomson were heading to a church conference due to be held there the following month. Thomson had left behind his young, pregnant wife. Both men were presumed drowned. Thirty years later, long-term Dallanaich resident Kenneth Garvie takes a trip to Toronto. As he walks ...

A castle in the Scottish Highlands cut off by snow. 12 guests gather for the festive season. All of them have secrets. Can DCI Dani Bevan escape a house party when celebration turns to murder? DCI Dani Bevan and her partner, James, are spending the week after Christmas at Strathain House in the Scottish Highlands, guests of the industrialist, Bernard Raven. As soon as they arrive, odd events start to happen and suspicions are aroused about their fellow guests. The weather in their remote Highland location worsens and Dani finds herself trapped at a house party where she doesn’t know who ...

St Andrews, Scotland. When an elderly woman's naked body is found in her home, crucified to the floor, DCI Andy Gilchrist and his associate, DS Jessie Janes, find themselves in a hunt for a brutal serial killer. As the body count rises, suspicion falls on Tap 'Dancer' McCrear, a career criminal recently released from prison after serving 15 years for a murder he swore he never committed. As Gilchrist begins to uncover the terrifying truth behind each of the killings, his worst fears are realised when he learns that McCrear is killing everyone involved in his murder trial....

When shy, lonely Ivy meets a woman who claims to be her long-lost sister, she knows it’s too good to be true. She decides to trust Kate anyway. She wants a family. She wants someone to love. But she’s making a mistake. When Ivy enters Kate’s fairy-tale cottage deep in the heart of Scotland, she doesn’t come out. She’s the first to go missing, and she won’t be the last. Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Tash’s journey is just beginning.

Wild Fire is the eighth and final book in the Shetland series from Ann Cleeves, the number one bestselling author and creator of Vera and the Two Rivers. Rumours of an affair surround a woman found hanged – on the most troubling case of his career, Inspector Jimmy Perez must work with Willow Reeves once again, and she has news that will change his life forever.

When Charlotte McKay wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there, all she wants is to go back to the perfect London flat she shares with her husband, and the impressive career she’s worked so hard to build. But something’s not right. Her husband David is at her bedside - but so is a three-year-old girl, and she’s calling Charlotte "Mummy"....

1942. The war at sea is being lost. One percent of all naval personnel are being referred to as psychiatric casualties. The British Admiralty introduces the Stone Frigate approach.

DI Jack Knox's Edinburgh team are busy dealing with a series of violent rapes when a man is found murdered on a residential street. The detective splits the under-resourced squad and follows up the murder himself, quickly establishing that there is no shortage of individuals who would have wanted the man dead. The victim had secured private investments for NewTech, a video games company that fell foul of copyright law. A lot of serious people lost serious money. Whilst Knox treads on eggshells and traces the finances, the rest of the team focus on the rape.

*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...

Susan has everything she ever wanted. A loving husband, an angelic daughter and the cottage of her dreams in County Cork. Her picture-perfect life seems too good to be true. And it is. At a housewarming party with their new neighbours, her daughter Amelia goes missing. As friends become suspects, Susan’s life spirals out of control. And when Amelia’s yellow cardigan is dredged from the lake, every parent’s worst nightmare suddenly seems horribly real. In the aftermath of Amelia’s disappearance Susan and her husband Paul are not themselves. Someone is hiding something.

The flood waters are rising. And so is the body count… Police officer Fiona MacLeish has been ordered to step back from her role in Police Scotland. Haunted by the murder of her parents, she’s dangerously close to breaking point: and is back in her remote childhood home nestled in a valley on the Scottish border. But there’s a terrifying storm coming…

When the body of a journalist is found in a traditional Shetland boat, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed, and he decides to help the inquiry. Originally a Shetlander, the journalist had left the islands years before to make a name for himself in London, leaving a scandal in his wake. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back?

With romance, intrigue, twists, and turns around every corner, readers will be on the edge of their seats until the very end of this modern Scottish mystery with a dash of ghostly history. Liza Ramsay is career-minded and driven. She has no interest in inheriting an ancient estate in Scotland. But when she finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads, a summons directly from the chief of a prominent clan in the Scottish Lowlands suddenly becomes more than just a curiosity. It becomes an escape. When Liza arrives at the imposing Ramsay castle and its sweeping grounds, she’s ...

Long held secrets, revenge, and murder. Eliza Thomson investigates…a suspicious accident, a hand-written note, and an old parish priest. A homecoming doesn’t go as planned in St. Giles; a small village nestled on the east coast of Scotland. Widow, mother, and former beauty, Mrs. Scott once walked away from all things dear to her. She’s a woman with a past, and now she’s back, determined to exact revenge for previous wrongs. But, somebody knows her plans, and they’ll do whatever it takes to silence her.

It's the run-up to Christmas, 1998. On the Isle of Mull, Sergeant Ivor Punch is losing himself in his vinyl collection, a tragic anniversary and too much single malt whisky. But news of a missing child soon brings him back to his senses. And as word spreads of more strange disappearances, an aircraft vanishing from the sky and a famous classical musician gone with it, it seems a sinister plot holds the island in its grip. Punch thought he knew the secrets of this place, its people and stories.

Horse trainer by day, IT consultant by night, Izzy Paterson is a classic nerd who’s better with animals than humans. But when a body is found at the feet of a prize stallion in the queen’s summer castle in the Scottish Highlands, Izzy - and her new friend Craig - are in the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming suspects in the murder. In the race to clear their names, Izzy has to employ all her horse-whispering and computer-hacking skills. Can she piece together the clues in time to stop the mysterious killer from striking again?

Marjorie Crowe lives in Kilgoyne, Scotland. The locals put her age at somewhere between 55 and 70. They think she's divorced or a lifelong spinster; that she used to be a librarian, a pharmacist, or a witch. They think she's lonely, or ill, or maybe just plain rude. For the most part, they leave her be. But one day, everything changes. Local teenager Charlie McKee is found hanging in the woods, and Marjorie is the first one to see his body. When what she saw turns out to be impossible, the police have their doubts. And when another young person goes missing, the tide of suspicion turns on her.

While business is booming at the ScotShop in Hamelin, Vermont, proprietor Peggy Winn doesn't have time to toast her good fortune thanks to her hot-tempered, 14th-century Scottish companion. Being thrust into the modern world hasn't been easy for Dirk, but Peggy is at her wit's end trying to keep the ghostie galoot in line. But when the local police chief finds the body of Peggy's friend Karaline's college professor in a deserted mountain cabin, everyone is thrown for a loop.

Cal Lovett's sister, Margot, has been missing since he was a child. When Marc Dubois, The Woodland Killer, learns of Cal's true-crime podcast, Finding Justice, he invites Cal into his cell to talk. Dubois has famously refused to speak about his crimes, so why has he asked Cal to meet with him? And why does Dubois know so much about him?