Scottish Thrillers

From the dramatic Highlands to bustling cities, the unique landscapes and locales of Scotland have enthralled and shaped generations of mystery writers. This new collection presents 17 classic stories, spanning a period from the 1880s to the 1970s, by a host of Scottish authors alongside writers from south of the border inspired by the history and majesty of the storied country.

“… Jack Dancer is a slightly less violent (but wackier) Tarantino, and while it is possible Jack may be batshit crazy himself, he is quickly becoming one of my favorite contemporary authors. Reading his work makes me smile.” 5-Stars, Gaius Konstantine for Readers’ Favorite. What’s it all about? In the secluded McKinnon County of North Carolina, Tucker Blue's simple family visit entangles him in a struggle against a billionaire seeking global power through the county's quartz mines, the backbone of the semiconductor industry. Amidst emerging love, whistleblower revelations, and a ...

When silence falls, who will hear their cries? The body of a young girl is found dumped on the roadside on the outskirts of Edinburgh. When pathologists examine the remains, they make a gruesome discovery: the outline of a doll carved into the victim’s skin. DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are struggling to find leads in the case until a doll made of skin is found nestled beside an abandoned baby. After another young woman is found butchered, Luc and Ava realise the babydoll killer is playing a horrifying game. And it’s only a matter of time before he strikes again.

'I was so hooked I didn't want this to end!' - Amazon reviewer Demanding lawyer Jolene Cavendish is not exactly popular with her workmates, so when a witch's hat and broomstick are left on her desk, she laughs it off as a stupid prank. But then the campaign of harassment starts to escalate and lives are threatened. Can barrister-turned-private-eye Maggie Bainbridge and her handsome ex-army assistant Jimmy Stewart find out who's behind it all before someone gets really hurt? A QUESTION OF HONOUR Reconstructive surgeon James Parrish has become a media darling after rebuilding the face of a ...

The cold touch of winter has hit Haven Hollow… Something naughty is plaguing the mundanes of Haven Hollow lately. ‘Naughty’ as in dancing curses that leave the victim exhausted and even injured, every milk product in town souring for no apparent reason, and elf-knots that are nearly impossible to brush out of your hair… After deciding these curses are fae created, we call in Prince Reynard, the Prince of the Autumn Court, otherwise known as Fox Aspen. The only problem? Fox is currently waging his own war with our Chief of Police, Taliyah, who is meant to be Fox’s intended but ...

In 2003, a businessman responded to a knock at the door of his remote cottage in the Highlands of Scotland. He was shot dead on the threshold, whilst his dinner guests sat in the next room. The killer was never found. Fifteen years later, DCI Dani Bevan and the heavily pregnant DI Alice Mann, attend a conference on the cold case. It brings Dani into contact with one of the detectives on the original investigation, a man haunted by a case which brought tragedy to those it touched. Can Dani and her team solve the murder after so much time has passed and when the evidence from the original ...

Everything’s just going to pieces… I got me a real important job. Important because I need to make my boss, Mr. Howard, happy with me like yesterday. It’s no secret that Mr. Howard has never liked me, but if he fires me? Well, I’m sure that will mean the end of Cain Morgan’s ghost taking up residency inside my head. See, Cain shares my body all because he’s supposed to be helping Taliyah settle into her job as the new Chief of Police. And though Taliyah’s pretty well settled by now (by my way of thinking), no one’s said anything about moving Cain on to the other side. And I ...

A mutilated body is found dumped at Cowane's Hospital in the heart of historic Stirling. For DCI Malcolm Ford it's like nothing he's ever seen before, the savagery of the crime making him want to catch the murderer before he strikes again. For reporter Donna Blake it's a shot at the big time, a chance to get her career back on track and prove all the doubters wrong. But for close protection specialist Connor Fraser it's merely a grisly distraction from the day job.

Opening her shop Cashmere Crush and making a new home for herself, her son Brody, Gramps, and their black Scottish terrier Wallace in the beautiful Scottish village of Nairn, is a dream come true. So Paislee is happy to give back by donating a luxurious cashmere sweater for an auction to raise money for the Nairn Food Bank. She's less happy to make the acquaintance of a clique of competitive moms at the charity event, who treat a baking contest like it's life or death. It turns out to be the latter for queen bee Kirsten Buchanan.

A wicked Scottish winter has just begun when pioneering female physician Sophia Jex-Blake calls on Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton to investigate the suspicious death of one of her patients - a railroad lineman who she believes succumbed to the horrific effects of arsenic poisoning. The most provocative aspect of the case doesn’t escape Hamilton: the married victim’s numerous sexual transgressions. Now, for the first time since the unexplained fire that killed his parents, Hamilton enters the Royal Infirmary to gain the insights of brilliant medical student Arthur Conan Doyle.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity… Or, at least, that’s what Albert Einstein said. But I’m not sure I believe it because it seems everything in my life has gone to heck, but I have yet to find an opportunity in any of it. Things are going so bad, in fact, that I’m wondering if I’ve been cursed. Of course, I don’t really have any enemies, so who in the world would want to curse me? Not only that, but Wanda insists I’m not cursed so maybe this bad luck is just exactly that… bad luck? Well, one thing I do know is that life would be a whole heck of a lot easier if I ...

This town is going to be the death of me… For a small town, you’d think being the Chief of Police would be a fairly easy gig, right? Not on your life. Haven Hollow is proving to be the hardest job I’ve ever had. If I’m not dealing with bitchy faeries trying to usurp a court I have no interest in ruling, I’m dealing with a curse that’s got the whole town unable to sleep. Right—Nyquil on Aisle 9 and stat. If only it could be that easy. Instead, I’m going on little to no sleep, myself, while the town is basically falling apart. I’ve got to figure out who’s responsible for ...

Ten years ago, Marshall profiled a serial killer the press had dubbed the Shadow Man, who killed six young athletes at remote sites in cold blood, and he worked with Northumbria Police to catch the perpetrator. But the Shadow Man kept the burial locations of the final three bodies to himself. Tired of the passivity, Marshall quit profiling and joined the police. Now a detective inspector in Police Scotland’s Borders Major Investigation Team, Marshall is summoned to HMP Frankland in County Durham, a.k.a. the Monster Mansion.

MAVERICK: I might have been a crappy excuse for a big brother in the past, but now I’m making up for lost time… And time isn’t the only thing that’s lost. So is my sister, Astrid. So, I do what any good brother would do—I go after her. Concealing my true identity, I attend Blood Rose Academy as a professor of potions. And along for the ride is my new wife, Taliyah. Not only am I hoping we can find Astrid, but I’m really hoping we find her alive. ASTRID: Even though I definitely have a thing for vampires, that doesn’t mean I wanted to become one… And it definitely didn’t ...

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.

In Scotland, the Gandiegow quilters are in an uproar when their favorite fictional quilters - the Buttermilk Guild - are killed off by a best-selling mystery author. Diana McKellen is called in by the publisher to fix this PR nightmare. It's said, there's no such thing as bad publicity, but Diana questions this long-standing notion when an editor is murdered at a book signing.

Professor Delaney McPhearson's life is turned upside down when her best friend, archaeologist Drew Masters, is found dead. Before she can deal with the heartbreaking loss, she is viciously attacked in her home by a man with inhuman fighting abilities. Former Navy SEAL and head of security for a global think tank, Jake Rogan drops everything when he hears his foster brother, Tom Jeffries, has gone missing. There seem to be no clues, no information about his whereabouts. He has just vanished. But Jake won't rest until he finds him.

When Edwin, Delaney's boss at the Cracked Spine bookstore, leaves town on secret business, Delaney is called upon to guide his yearly literary tour around Edinburgh. But on the first night of the tour, at the inn where the tour group is staying, the inn manager falls—or is pushed—off the roof of the inn, and killed. Then, one of the tour members disappears, leaving a trail of puzzles in his wake. In a race against the clock, Delaney sets out on the expedition of her life, following clues around Edinburgh to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Stephen Berry is about to jump off a bridge until a suicide prevention counsellor stops him. A week later, Stephen is dead. Found at the bottom of a cliff, DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner are drafted in to investigate whether he jumped or whether he was pushed.... As they dig deeper, more would-be suicides roll in: a woman found dead in a bath; a man violently electrocuted. But these are carefully curated deaths – nothing like the impulsive suicide attempts they’ve been made out to be.

DI Barney Mains blames himself for the grotesque murder of a top banker in France. He's obsessed with the belief that he allowed a near-mythical assassin to escape certain death to kill again. And when a duplicate murder is reported 1000 miles away in Barney's home town in Scotland, the guilt drives him ever closer to the edge. How many more must pay the ultimate price for his failure? But then death comes closer to home. He is left with no choice but to face his demons, before a shocking confrontation which will change everything...