Scotland Mystery

Three more 1940s cases for Detective Chief Inspector Philip Bryce. The first two are set in 1949, and follow on from The Bedroom Window Murder, The Courthouse Murder, and The Felixstowe Murder. The third is a ‘prequel’, going back to 1946, when Bryce – having returned to the police after army service – was a still a Detective Inspector, based in Whitechapel rather than Scotland Yard. 1. DEATH IN AN OFFICE KITCHEN In the office kitchen of a London advertising agency, a man falls to the floor, dead. Natural causes are presumed – until evidence emerges showing this cannot be the case...

Edinburgh, 1869: Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian Scotland. Her employers know she’s not housemaid Catriona Mitchell—even though Mallory is in Catriona’s body—and Mallory is now officially an undertaker’s assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows… the latest of which is Gray’s oldest sister. Poison is said to be a woman’s weapon, though Mallory has to wonder if it’s as simple as that.

When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the locals are intrigued. Is it an ancient find—or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is fatally shot and Ann Cleeves's popular series detective Jimmy Perez is called in. As claustrophobic mists swirl around the island, Inspector Perez finds himself totally in the dark.

A Scottish castle, sleuthing to do and a murderer to catch! It’s New Year’s Eve and when you work for the Celebrity Crimes Investigation Agency there’s no such thing as getting to take the holidays off. Which is why special agent Abi Anderson is going to a Hogmanay party in a luxurious Scottish castle as a sleuth on a mission to catch criminals - and not, sadly, as a guest out to enjoy herself. Typical. Even worse, it’s a fancy dress party and when you have to find a costume at the very last minute in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands you end up dressed as... well, why...

Running from her past lands Kat in a whole lot of trouble in the present! Fleeing from her past and determined to make a fresh start, Kat heads for the picturesque town of Glen Falls. Opting to ignore the tourist hype about spooky goings-on (it’s all make believe anyway, right?), Kat gets a job in a shop selling magical candles, charms and crystals. Discovering her new boss is a real witch who actually casts spells to ward off evil, Kat starts to wonder whether running from her old life has landed her in even more trouble in the present... With a fiery feud threatening to destroy the town...

A teenage girl is assaulted in Torquay. A few days later two girls of similar age are murdered – all three incidents occurring in the same vicinity. The Devon detectives are making no progress, so Scotland Yard is asked to take over the investigation. Chief Superintendent Bryce travels to Torquay, accompanied by Sergeant Lomax. Together with a local officer who wasn’t involved earlier, they look into these tragic crimes.

Blair has a deadline. A scary one. Track down and hand over a magical mystery object she has never seen before and doesn’t know a single thing about... or face the might of the town’s Supernatural Mafia. Welcome to Glen Falls. A town where nothing is quite as it seems... Beauty salon owner Blair Montgomery’s world turns upside down when she receives a do-or-die deadline from the local branch of the Supernatural Mafia. They’re demanding she hands over a powerful and magical object they’re convinced she’s inherited from her gran. Problem is, Blair has no idea what it even looks ...

Gill McArdle is on the island of Iona searching for the burial places of kings. What begins as an archaeological survey risks descending into a treasure hunt and Gill suspects subterfuge from new enemies as well as old. And when a find on Iona sheds a little light on the nature of ‘The Torn Isle’, Gill doesn’t like what he sees.

When the body of a journalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed in this case, and he decides to help Willow. The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface.

Shortly after his arrival in Uganda, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan is called to the scene of a bizarre accident: Idi Amin, careening down a dirt road in his Maserati, has hit a cow. When Garrigan tends to Amin, the dictator, obsessed with all things Scottish, appoints him as his personal physician. So begins a fateful dalliance with the African leader whose Emperor Jones-style autocracy would transform into a reign of terror.

Two fourteen-year-old girls go missing from an exclusive boarding school. Did they abscond, or have they been kidnapped? The girls’ parents - and indeed the parents of many other pupils – have considerable influence in very high places. Pressure is quickly brought to bear to get Scotland Yard involved. Concern for the girls’ safety is paramount. Detective Chief Inspector Adair and three of his officers are assigned to help the local police. Initially there is little to go on, but Adair soon determines that the children didn’t leave voluntarily. The first step – to ascertain how ...

After accidentally killing the Grand High Witch of Edinburgh, enchantress investigator Elle Chambers is a marked woman. The coven wants vengeance. The magical world is watching. And Elle is once again caught in the crosshairs of supernatural politics. On the run with werewolf legal advisor Ferguson Black, Elle finds herself drawn to London on a dangerous new case involving a threat to the royals. But London holds its own perils, and Elle must navigate a city steeped in witch-hunting history while staying one step ahead of those who want her dead. Complicating matters, her partnership with ...

The DCI Jones series is one of the best series around. A.J.A Gardiner is a first-class storyteller... I can hardly wait for book 4! Goodreads reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Daddy’s Boy” – A DCI Tara Jones Crime Thriller Three women have fallen victim to a psychopathic killer nicknamed "Daddy's Boy" by the press. He forces the women to change into men’s clothing before beating, stabbing, and finally strangling them. The city of Aberdeen is on edge as pressure mounts for DCI Tara Jones and her MIT team to stop the carnage—before the killer strikes again. Tara Jones is no stranger to ...

Around 6000 BC, a revolution took place on Orkney and the Western Isles of Scotland. An outstanding collection of stone circles, standing stones, round towers, and passage mounds appeared seemingly out of nowhere. And yet many such monuments were not indigenous to Britain, but to regions of the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean. Their creators were equally mysterious. Traditions tell of the Papae and Peti, "strangers from afar" who were physically different, dressed in white tunics, and lived aside from the regular population.

Cressida’s hopes for a relaxing journey are dashed when a gunshot resounds through the carriages. Industrial tycoon Lewis Warriner has been shot dead in his cabin. And as this train has been racing through the countryside, the culprit must be among Cressy’s fellow passengers. Teaming up with Detective Andrews of Scotland Yard, also on his way back to London, they work their way through the suspects. Did Warriner’s mistress, a famous dancer, see his death as her ticket on to the silver screen? Or was it the mysterious man who can’t take his eyes off Lewis’s close companion?

The Open Championship returns to St. Andrews, Scotland, the Home of Golf. But an official with the Links Trust turns up dead, stuffed into the Bottle Dungeon at St. Andrews Castle, and, as usual, Hacker has to help find the killer. There are Russians everywhere in the Auld Grey Toon, along with a famous U.S. resort developer, and an alcoholic caddie on the run. Luckily, Hacker has his significant other, Mary Jane, along for the ride, with an ending no one sees coming.

The betrayal of those closest burns most of all.... Hoping for a fresh start, an English family moves to the remote Shetland islands, eager to give their autistic son a better life. But when a young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn beside their home, rumors of her affair with the husband spread like wildfire. As suspicion and resentment of the family blazes in the community, Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate. He knows it will mean his boss, Willow Reeves, returning to run the investigation, and confronting their complex relationship.

In 1950, Philip Bryce is suddenly given two pieces of unexpected but welcome news - one domestic, the other work-related. He is also given a new case to tackle. It’s a change from the murder cases he spends a lot of time on, but it’s tricky. This is one involving ‘demands with menaces’ – the offence commonly known as blackmail. And the first three victims are very high-ranking people. Bryce investigates, with the newly-promoted Inspector Haig alongside him. But who is the blackmailer? From where does he or she acquire the information? And just how innocent are the ‘victims’?

Eager to leave his job as a tour guide in Africa, international vagabond Anthony Cade meets an old acquaintance, Jimmy McGrath, who offers him a small sum to dispatch an errand in England. McGrath is in possession of the memoirs of the recently deceased Count Stylptitch, former Prime Minister of the Balkan state of Herzoslovakia—a man deemed a dictator, a patriot, or a statesman, depending on which newspaper you prefer.

Inspector Jimmy Perez takes his fiance home to Fair Isle, the tiny island he comes from, to meet his parents. The island is a magnet for bird watchers, who congregate at the local inn and lighthouse. When a local married celebrity who had an eye for the lads is murdered, Perez discovers that the suspects are very close to him indeed.