Scottish Crime Fiction

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.

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.

Legal investigator Maggie is in Scotland, attending her first-ever music festival at the age of forty-four - and it's not raining! But this is work, not pleasure, as she tries to negotiate a divorce settlement for her client, the wife of Scotland's biggest rock star. Meanwhile DCI Frank Stewart has landed another cold case, as startling new evidence sheds light on a historic allegation of sexual assault. All roads lead to the beautiful Highlands, where the majestic but dangerous River Spey is in full spate, a willing but unknowing accomplice to murder. If you love LJ Ross, Joy Ellis and ...

After a young man's body is discovered by a newlywed couple inside an abandoned caravan, the police initially speculate whether his death was accidental. However, the investigation takes a dramatic turn when they uncover the victim's true identity. The deceased has a deadly past, and barely paid the price for the heinous crime he committed. DCI Harry McNeil is assigned the task of identifying the victim’s killer, but the case soon becomes shrouded in secrecy. The man's past is far more complex than anyone had anticipated.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 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 ...

A lawyer is found dead at sunrise on a lonely clifftop at Dunnet Head on the northernmost tip of Scotland. It was supposed to be his honeymoon, but now his wife will never see him again. The case is linked to several mysterious deaths, including the murder of the lawyer’s last client—Scotland’s most notorious criminal...who had just walked free. DS Max Craigie knows this can only mean one thing: they have a vigilante serial killer on their hands.

In The Lewis Man, the second book of the trilogy, Fin Macleod has returned to the Isle of Lewis, the storm-tossed, wind-scoured outer Hebridean island where he was born and raised. Having left behind his adult life in Edinburgh - including his wife and his career in the police force - the former Detective Inspector is intent on repairing past relationships and restoring his parents' derelict cottage. His plans are interrupted when an unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog. The only clue to its identity is a DNA match to a local farmer, the now-senile Tormod Macdonald....

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.

Winter is leaving the residents of Glenkillen snowbound, but Eden isn't about to let the weather dampen her spirits. With only a little time left in Scotland, she's determined to make the most of it - starting with attending a fancy whisky tasting with local looker Leith Cameron. But her classy date turns into a major party foul after a woman is found drowned in one of the vats of alcohol.

The head of Scotland’s most powerful crime family is brutally murdered, his body dumped inside an ancient grave in a remote cemetery. DS Max Craigie and DC Janie Calder arrive at the scene, a small town where everyone has secrets to hide. They soon realise this murder is part of a blood feud between two Scottish families that stretches back to the 1800s. One thing’s for certain: it might be the latest killing, but it won’t be the last.

'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; ...

On New Year’s Day, Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance. The body is found close to the home of a lonely outcast and local suspicion falls firmly on him. But when Inspector Jimmy Perez insists on broadening the search for suspects, a veil of distrust and fear is thrown over the entire community.

Ray Spalding's had enough of his wife, Paula. He's left his home in Edinburgh's Southside and headed for Belfast. It's safer there. Unknown to Ray, Paula's also had enough of him. She's not going back home. Not now, not ever. Jesse Spalding wakes up one morning to find both his parents gone. And he can't tell anyone or he'll be taken into care. As time passes and bills need paying, all Jesse can rely on are his wits, his friend Archie and his dad's 1950s record collection. Southsiders is a powerful short novel that follows the spiralling fortunes of Ray and Jesse, pushing father and son to ...

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 ...

Jennifer MacKenzie being hit by a car was a tragic accident. Or so it seemed. Until Connor is summoned to a meeting with his girlfriend's dad, Duncan McKenzie. MacKenzie claims that Jen's accident was actually a message intended for him - and a way to force him to kill his trusted Lieutenant Paulie King, who has now mysteriously disappeared. His request to Connor is simple. Find Paulie and the men who hurt his daughter. Do whatever it takes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Brilliant! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I love this series! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Three books in one! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hooked from the first chapter. The past never truly leaves us. We can turn our backs, bury it deep, but eventually, it will find its way to the surface. D.S. John Anderson is tasked with exposing a major organised crime syndicate when he stumbles upon a miner’s lamp, engraved with mysterious initials. This unexpected find pulls him back to the Midlothian pit village he once called home. The case takes a sinister turn with the discovery of a group of trafficked children, ...

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 brutally murdered body of a local geography teacher is discovered at Kilwinnoch’s famous beauty spot, Blood Water Falls, the community is rocked to its core. For DCI Duncan Bone, the killing appears to be an open and shut case. But it’s not long before a sinister clue unleashes dark and deadly forces, blowing the investigation wide open, and putting Bone and his team in grave danger.

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.

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.