Showing results by narrator "Angus King" in All Categories

Renowned rewilder Derek Gow has a dream: that one day we will see the return of the wolf to Britain as it has already returned elsewhere. As Derek worked to reintroduce the beaver, he began to hear stories of the wolf, both real and mythical, and his fascination with this creature grew. With increasing curiosity, Derek started to piece together fragments of information, stories and artefacts to reveal a shadowy creature that first walked proud through these lands and then was hunted to extinction as coexistence turned to fear, hatred–and domination.

They call them halfheads: convicted criminals, surgically mutilated and lobotomized by the State, then sent out to do menial jobs in the community so everyone will know what happens when you break the law. There are no appeals, no reprieves, and no one ever comes back. Until now. Dr Fiona Westfield, one of the most prolific serial killers Glasgow has ever seen, is waking up. Surrounded by blood and death and darkness. William Hunter has risen through the ranks since putting Westfield away; now he’s Assistant Network Director, in charge of police actions.

Civil servant Kendra has spent her whole life struggling against the Etonian powers-that-be. So when she realises her boss is up to no good, she turns whistle-blower, calling a journalist who is looking for a way to fight back himself. Jack Parlabane is a hack who will go to desperate lengths for a good story. Reduced to peddling PR puff pieces, he is delighted when Kendra's information threatens to blow up a national corruption case. But Parlabane soon realises this story might prove dangerous to both of them.

It's easy to kill a man. It's hard to kill a man well. A 29-year-old man lives alone in his Glasgow flat. The telephone rings; a casual conversation, but behind this a job offer. The clues are there if you know to look for them. He is an expert. A loner. Freelance. Another job is another job, but what if this organization wants more? A meeting at a club. An offer. A target: Lewis Winter, a necessary sacrifice that will be only the first step in an all-out war between crime syndicates the likes of which hasn't been seen for decades. It's easy to kill a man.

Gangs rule the streets of the rough Gallowburn Estate in Glasgow, but the deepest rivalry of all is between Jamie Gray and his friends, known as the Blood Brothers, and their enemies, the Lawsons. The two gangs clash frequently, but when a phone containing incriminating evidence disappears after a particularly brutal run-in, the stakes are higher than ever. Jamie’s mother Jackie is as hard as nails and is not going to let anyone hurt her boy – even if she has to roll up her sleeves and get stuck in.

The immense cultural contribution made by two maverick Scottish independent music labels, Fast Product and Postcard, cannot be underestimated. Bob Last and Hilary Morrison in Edinburgh, followed by Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins in Glasgow, helped to create a confidence in being Scottish that hitherto had not existed in pop music (or the arts in general in Scotland). Their fierce independent spirit stamped a mark of quality and intelligence on everything they achieved. Hungry Beat is a definitive oral history of these labels and the Scottish post-punk period.

How does a gunman retire? Frank MacLeod was the best at what he does. Thoughtful. Efficient. Ruthless. But with his health failing him, how long before he's no longer of use to his employers?

Published in 1927, Scottish writer John Buchan's Witch Wood is set in a rural parish located in the Scottish Borders during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The story centers around newly ordained minister David Sempill's arrival in Woodilee in the wake of the Church of Scotland's acceptance of the Solemn League and Covenant and explores themes and issues surrounding religious tolerance and seventeenth-century Calvinism. With pagan rituals, an outbreak of the plague, and rumors about fairies and the devil, Witch Wood also delves into the supernatural and occult.

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.

Graeme Souness is a Glasgow Rangers icon and a Liverpool legend in the same bracket as Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. His Football: My Life, My Passion is a perceptive and opinionated assessment of the game which has been his lifetime obsession, drawing extensively on his incredibly rich and varied experiences as a player, manager and pundit.

Driving home from a party with his girlfriend and brother, all of them drunk and high on stolen pills, Billy Blackmore accidentally hits someone in the night. In a panic they all decide to drive off. But the next day, Billy wakes to find he has to cover the story for the local paper. It turns out the dead man was Edinburgh's biggest crime lord, and as Billy struggles with what he's done, he is sucked into a nightmare of guilt, retribution, and violence.

Oliver Peterkinney and Alex Glass, two friends from Glasgow's desperate fringes, become involved in one of the city's darkest and most dangerous trades: debt collection. While one rises quickly through the ranks, the other falls prey to the industry's addictive lifestyle, accumulating steep debts of his own.

Glasgow 1975. An arson attack on a Glasgow warehouse causes the deaths of a young mother and child. Police suspect it’s the latest act in a brutal gang warfare that’s tearing the city apart - one that DI Duncan McCormack has been tasked with stopping. Five years ago he was walking on water as the cop who tracked down a notorious serial killer. But he made powerful enemies, and when a mutilated body is found in a Tradeston slum, McCormack is assigned a case that no one wants.

The Kennedy sisters, Molly, Alex and Sam, have a Christmas tradition – a night out, just the three of them, sisters together. Lewis Stone can’t face the work Christmas party, but as he’s one of the bosses, he has to put in an appearance. He leaves as soon as he can politely get away, ready for the holidays to begin. When Lewis Stone meets the Kennedy sisters, a train of events begins that engulfs them all. One sister is left fighting for her life. One sister is left fighting for her marriage. And one sister is hellbent on revenge.

"It's just to say that no one has come to pick Nathan up from school, and we were wondering if there was a problem of some kind?" As Mark Douglas photographs a pod of whales stranded in the waters off Edinburgh's Portobello Beach, he is called by his son's school: his wife, Lauren, hasn't turned up to collect their son. Calm at first, Mark collects Nathan and takes him home, but as the hours slowly crawl by he increasingly starts to worry.

Isabel Aird is aghast when her husband is appointed doctor to an extraordinary waterworks being built miles from the city. But Isabel, denied the motherhood role that is expected of her by a succession of miscarriages, finds unexpected consolations in a place where she can feel the presence of her unborn children and begin to work out what her life in Victorian society is for.

Declan dreams of becoming a writer. It's a dream that helps him escape the realities of his life—going through the motions at college and stacking supermarket shelves part-time, whilst fighting a battle with the ever-darkening thoughts in his head. James Cavani—Declan's idol and his hometown's claim to fame—is a renowned writer, director and actor. But despite his success, his past hasn't relinquished its hold of him, and through his younger sister's battle with drug addiction, he finds himself returning to a world he thought he had escaped.

Embra, winter of 1574. Queen Mary has fled Scotland, to raise an army from the French. Her son and heir, Jamie, is held under protection in Stirling Castle. John Knox is dead. The people are unmoored and lurching under the uncertain governance of this riven land. It's a deadly time for young student Will Fowler, short of stature, low of birth but mightily ambitious, to make his name.

Gary is a sweet and decent man. Only two things would improve his life - having children with his gorgeous wife, Pauline, and a lower golf handicap. Both are unlikely. Pauline is wondering how she ended up living in an ugly little house, driving a second-hand car and making a living dressing up as Tinker Bell. She's planning to leave Gary for a self-made carpet millionaire. Findlay, the Carpet King of Scotland, wants to trade in his obese wife for a younger model.

From the mind of one of Tartan Noir's original masters, this gripping tale weaves through the bustling aisles of a Glasgow department store, where a seemingly ordinary case of organized shoplifting spirals into a shocking, brutal murder. Thane and Moss find themselves in a race against time, as their relentless hunt for justice leads them deeper into Glasgow's underworld, with every clue and twist drawing them closer to a final chilling confrontation.