Reviews
A thrilling mystery in a fictional Scots village
The Purified is the second of C F Peterson’s high-octane thrillers set in the fictional village of Duncul. Eamon Ansgar (the hero of the first novel, ‘Errant Blood’) has found happiness in marriage, but community life is shaken by a brutal murder and he finds himself helping the local police force to investigate (an entirely…
Read MoreEvil is just one floor away in a pacey read
Setting aside associations of Edinburgh’s cobbled streets with one ‘Boy Wizard’, Anthony O’Neill has crafted a rather more sinister reality. ‘In Edinburgh, evil is just one floor away,’ he writes. Protagonist Cat Thomas relocates to the capital’s Dean Village to flee death threats related to her job as a fraud investigator, only to find that…
Read MoreA travelogue of Britain’s most notorious climb on Skye
Simon Ingram is not alone in his fascination with the mighty Cuillin, but this breeze-block-sized tome is a veritable paean to the Skye mountain ridge that sits among the clouds. Broken into three sections – ascent, traverse, and descent – it is primarily a travelogue of Ingram’s own battle to conquer Britain’s most notorious climb.…
Read MoreNew crime thriller gets ready for release
A Scots crimewriter’s latest novel is set to be released next month. The Blood Tide by Neil Lancaster, who lives in the Scottish Highlands, is publishing in hardback on March 31 with HQ Digital. This is the second stunning thriller in the incredible DS Max Craigie series – the first, Dead Man’s Grave, was longlisted…
Read MoreA real life adventure story that sounds like a movie
Do you fancy abseiling into an erupting volcano? Living off two sea slugs and a crab for a week? How about being locked in a bunker for ten days without so much as a sliver of daylight? Me neither. These impossibly testing environments may seem fit for Tom Cruise’s next Hollywood blockbuster, but in reality…
Read MoreA celebration of countryside mysteries
John Wright clearly knows his stuff and his knowledge and enthusiasm come across clearly in this thoroughly engaging book. A Spotters Guide to Countryside Mysteries will add to any time spent rurally or just outside, whether it be woods, fields or coast. It asks and answers questions that you probably never thought of until you…
Read MoreSpooks and scares from all over Scotland
It’s perhaps not surprising that a country with a history as long and often bloody as Scotland’s, is home to a raft of myths and legends centred around things that go bump in the night. This collection of spooky tales gathered by Alistair Kerr focuses on the vivid imaginations of some of the country’s best…
Read MoreA gripping thriller from author Craig Robertson
Loneliness is a killer and it’s Grace McGill’s job to clean up the mess when a dead body has lain undiscovered for weeks or even months. This fascinating thriller had me hooked from the first chapter. Robertson is well-kent for his crime writing, so it’s little wonder that the vivid descriptions of the scenes of…
Read MoreThe perfect companion for munro baggers
Following on from his 1995 book The Munro Phenomenon, Andrew Dempster has written this updated tale of the mountains for a new generation of baggers. In doing so he brings to light the latest achievements in climbing them all and looks back to discover a little-known man who was a key player in the creation…
Read MoreScotland in a post-viral apocalyptic future
In a dystopian UK ravaged by a virus, Scotland has closed its border. The Ardnamurchan peninsula is surrounded by a fence that protects the rest of the country from the wolves and bears that roam the mountains and woods of this rewilded big-game hunting estate. DI Rhona Ballantyne returns to her Scottish roots to investigate…
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