Showing results by narrator "David Monteath" in All Categories

'A truly gripping read' Mick Herron The cobbled lanes and back streets of St Andrews have become home to a vicious serial killer. Striking during heavy rain and choosing only victims who abuse women, 'The Stabber' has police baffled. After the sixth man is found murdered, having been stabbed to...

The brutal murder of 10-year-old Callum Bradley sent shockwaves across Scotland, but as the weeks have stretched on with no solid leads, the investigation has been scaled back. Sergeant Don Colyear, community police officer, is tasked with tying up a loose end: a 999 call which may have hinted at the boy's murder. However, the call was made three weeks before the crime took place. The caller turns out to be a resident at an Edinburgh care home, drifting in and out of lucidity due to dementia - enough to write off the potential lead as a dead end.

Detective Inspector Macleod returns to his island home 20 years after the painful loss of his wife. With a disposition forged in strong religious conservatism, he must bond with his new partner, the free spirited and upcoming female star of the force, to seek the killer of a young woman and shine a light on the evil beneath the surface.

A terrifying killer is haunting Glasgow's affluent suburbs – invading homes and smothering people left on their own. Inspector Lomond has an impossible case to crack. The houses involved have state-of-the-art security systems and were all securely locked at the time of death.

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.

Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing. This expertly curated thespian anthology features 14 stories from giants of the classic crime genre.

It is the summer of 1880, and DI Sam McQueen has been called away from the gray, damp streets of Edinburgh to investigate a case on the oppressively hot Mediterranean island of Malta. The local police chief is distinctly unwelcoming toward the interloper—but has no choice in the matter, since Admiral Collingwood's wealthy widow insists that her husband's fatal fall from the roof of their villa was no accident.

After wrangling with his conscience, a priest approaches Edinburgh police and reports that a man confessed to killing a young woman. During a passionate petting session with the girl, he flipped and strangled her. Following a hunch that the victim could be a missing Canadian tourist, DI Jack Knox scrambles his team to track him down. Yet their only lead is the confession, and they have little other information to go on.

A student meets an untimely demise when she falls from Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh's Holyrood Park. Was she pushed? Whilst DI Jack Knox is picking through the lies of the victim's friends, he is called upon to help the narcotics division on the other side of the city. A drug dealer is dead and the squad is setting up a deadly sting. But without Knox and the clout he has among the criminal fraternity, they're unable to move against rival gangs.

From the best-selling author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, a ghost story, a psychological thriller and a tale of love rediscovered. Elizabeth has been married to Michael for ten years. She has adjusted to a fairly monotonous routine with her wealthy, decent but boring husband. Part of this routine involves occasional visits to Beinn Caorrun, the dank and gloomy house in a Scottish glen that Michael inherited. There are memories there that Michael will not share with her. But then Michael begins to change. It starts when he thinks he sees, in a picture, the figure of a girl on a landing.

Five walkers set out to climb Ben Lomond on a fine October day. Within hours the weather has taken a turn for the worst. The group find themselves lost on the mountain. Two of the climbers manage to make it back down and call for help. The following day a body is found. One of the female climbers has been strangled, and another man is missing without a trace. DCI Dani Bevan is called to the Loch Lomond town of Ardyle to lead the case.

D.I. Lomond is a devoted family man. A good detective. When the body of a young woman involved in the worlds of art and adult streaming is found in the River Clyde, Lomond believes there may be echoes of a cold case from the start of his career: an unsolved death on a rural Scottish estate in the 1990s.

After an incident makes remaining in Glasgow impossible, Police Sergeant Don Colyear is sent to work in a remote Highlands town. His new Inspector wants him gone and the locals wonder why he’s even there. Still, Don makes a go of things, striking up a good working relationship with rookie officer Rowan Forbes. As Don starts to investigate petty crimes, it soon becomes clear that there is something off about the town. A string of teenage disappearances has not been given due attention.

Luck runs out for three poker players when a gunman calmly shoots them dead. DI Jack Knox quickly establishes that the intended target, the leader of a bank heist many years before, has slipped the net. But his team has to split up when a young woman, the daughter of a prominent figure, goes missing from the city centre. Suspecting she has been kidnapped, the search heads from Edinburgh to the Scottish Borders. Will the detectives find her abductor in time?

A compelling standalone dark fantasy set in a gritty post-WWI Britain that has been overrun by the fae, from the award-winning author of Altered Carbon “One of my favorite books of the year, destined to be a classic.”—Tim Lebbon, New York Times bestselling author of Secret Lives of The...

A fast-paced crime-thriller, full of chilling twists, turns and grisly surprises, Matt Brolly’s Dead Lucky will have you gripped from beginning to end! DCI Michael Lambert is back… When a woman is murdered, the twisted killer forcing her husband to watch her slow and painful death, DCI...

As a young boy, Malcolm Alexander knew exactly what, and who, he wanted to be. He dreamed of becoming a doctor; he was mesmerised by the process of illness and obsessed with preventing it. He wanted to help others. In his 40s, Malcolm gave up his job in suburban Glasgow when a persistent seed that had been growing inside him started to bloom, disrupting the foundations of his life. When he saw the job advert, 'urgent: island doctor needed', he applied immediately. What he didn't anticipate was how much Orkney would affect his family, for better or worse. 

For years, Europes most dangerous criminals operated in the shadows, hidden behind an impenetrable veil of encryption. Murderers, cartel lords, gun traffickers, and drug barons spoke freely on EncroChat, an ultra-secure communications platform they believed was untraceable. Police couldn’t hack it, Intelligence services couldn’t crack it, and on the darknet, it was gospel: Encro was God mode.

Drawing on contemporary sagas as historical sources, and capturing some of their spellbinding narrative drive, renowned historian and Orkney native Angus Konstam describes how these Norse earls and their followers led Viking raids around the British Isles and even further afield. At their military height in the 11th century, they held a 400-mile swathe of territory, stretching from Shetland down to the Clyde Estuary.

David Kirke’s childhood is sheltered, his nature is gentle and peaceable; he is no hero of romance but a human being with faults and failings which lead him into trouble when he adventures into the world to seek his fortune. In the background of the story are the hills of home and the noise and bustle of London; in the foreground are the people, alive, vigorous and full of personality, who play their parts in the shaping of David’s life.