Showing results by narrator "Sarah Barron" in All Categories

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.

Having left the Highlands murder team behind and joined the shadowy world of the secret services, former DC Kirsten Stewart overhears a plot that strikes to the very core of Scotland's governance. As the stakes get higher and Kirsten becomes cut off from her superiors, can she stop the assassin before they eliminate their prime target. In her first solo mission, Kirsten Stewart finds herself in deep shadow and in receipt of disturbing news. Only by remaining incommunicado can she find out the intentions of a killer and stop the murder of Scotland's top politician.

Annabelle has come to the Scottish Highlands to escape. But as she speeds along a deserted mountain road, she is suddenly forced to swerve. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a dark, damp room. A voice from the corner of the room says, ‘The doctor will be here soon.' Scott is camping alone in the Scottish woodlands when he hears a scream. He starts to run in fear of his life. Scott is never seen again.

Julia Sutherland isn’t too sure about her new colleague. Ellis Kirkbride is friendly, charismatic and handsome, but there’s just something about him – a bit too slick, a bit too confident, and he stands a bit too close. Normally she'd share her concerns with her husband Rob, but he’s been distant lately and Julia has a secret he mustn’t find out. Ellis Kirkbride thought he had found the right woman. She was everything he could want but she didn't want him. And that was unacceptable...

Martha Strangeways is struggling to find purpose in her life, after giving up her career as an investigative reporter when her young twins died in a house fire. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, she carries their teeth in a matchbox wherever she goes... But her life changes when she stumbles across the body of a missing teenager - a tragedy that turns even more sinister when a poem about crows is discovered inked onto his back.

Meet the Skelfs: well-known Edinburgh family, proprietors of a long-established funeral-home business, and private investigators.... When patriarch Jim dies, it's left to his wife Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah to take charge of both businesses, kicking off an unexpected series of events. Dorothy discovers mysterious payments to another woman, suggesting that Jim wasn't the husband she thought he was.

The summer of 1976 was unprecedented in living memory. Days of blazing sunshine bled into weeks and months. In the Lake District, Cumbria's mountains and valleys began to resemble a Grecian landscape. People swam in delightfully tropic waters to cool off. But barely three feet below the surface, the temperature remained just a degree or so above freezing. As the summer blazed on, the drownings began....

A money-laundering accountant disappears in Romania. The hitman hired to disappear him is found dead in a Glasgow flat. And the owner of the flat, the accountant's widow, claims she knows nothing about it. Crime reporter Rosie Gilmour isn't convinced by Helen Lewis's innocent facade - she is convinced Helen was the one who ordered the hit on her husband, and she's going to prove it.

When pop megastar Zach Crystal dies in a fire at his remote mansion, his mysterious demise rips open the bitter divide between those who adored his music and his endless charity work, and those who viewed him as a despicable predator who manipulated and abused young and vulnerable girls. Online journalist Scott King, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the accusations of sexual abuse and murder that were levelled at Crystal before he died. But as Scott begins to ask questions and rake over old graves, some startling inconsistencies emerge.

Rosie Gilmour is chasing an explosive new story that will take her deep into Glasgow's sectarian underworld. But has she got in over her head? Crime reporter Rosie Gilmour is on the trail of missing barmaid Wendy Graham. Wendy's boyfriend is a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force - and before she vanished, she levelled a horrifying accusation against one of his mates.

Twelve years ago, DI Monica Kennedy caught the notorious serial killer Pauline Tosh, imprisoning her for life. When Tosh asks Monica to visit her at the remote Highlands Carselang prison, the detective thinks she's playing games. But then Tosh hands her a hand-drawn map with a cross marking the desolate marsh lands near Inverness and Monica can't ignore it—she was always convinced there were more victims out there. And when a body is discovered, it looks like they've found a new name from Tosh's kill list. But things are never that simple.

When Jemima loses her beloved grandfather, keeping his allotment alive seems like ideal way to feel close to him. She's never fitted in before - is this her chance to find where she really belongs? Finally Melissa has the allotment she's been longing for to distract her while her husband works away - even if it is chest-high in weeds. But when she looks for help in the wrong place, she finds she's the hottest topic of gossip.

The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and private-investigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever. Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at a travellers' site, and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while granddaughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists targeting a retired female astronaut...putting her own life at risk.

Edinburgh 1896. At Alardyce House, the family are gathered to celebrate the engagement of the heir to the estate, Robert, to his childhood sweetheart. But what should be a precious memory for his mother Amy, is marred by darkness. For Robert’s biological father was a demon and a criminal, and now Robert is coming-of-age, disturbing reports are beginning to emerge about his behaviour. Amy is torn between her love and loyalty to her son, her hope that she can save his soul, and her growing sense of dread that the streets of Edinburgh aren’t safe when Robert is in town.

When the body of a man in 18th-century Highland dress is discovered on the site of the Battle of Culloden, Journalist Rebecca Connolly takes up the story for the Chronicle. Meanwhile, a film being made about the '45 Rebellion has enraged the right-wing group Spirit of the Gael, which is connected to a shadowy group called Black Dawn linked to death threats and fake anthrax deliveries to Downing Street and Holyrood. When a second body - this time in the Redcoat uniform of the government army - is found in Inverness, Rebecca finds herself drawn ever deeper into the mystery.

DI Helen Birch is recovering from major surgery, housebound and exceptionally bored. Her boss, DCI McLeod, has made it crystal clear: she is not to take on any work until her recuperation is over. In her absence, Amy Kato is promoted to sergeant and is given a maddening case to work on: Edinburgh is being plagued by an anonymous vigilante. He started small, meting out punishment to obnoxious boy racers and other antisocial folk, but his behaviour is escalating. Amy can tell from the anonymous online paper trail he leaves.

At 8 a.m., the first shots are fired. At 1 p.m., the police establish the gunman has a hostage. By 5 p.m., a siege is underway. At 9 p.m., DI Helen Birch walks, alone and unarmed, into an abandoned Borders farmhouse to negotiate with the killer. One day. One woman. One chance to get everyone out alive.

A fist-fight by an open grave leads Dorothy to investigate the possibility of a faked death, while a young woman's obsession with Hannah threatens her relationship with Indy and puts them both in mortal danger. An elderly man claims he's being abused by the ghost of his late wife, while ghosts of another kind come back to haunt Jenny from the grave...pushing her to breaking point. As the Skelfs struggle with increasingly unnerving cases and chilling danger lurks close to home, it becomes clear that grief, in all its forms, can be deadly.

A sadistic killer with a grudge against Rosie Gilmour is on the loose in Glasgow. Thomas Boag escaped from his first court appearance facing charges on a brutal murder. He's suspected in the disappearances of two other people. Now he's out for revenge. Rosie tries to distract herself with a new story: refugees trafficked into Glasgow and used as modern-day slaves - or worse. But this investigation soon leads her into dangerous territory as it takes her up against some of Glasgow's nastiest characters, and all the while, somewhere out there, Boag is laying his trap....

The death of a young Pakistani bride in Glasgow gets Rosie Gilmour's antennae twitching. She is sure this tragic accident was anything but - but she is not prepared for where her investigation will take her.... Rosie has her hands full navigating the sensitivities of this case - the girl's grieving family and the tensions between the white and Pakistani communities in the city - when she is contacted by two prostitutes in serious trouble. One of their clients has died on the job, and they've gone on the run - with his briefcase.